... on a perfectly flat smooth piece of tarmac whilst riding in a straight line at 5mph...
First ride on the "best bike" this year, pleasant 30 miles before work, get to work, turn into the estate (private lane) straighten up, roll along gently. *BANG* Straight down like a sack of spuds. No real damage to the bike or clothing, but I'm leaking gently (not the end of the world).
Upon attempting to stand up, turns out the road surface is so covered in grime/diesel/general filth that it treally is like a skating rink. Didn't actually seem to be icy, but the bits of my red jacket that hit the ground are now oily black.
It's a private road, and in the 10 years we've been at this site they've never gritted in the snow and the drains have always been blocked so the road floods at the first hint of rain. Now presumably the owners have a "duty of care" to maintain the road in a reasonable state? As a company we've whinged about the state of the drive in the past (vehicles get filthy), and they've done **** all about it, but it's the first time anybody has hurt themselves on it. It wouldn't be rocket science for them to clean up, and sorting the drains would make things far nicer.
(before anybody tells me to MTFU, I'm not especially annoyed about the damage to me or the bike. I am quite pissed off that it happened when I did nothing wrong, and has spoiled a nice ride. It should have been avoidable, and I don't want it to happen again - the lane is usually very busy with a whole load of private and commercial vehicles, forklifts etc, (some of which are driven by cretins). Next time I might end up under a truck.
