Potholes and the Ejecta From Them

The Sock

The Sock

Hero member
Location
London, England
Here, in the UK, we've been reduced to third-world road surfaces. I've seen potholes six inches deep and long stretches, 50 ft. plus, of broken joints between lanes on Motorways. Potholes and ridges on roundabouts, worse still the unswept ejecta from the surface lies in drifts on the roads.
Fairly sure some motorcyclists are going to get killed before the authorities do anything about the problem.
It's so bad that I've opted to avoid riding at night because of the dangers.
I hear, from friends in LA, that it's bad there, too.
Is it a worldwide issue?
 
The Sock said:
Here, in the UK, we've been reduced to third-world road surfaces. I've seen potholes six inches deep and long stretches, 50 ft. plus, of broken joints between lanes on Motorways. Potholes and ridges on roundabouts, worse still the unswept ejecta from the surface lies in drifts on the roads.
Fairly sure some motorcyclists are going to get killed before the authorities do anything about the problem.
It's so bad that I've opted to avoid riding at night because of the dangers.
I hear, from friends in LA, that it's bad there, too.
Is it a worldwide issue?
Click to expand...
I read it is supposedly due to a shortage of bitumen that comes from Ukraine- obviously before that it was Covid and before that Brexit…On a major A road here they actually put a three foot road cone over a pothole and we all swerve around it- by the end of the summer it will look like a slalom course
 
I have a very sore hip from hitting a pothole 3 months ago. We had a record, AGAIN breaking wet spell in the last year and the roads are pretty bad from that. The really bad bits at least you can see when a large section of tar has gone and the undersurface has a major colour change. It's the bits with no colour change that caught me out. There is also the huge number of Internet threads about claiming vehicle damage from the Gov or local councils, yes you can, no you cannot, My mate's uncle's cousin did and it's easy etc. It's slowly getting better thankfully.
 
Yep, same here. Repairs are slow and often inadequate, and usually involves a cone and a sign long before stones and asphalt.

I used to be a road worker. We had signs and cones that we carried on the same trailer that we carried our work gear on. We made it safe by being clever, and occasionally hired an expensive crash-attenuator truck for really dangerous closures. Nowadays I see attenuators often, usually in pairs, plus an extra ute with an arrowboard, all following a single tractor mowing the shoulder. No wonder the money runs out before the potholes get fixed.
 
They reduce the speed limit on Expressways from 110 to 60 when mowing even with solid guard rails, the explanation. If the mower launches a stone and brakes a windscreen.
 
Here in Manitoba Canada we probably are the undisputed pothole capital of the world. Have had them forever. Extreme temps...-40c in winter and +35c in summer are common. Our soil is very heavy clay in some parts, muskeg in others and some areas get flooding. Combined with poor maintenance due to high costs and low funding it's an ongoing problem every year. Thousands of insurance claims for wheels and suspension every spring.

On a motorcycle you have to be very diligent and keep an eye out. Especially in the cities where you have cars in front of you so you can't see the potholes until its too late. Right now our main highway to the USA is so bad in spots its not recommended for travel. Our on - line highway map actually shows caution warnings for broken pavement for our roads. Our local Automobile Association has a contest every year where we vote on the 10 worst roads....we could vote on 100 and not get them all.
 
I forgot to add, If your lucky the local council erects a sign Slow Down Damaged road and every circles the damage with Hi-Vis paint. It gives you a sporting chance to avoid them.
 
The mayor at Telemark here in Norway, one of the best motorcycling areas, said that the shit road conditions mentioned here were a positive safety feature as they forced people to slow down, and everyone knows that speed is the only killer on the roads.
 
Tippie said:
The mayor at Telemark here in Norway, one of the best motorcycling areas, said that the shit road conditions mentioned here were a positive safety feature as they forced people to slow down, and everyone knows that speed is the only killer on the roads.
Click to expand...
Where’s that head-slap imoge…

Ahh here it is:
🤦‍♂️
 
There is a Dirt Bike Park in the Outskirts of Sydney called Pacific Park, they follow the same concept and never grade the tracks. You're a brave individual if you get past 3rd gear there. It also showed how getting pro suspension work improved your ability to ride rough ground at speed. It's mainly used by kids and the Trials Beigade, they use the insanely steep really hard back area. Great training area in my past.
 
I hit a pothole somewhere on my Triumph - electronic suspension meant I didn’t feel much as no idea where it happened - got the wheel straightened by recommended frame guy - £100 including changing two tyres - still a massive faff had to take it on 200 mile round tripIMG_8220.jpeg
 
My daughter nearly killed herself avoiding a pothole (on my Yamaha Vity scooter) in downtown Douglas a few years back, and the roads haven’t got any better since; even though the highways division was supposed to be introducing an improved process for dealing with repairs after we took them to court over the accident.
 
We have it bad in our area at the moment. Staffordshire (UK) roads are always poor, but with the local addition of HS2 construction traffic, most local roads are simply disintegrating. Our local village old-git-mafia wrote to the roads agency rep to complain about one particularly bad stretch of holes, to get the reply "I have inspected the holes and they do not present a risk". Clearly this muppet has never ridden a motorcycle or pushbike. The hole depths were ½ the way up to axle FFS! Tosser. I wrote to him directly accusing him of being incompetent in his role (citing the catastrophic potential effect for 2 wheel users) and asked for the name of his senior - no reply, but the (worst) holes were filled the following week.

Another thing that pisses me off is when there is a cluster of holes, yet, they just fix the 2 or 3 worst ones - leaving the others for another day. WTF!
 
The roads here are so damaged now that patching them up isn't really going to solve the problem. They are what I would call dangerous.
 
in my area of Germany, roads are really bad meanwhile, too. After re-uniting with eastern Germany, unbelievable amounts have been collected from us to support reconstruction of the infrastructure on former GDR-Territory. New highways, new roads, new telephone-lines - everything has been completely renewed over there while the western part of germany saw 33 years of just patching, partly with bitumen, which gets VERY slippery in rain... (caused a friend of my son to slide over the road with the bike laying on his left leg.... he was going just 60km/h/37mp/h on a straight when he just oversaw a 30cm and 2,5 meters long bitumen stripe. Rear went away and off he fell...). Roads are really not in good shape, neither are bridges, highways etc. seems a worldwide isse...
 
Blimey. I'm beginning get the impression that our roads here in Tassie are pretty good. Bad potholes in bitumen roads are a rare thing, but when they do occur, the local councils get onto them pretty quickly. By "quickly" I mean within a few months. One thing I have noticed though is that some road workers seem to think it's a good idea to over-fill potholes when repairing them, so we end up with a lump rather than a hole. Maybe the fill compresses with time and they flatten out.
 
Our roads are absolutely munted. I got caught out by a fresh pothole last week while weaving around the existing potholes. Instant deflation of the tubeless tyre. I have put a set of higher profile tyres and rims on until the road conditions improve.
 

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