Pothole Damage?

judderman3000 · Nova Slayer Joined: 31 Dec 2005 Karma :

Hi guys,
i'v been out for a ride on my hornet last week and as i was riding down a country lane coming out of a corner (below the speed limit i might add before anyone points blame at speed) and have hit a pothole. This threw my bike all over the show and made a very large metallic clunk noise which i thought not a lot of until id regained control and stopped, on inspection of the bike the pothole that i hit has caused a noticeable dent in the rear rim of the bike on the righthand side as i was banked to the right coming out of a right hand bend i can safely say this pothole was the cause of it as i check my bike over before i go on big rides out.
Does anyone know the correct procedure in claiming off the people who maintain the roads for a new rear wheel as mine is either beyond or a very costly repair which i cant afford!?!?!?

oh and iv not ridden the bike since
thanks in advance
Judd
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Judd - Hornet 600 (restricted) Micron Can, Belly Pan, Custom rear end, Single seat cowl, need to sort front end out e.g. headlights and USD forks...

MaybeGuy · Super Spammer Joined: 12 Mar 2007 Karma :

unless it was reported, and not dealt with within a reasonable amount of time, theres nothing you can do.

anyway. pothole? poor obs.
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Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!! Mr. Green

Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith

judderman3000 · Nova Slayer Joined: 31 Dec 2005 Karma :

from my return vist to take pictures it has quite obviously been filled in before, so from this then im assuming that the job is either unsatisfactory or the inspection scheme of the council is faulted.
Does this give me grounds to stand on?

regards
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Judd - Hornet 600 (restricted) Micron Can, Belly Pan, Custom rear end, Single seat cowl, need to sort front end out e.g. headlights and USD forks...

MaybeGuy · Super Spammer Joined: 12 Mar 2007 Karma :

theres no point in trying really. this isnt america
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Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!! Mr. Green

Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith

judderman3000 · Nova Slayer Joined: 31 Dec 2005 Karma :

thats an easy one for people with the money to throw at new rear wheels to say, but i shouldn't be having to pay out for broken parts due to poor road surfaces i pay my road tax so that the councils have money to spend on traffic services which are obviously inadequate.
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Judd - Hornet 600 (restricted) Micron Can, Belly Pan, Custom rear end, Single seat cowl, need to sort front end out e.g. headlights and USD forks...

UnknownStuntm... · World Chat Champion Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Karma :

Contact the local council to see what they say. More than likely they'll apologise and tell you that they'll fix it within 48 hours, and that repair will be much the same as the previous one. A bodge, that is. It'll most probably be farmed out to the Highways Agency. The trouble you'll get is that the Highways Agency are Teflon shouldered, illiterate, rude scum and they'll avoid work and effort at all costs unless you kick up a major fuss.

If it were me, I'd take pictures of this hole from 3 angles, (before you can see it, first opportunity to avoid it and a close-up of it with something in there to give a sense of scale) and of the damage to your bike. Send them to the Highways Agency and the local council, with a letter and the estimated cost of repair - don't take the piss with the cost to fix either.

Do it quickly, don't muck about waiting. And let us know what happens. Thumbs Up

daemonoid · World Chat Champion Joined: 27 Jun 2008 Karma :

G · The Voice of Reason Joined: 02 Feb 2002 Karma :

Actually, you pay 'vehicle excise duty' so that you can use your vehicle on the roads. There is no direct link between what you pay and what gets spent on the roads.

Also, you also should be keeping up good observations of the conditions you are riding in; why should the rest of us have to pay out for your rear wheel if you don't pay attention to where you're riding?
If you were to succesfully sue them, they'd have even less money to maintain the roads.

Anyway, have you reported it to the council? If you haven't, can't really complain much... someone else might suffer the same fate tomorrow. And, of course, if someone has contacted the council before and they haven't done anything then you will have more of a case to get some money out of them.

Ariel Badger · Super Spammer Joined: 02 Dec 2006 Karma :

A bit harsh blaming the OP's obs for the damage peeps. You come out of a bend cranked over and your line is pretty well determined for you.
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G · The Voice of Reason Joined: 02 Feb 2002 Karma :

So, what if a cute kitten had been lying in the road instead?

https://www.hoax-slayer.com/images/no-bonsai-kitten.jpg
"Won't somebody think about the kittens?", as they say.

I admit I don't ride that fast on the road these days* - one of the reasons though, is that I know there's all sorts of dangers to me, my bike and from me to others.
I definitely don't ride to the point that I can't alter my line on the road - which on modern bikes tends to be pretty damn fast.
'Ride so you can stop in the distance you can see' is a common mantra that I may not follow, but does offer good advice if you don't want to damage your bike.

(*Or anywhere else, really, but that's another matter.)

In the past, when I was a lot worse off, I did crash on a ridiculous* pothole (it may have actually dented my wheel too, in retrospect), I did consider seeing what I could do to get money back, but then thought better of it. Twas my own fault for riding too fast through somewhere that I knew was likely to have a questionable road-surface.
*In Henly on Thames; the only place I've seen 'failed road' signs put up because there's so many pot holes, though this wasn't in one of those parts.

Devils Advocate · World Chat Champion Joined: 18 Apr 2009 Karma :

I had a similar event about 15 years ago in a car.Country lane,massive pothole,damaged axle and cracked alloy.Car un-driveable and stopped traffic flow.

I rang a mate who came round with a camera and we took pics straight away.Rang the breakdown recovery which proved helpful in the long run coz they acted as a witness to the size of the hole and also verified the damage/repair costs.
Rang the police and council next and vented my anger and within 1 hour they had a team there filling the hole in (probably trying to get away with liability).
After sending them a few letters detailing the incident with photos and costs,they accepted fault and paid out almost 2k.

Its not your fault you didnt see the hole in time and react,the fact is it shouldnt have been there anyway if it was deep enough to cause major damage to your vehicle.Poor observations has nothing to do with it.
You pay road tax and council tax for a reason so dont let them get away with it if your bikes damaged.
Claim for repairs,out of pocket expenses,and vehicle hire charges if you`re off the road now.
Sod what anyone else thinks about it.....CLAIM!

G · The Voice of Reason Joined: 02 Feb 2002 Karma :

JAMSXR · World Chat Champion Joined: 18 Jan 2007 Karma :

Polo · World Chat Champion Joined: 05 Sep 2007 Karma :

This poor obs business is rubbish when it comes to potholes. I have been found out by many on wet days.

Supposing the pot hole is filled to the brim with water on a rainy day. Please someone explain how I avoid these - aside from leaving the bike at home.

Ta ever so.
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daemonoid · World Chat Champion Joined: 27 Jun 2008 Karma :

Devils Advocate · World Chat Champion Joined: 18 Apr 2009 Karma :

short1uk · World Chat Champion Joined: 04 Nov 2005 Karma :

Nowt you can do. A hole 2ft long 1ft wide and 4 inches deep destroyed the tyre on our car other week. Told council and they filled it in day after. I sent them the bill they said sod off.

They not liable as they fixed it when we reported it.

daemonoid · World Chat Champion Joined: 27 Jun 2008 Karma :

G · The Voice of Reason Joined: 02 Feb 2002 Karma :

The toddler was wearing grey with a hat and has just fallen over.
Irrelevent really; it could be a clown juggling clubs on fire, the question is, is it a case of poor observation if you miss hit something that could damage you and your vehicle, or someone else or their property.
The answer in 99.999% of the time is 'yes' - the exception being cases like Keith mentioned once where something that had fallen from a plane hit a driver.

Motorcyclists very often seem happy to entirely blame others in these sorts of situations, an odd sitation I find when the consequences can often involve significant impairment or loss of life. A load of compensation and the belief there was "nothing I could have done" isn't that great when you will be wheel-chair bound for the rest of your life.

If you're looking down the road, you should have seen a 'unvierse swallowing man hole' when it appeared I'd say Wink

.

I'm not suggesting I'm any better, but if you're willing to do-over the public's money whenever you can, then you're getting just the crappy country you're helping to make.
The council should arrange for (a current supermodel) to wake me up with a blow job every work-day. Back in the real world, they have a very limited amount of money and some pretty inefficient working packages.
Unless you're trying to make a real difference by standing for local elections or similar campaigning, you're just making the situation worse taking more money out of the system.

How many report pot holes they don't hit?

Minty:
If there was enough standing water that you can't see a pot hole, then, were it me, I'd probably be riding slow enough through it that the pot hole wasn't going to cause a problem, otherwise I suspect I'd be crashing in some other way.

JAMSXR · World Chat Champion Joined: 18 Jan 2007 Karma :

So what if you are coming round a blind corner to fined a tractor/bus taking up your road space, you swerve/move over to avoid it, this ends up sending you into a deep pot hole damaging your bike?

G · The Voice of Reason Joined: 02 Feb 2002 Karma :

Polo · World Chat Champion Joined: 05 Sep 2007 Karma :

G · The Voice of Reason Joined: 02 Feb 2002 Karma :

You have good enough observations to note that the conditions are trecherous enough that you have no idea what you're riding over. So you adjust you're riding appropriately and don't damage your vehicle - going over a pot hole isn't an issue if that's the case.
If things 'get ugly', then you're not riding appropriate to the conditions really and aren't acting on your observations.

JAMSXR · World Chat Champion Joined: 18 Jan 2007 Karma :

iooi · Super Spammer Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Karma :

While obbs should have picked it up. The fact is often mid corner you have no option but to take the hit.

While it could be a tractor round the corner, it could also be one comming the other way so you can't sit up to avoid, or something stopped at the side of the road, so you can't tightnen up.

As had been said in the wet, and a hole if full of water. Even the bests obbs won't pick up a hole in the road.....

As well as the fact we are advised to look where you want to go when cornering, not down at the road infront of you Wink

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Just because my bike was A DIVVY, does not mean i am......