Pot Holes

[Mr Sheen]

I was out cycling yesterday lunchtime on my triathlon bike and hit a pot hole at some speed. I managed to break one carbon fibre aero bars, buckle both wheels and burst both tyres. Lucky I didn’t fall off.
My bike is now at the shop I bought it from last December who will give me an estimate of the damage etc.

I took lots of photos on the hole and contacted the county council on my return to work.

Has anyone else had any instances like this and did they get any money out of the council?

Photos aren’t the best but gives you an idea.







Cheers
Andy

[Nick_F]

Ow. Glad you're okay. I think it all hinges on whether the hole has already been reported and whether the Council could therefore have been reasonably expected to have fixed it by the time you encountered it.

Tricky to bunny-hop over potholes when you're on the aerobars, isn't it.

[Mr Sheen]

Nick_F said:

Ow. Glad you're okay. I think it all hinges on whether the hole has already been reported and whether the Council could therefore have been reasonably expected to have fixed it by the time you encountered it.

Tricky to bunny-hop over potholes when you're on the aerobars, isn't it.

Thanks Nick, could these markings on the road indicate that they intending to do something about it?

[Justayellowbadge]

Looks like it.

Bang to rights.

[mep12345]

Justayellowbadge said:

Looks like it.

Bang to rights.

Only if it is in a position considered to be "unavoidable", which IMHO for where it is for a bike you could say that but for a car you couldn't. I'd be prepared for a battle though, the previous owner of my TVR S had a similar battle when the council's work team had allowed dug out rocks to go over the still open road (they fell off the back of the pile of dirt) one of which went under the car, bent the sump and dented the exhaust system, yet even with pictures which included the team working and the mess they had left he still got nothing

[Forthright MC]

Andy

We walk the dog on the common behind you there, that road has got a couple of noticeable potholes and rough patches along it...

[Gretchen]

mep12345 said:

Justayellowbadge said:

Looks like it.

Bang to rights.

Only if it is in a position considered to be "unavoidable", which IMHO for where it is for a bike you could say that but for a car you couldn't. I'd be prepared for a battle though, the previous owner of my TVR S had a similar battle when the council's work team had allowed dug out rocks to go over the still open road (they fell off the back of the pile of dirt) one of which went under the car, bent the sump and dented the exhaust system, yet even with pictures which included the team working and the mess they had left he still got nothing

I'm local, in fact cycled this very route out to my village XC yesterday - fortunately I used the bridge paths.

The councils are fairly understanding, or used to be. My Father had similar incident a few years back with his car in Perry. He wrote letters,
photos, sent copies of bills and was reimbursed for his repair costs.

Am really sorry to have heard this Andy. I know your enthusiastic and this must be frustrating. I'm loving my riding and can't imagine how I'd feel if it were mine, likewise Johnny. I'd be devastated.

Hope it all works out. Will return PM to you this week.

[Wildfire]

Hi Andy

I've just successfully claimed against the council for damage to my Griffith alloys, I think the same will apply here.

I used a guide on www.potholes.co.uk. They have all the correct wording you need to get what you need to make a claim.

This was really good. The basic procedure is:

Get evidence, photos of hole, surrounding area, damage to the bike.

Request the road maintainence records from the council under the FOI.

Report the pothole

Send in your claim, it's worth including 2 quotes for the work to repair your bike, a nice covering letter and lots of photos.

Wait.

Chase.

chase again.

And on and on.

I had to chase quite a lot, but in fairness the chap on the other end was very helpful and once promoted got things done. You just need to wait for their SLA to reply/process your claim to expire before you chase and usually it's something like 90 days.

Took me around 3.5 months to get it all sorted, but it's done now.

[markoc]

Wow. Glad you're OK. I'm not on the wind but that pothole doesn't look too bad compared to some of the ones in the roads near me (OK I'm an MTBer on 2.1's so a fair bit of difference - and I tend to hop anything for fun) - but that amount of damage seems mad. I guess you were fair flying to damage the wheels - and I'm not trying to find fault, but were the aero bars tightened too much as the failure seems to be quite near the clamp?

Hope you get it resolved with the council, the spraypaint on the road would suggest a known hole, which all anecdotes I've ever heard suggests your claim will do OK as they were aware of the danger.

Most councils have an online pothole reporting function. Might be worth a trawl of yours as someone has clearly alerted them to it and you may be able to find out when.