Did 20 miles before work this morning around some beautifully quiet country roads, i probably avoided half a dozen (max) pot holes which weren't anything worth shouting about - but as soon as i hit the main road for the last 4 mile drag to work, there was more pot-holes than there were white lines. This was the first time i took this route in a long time, maybe a few years actually, and it wasn't this bad from what i remember. What the **** is happening? What makes it worse is the last mile is on beautifully laid new tarmac, and it's a nice end to a difficult ride, decent gradient hill to free wheel down. Anyway so here i go free-wheeling approaching 40mph towards the bottom and some absolute ****in moron pulls across me from on-coming traffic turning right, i literally skimmed the rear of the car (if i'd have hit it - i'm pretty sure i'd be covered in a white sheet now), and anyway, as i turned to show the driver my appreciation with a left handed barrel fisted salute, POTHOLE!!!!!!!! I was so lucky to stabilise myself and the bike, double calamity that really spoiled what started out as a lovely ride.
Anyway the reason for this effin rant is to find out if anyone else suffers on their rides with pot-holes, and have you complained to you local council, and what response did you get.....?
One other thing - i've also had to have two new suspension coils on my car recently - another ****in result of POT-HOLES i'm damn sure of it!!!!!
They are a left over problem of the recent snow.
The snow gets into cracks melts re-freezes and expands causing potholes.
I think thats why anyway.
combination of a particularly cold winter and local authorities with no money.
Deisel corrodes the tarmac. Water gets in easily and freezes, then bursts the road open even more.
It's a pain in the bum (literally!) for everyone.
Local authorities have decided to waste money on other things, and aere leaving the potholes to show us the tax payer they dont have any money, yet they do for early retirements,stupid sculptures,road bumps,new offices,and brand new cars and vans.
Remind them of their duty under the highways act, ask when the pothole was reported and when it will be repaired, and chase them every day to fix them.
I know a letter complaining i had a £200 car bill for new coils for my suspension and the above story about me nearly going head over tit, both in my opinion because of a rediculous amount of 5inch deep pot holes will fall on deaf ears but i just needed a vent chaps.........the missus don't want to hear this sh1t. lol
Interesting to know about the recent big freeze playing a part, i didn't know that would be a cause....
So you were riding too fast and then nearly crashed because you were abusing another road user?
2/10, please try harder next time
@project - i like your style! see if i could get "a few of you" to rant with me then maybe i'd get somewhere.....
So you were riding too fast and then nearly crashed because you were abusing another road user?2/10, please try harder next time
Within all speed limits, at a speed i'm comfortable with, car pulled out infront of me (completely ignored the fact i was heading right towards them at a normal speed for the road i was on), and then yes - turned around and "attempted" to abuse another road user but failed due to a ****IN POT-HOLE!!!
Personally if someone was sat on a wall scoring my recovery technique after hitting the ditch i think i'd have most definitely got a 8/10. 😯
infact no scrap that........[s]8/10[/s].........10/10, i was still going over 30mph.
salt on the road is a major factor too from this winter.
when salted grit is thrown down on an already icy road, it thermally shocks the the tarmac which encourages cracks to form from the short sharp drop in temp by the salt.
salt helps the snow/ice melt, and apparently the heat to melt it comes from the top layers of tarmac, so it draws heat out of the tarmac quickly, the tarmac contracts, splits, water gets in, freezes, blows it out into bits.
also, the under-surfaces with dampness expand too then they freeze, pushing tarmac upwards. During the cold snap, the pavement tarmac was sitting 1" above the stone kerbs.
Thatcher removed the requirement to inspect roads regularly and put the onus on road users to report damage. When you see a pothole report it to your council then they are aware of it and then have an obligation to deal with it.
If you don't report them then it's your problem not theirs.
Salt doesn't change the temperature it changes the melting point of snow/ ice.
ruined by thev harsh winter recommend riding same route every day for commute and finding out where they are. I have one 1/2 mile section between two county boundaries that neither will touch which is particularily grim.
how about if i make notes of all the potholes that are likely to cause riders like myself disruption while attempting to commute/train ........... set up a petition, get a sh1t load of people to sign it, and then send it in........would this pack a bigger punch??
No. Why don't you just report them to the council.
Alternatively get a big petition and get all worked up about it, and it'll go straight in the bin.
No. Why don't you just report them to the council.
Because i didn't know if they'd do anything! Hence the thread. Fair point i am pretty worked up about it because it/they nearly threw me off and caused me weeks/months/years worth of pain!!
Thread concluded - off to the council i go, update when i get information back..........nothing more to see here.
Cheers all.
[url= http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/ ]http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/[/url]
aP - Member
Thatcher
yeh, I figured as much 😉
...and broken springs in cars is because car manufacturers use cheap'n'nasty springs that aren't tapered at the ends, so all the weight is on a tiny bit of highly stressed metal.
Report it to the council, they fix them pretty quickly as they'll be liable if someone hurt themselves on it once they've been alerted and a 'resonable' time had passed.
http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/
I reported a big one on here and it was marked with white paint inside of a week, had a tempory fix within two weeks, and they've now redone the whole bit of road.
Alternatively your council website will probably have a form as well.
Yep there is a stretch around 50m of bad potholes which I either plough through or move into the traffic flow which pisses off drivers a bit. I'm lucky in that my road bike is a steel warpig any nice carbon wheeled job would be trashed.
Can I come in here with the obligatory STWer holier than thou post?
If you had been looking where you were going you would have been able to see the pothole and avoid it. However as you were so busy with your road rage you couldn't.
Had a roadie ride and a friend blew both his tyres at the same time as we didn't see the one of 243 pot holes, I caught it on the front and my road headset squeaks...