Pot Holes

[FJ_Biker]

On the my commute into work this morning I went over a pot hole the jolt was that bad it snapped the exhaust and my pannier mounting brackets.

The question is do I try an claim of the council for an oxford rack that cost me 40 quid 10 years ago from the BMF show and an exhaust that has already been welded up (even though the break is in a different place from the weld)?

I think I will take the bike into bike treads later today so they can give it a once over.

[Snowy]

Report it straightaway through "Clarence" and tell them about the damage.

[redken1]

If poss, take a photo of the hole Taffy.

[Squashed_Fly]

Who is Clarence?

[Snowy]

Who is Clarence?

Customer Lighting And Roads Enquiry Centre - its on the Wiltshire Council website.

Its where you report potholes or any other such problem on the roads and make claims.

[Dabz]

I never knew that's what it stood for!

[Squashed_Fly]

You learn something new every day! :)

[BB]

Clarence is a free phone number from a landline 0800 23 23 23

Don't ring it from a mobile or you will end up talking to Scotland!

BB

[Jon_W]

Who is Clarence?

Customer Lighting And Roads Enquiry Centre - its on the Wiltshire Council website.

Its where you report potholes or any other such problem on the roads and make claims.


Learn somthing new every day.

Get the bike checked Taff, make sure it's ok to ride, then talk to the council when you have the full damage report.

[Ducatista]

Despite what you may have heard it's actually quite difficult to claim off the council.
You have to prove negligence.
They are not expected to fix every pothole immediately 24/7.
So you would have to demonstrate that firstly they knew about it and secondly they didn't do anything.
You can tell if they knew about it if it as marked up with paint.
It also has to be a certain depth and also on minor roads they have a very long time to fix them.

I hit a pothole a few years ago and damaged a wheel.
I send in a request under the "freedom of information" act to the council and they sent me a report back showing the times the road had been checked.

Personally I'd forget it especially as you haven't had a huge financial loss here.

[gibbo]

Agree with Ducatista here. It's a bit of a grey area and the Council usually has an excuse to get out of paying.

I'd still seek further advice though. If you Google the 'Honest John' website, you can write to him via e-mail and he will give you the latest ruling on pot holes and claiming from the local Council (if applicable). I've used Honest John for advice on other motoring matters and he's usually on the ball with most things motoring related. Good luck. :)

[Ducatista]

It does vary quite a lot depending on what type of road it is.
If it's an A road they have a short time to fix (7days?) but if it's a lane then it's something like a year.

I might be wrong on the exact details there but I remember there was a significant difference.

[Snowy]

I have never made a claim so have no experience of this, however, I have used the website to report dangerous conditions I come across whilst driving or riding on the roads. This could be potholes but other things such as mud on the roads left by farmers or diesel spillages on roundabouts etc. This is important for two main reasons. Firstly, it gets the issue reported which starts the clock ticking on getting it sorted. They can't claim innocence of a problem if it's been reported already. Secondly and this is confirmed by my own experience, it can get the problem sorted out quickly which can only be of benefit for any unsuspecting motorist/rider coming down the road at a later date.

Always a good thing to do even if you're not making a claim.

[FJ_Biker]

The pot hole has been filled

No other damage was done to the bike, I don’t have the time to follow this up so will just have to buy another rack.

Could have been a lot worse at least I did not bin the bike.

[Scotty]

Last summer (27th August 2010) I experienced something similar on the B4192 Aldbourne Road near to Swindon, I got bounced out of my seat by a pothole but stayed on and thought little more about it, until spotting this little beauty when cleaning the bike a couple of days later... >:(

http://i760.photobucket.com/albums/xx244/Barking_Toad/Damagetowheel.jpg
I decided to go and have a look for the pothole in question and after walking up and down the road managed to identify the culprit...

http://i760.photobucket.com/albums/xx244/Barking_Toad/Scaleofhole.jpg

The hole was about 200mm square and 65mm deep, it probably previously housed a cat's eye. After locating where it was on the road I set about finding who was responsible for that stretch of road and managed to ascertain that it was Swindon Borough Council, so I contacted their Highways Department detailing the claim that I wished to make. They responded by saying that the stretch of road in question had in fact been inspected on 11th August and nothing had been seen, therefore the pothole had mysteriously appeared within the space of 16 days. I wasn't happy with this explanation and asked for copies of the inspection report which they duly sent to me. True, the report does state that the road was inspected and nothing found, but I find it somewhat hard to believe that a hole of that magnitude, probably patched over previously, could reappear within the space of 16 days in August! In the depths of winter with a lot of water, frost and ice maybe, but in August? Needing to remain calm in my dealings with the council I resisted the temptation to point out that it's difficult to inspect several hundred metres of road when parked up in an Astra van with a Big Mac and a copy of the Sun. Instead I replied stating that I didn't believe that the inspection had been sufficiently thorough, but they stuck to their guns and fobbed me off, saying that they believed that it had. I'm all in favour of Equal Opportunities in recruiting staff, but giving a highways inspection job to the visually impaired is taking things a little far >:(.

I sought the advice of a couple of mates, one of whom is a Civil Engineer, the other works "with the roads". They said that an appeal via the legal system could win, but not necessarily so. They said that in the past the councils had simply paid up whenever someone claimed, but in more recent years with reduced budgets and many more claims coming in due to the abysmal state of our roads following a couple of comparitively harsh winters, their primary course of action is to reject the claim in the hope that the aggrieved party will simply walk away. Maybe that was due to the quotation I'd given them for a new wheel and tyre, plus labour to fit it all, coming to around £900. In the end I got Dave East to straighten the wheel (he said that it took a fair bit of doing, must have been quite a whack) and got both wheels powder coated (the straightening process removed some paint) for about £160 in total.

A couple of days after initially contacting the council I noticed that the pothole had been filled in. Whenever you see a hole, report it as soon as you can, don't assume that somebody else will. They won't repair it if they don't know about it, and what you may have seen could fetch someone off their bike if left unrepaired.

[Ducatista]

Interesting story Scotty.

I put a small dink in the rim of my front wheel about 2 years ago. The wheels I have are extremely lightweight to reduce unsprung weight (or cream cheese as I like to call them).

Riders of Bristol were going to get me a new wheel for £700. I checked my insurance but because I'd have to declare any claim on 3 (possibly 4) motoring policies for 3-5 years, then it simply wasn't worth it because that would potentially be 20 premium loadings. I did send off for the info on the road inspection.
In the end I got the wheel straightened for about £80.

Riders told me the wheel was dangerous and should be replaced but I spoke to Dave East who straightens wheels on Riders track bikes. I told them to send their £700 wheel back to Italy.

Agree totally with the advice to report issues on the roads.

[Red Zed 1]

It does vary quite a lot depending on what type of road it is.
If it's an A road they have a short time to fix (7days?) but if it's a lane then it's something like a year.

I might be wrong on the exact details there but I remember there was a significant difference.
7 days for a main road,eh..took them nearly 2 years to fix the main road into marlborough,and the road outside where i work is still potholed 3 years later and the council know about it!!! >:( >:(

[Ducatista]

took them nearly 2 years to fix the main road into marlborough

Perhaps they weren't deep/bad enough to fit the criteria (I rememeber taking a 50p piece to check).
it does have to be a certain depth

Either that or they don't have the money/resources to fix it and are running the risk of claims

I'm not saying they never pay out just that they have criteria on both size/depth of the holes and time to fix (from when they are reported) which means getting paid out for damage is not automatic.

If you report something not only are you potentially helping another biker/mototrist by getting it fixed quicker, but also increasing their chance of making a claim.

[Flying Half-Dutchman]

The term "pothole" originates from Staffordshire, where in the old days, the potters would dig holes in the roads to get the clay for their pots, hence "pothole"

[redken1]

The term "pothole" originates from Staffordshire, where in the old days, the potters would dig holes in the roads to get the clay for their pots, hence "pothole"

Well the potters must have healthy trotters cos "potholes" are springing up all over the country. ;D ;D ;D