How are your road surfaces?

[mattc]

Going by the traffic on this forum, and my recent rides to counties other than my own, I've concluded that EVERYWHERE has crap roads, and it's gonna take months to patch them up.

It's mid-April, so I'm now seriously fearing for the road surfaces even on July events. Sure, it's no big issue to ride round potholes in daylight when you're fresh, but I'm worried that those tired dark miles are going to seem twice as dark and tiring :-/

Is anyone else NOT looking forward to the long night rides this year? Anyone considering changing to tougher wheels for the "summer"?!?

(Or should I just HTFU and KBO?)

One thing I won't be doing is riding the Bianchi further than 60 miles - my hands were so numb I couldn't change gear at the end of a recent potholey 10TT. Never happened before.

[The Seldom Killer]

Roads are terrible throughout Wiltshire but slowly improving. Oddly they've just resurfaced near my house and the surface wasn't that bad at all.

I reckon a bit of community effort could help out with improving rides for later in the year though.  If a ride organiser provides a list of major holes on their ride we could randomly report them increasing the level of complaint per hole on the routes. Should compel the councils to favour these of non-route holes. A bit selfish but I reckon worth it.

[Frenchie]

Roads are bad around here (Notts and Derbyshire); pretty bad in fact, with significant local potholes even on major roads and fixes which don't last. The wear and tear is very visible everywhere. However I haven't experienced too much numbness on rides of 75 to 85 Mi I have done recently on my race bike. It is just annoying and one has to be more careful than usual; esp on unknown roads and in traffic.

[TimO]

I've been surprised by how many holes are still starting to appear.  I assume it's damage that's occurred unseen during the winter, and normal usage is just bringing some of it to the surface now.

On the good side, some of the really god awful bits of surface on my commute home around the A23 through Norbury/Thornton Heath was resurfaced yesterday.  ... but they had to do it, having just spent a couple of weeks ripping up and relaying all the kerbs (why?), so they had buggered up the edge of the road even more than it already was.

It looks like they'll do the work bound side of the road as well, when they've finished other works on it.

That's a few hundred feet of my commute sorted now, only another 11 miles or so that needs to be dealt with ...

For the FNRttC, I think Simon has been recceing the route a day or two prior to the ride, since so many additional holes have been appearing.  On the last ride, at several locations there were people just pointing out some of the worst huge potholes.  That's been very rarely done on previous rides.  On the March one it was essential in several locations.

[Polar Bear]

It's a bit like the surface of the moon out there at the moment.   I'm pleased that I'm still using the 26 inch wheeled tourer rather than swapping over to the audax bike.

[Andrew Br]

I was pleasantly surprised by quality of the road surfaces in Derbyshire over the weekend.
Maybe they expect bad weather and make sure that the roads are in good nick before Winter ?

Manchester and Cheshire roads are really bad.
Rather than point out the holes, I now point out the good bits 

[vorsprung]

In Devon the roads are terrible, just a bit worse than last year.  Reported potholes are patched quickly.  New potholes are appearing still

In Somerset the roads are a little better but still worse than last year.

All my bikes have 36h rear wheels and can take a lot of abuse.

The UK budget cuts mean that next year there will be less work done on the roads

[little miss mac]

Wandsworth seems to be making decent progress round my way. The roads were the worst I'd ever seen them this winter, but every week I notice some new fixes.

If only they'd relay the corrugated bone-shaker that is stretches of Lombard Road and Parkgate Road, my commute route would be about as good as one could expect.

Maybe you could make a 200 DIY purely within Wandsworth boundaries?

[kevinp]

They have been out fixing the holes today around tetbury, what I do not understand is why they fill one or two then miss a couple then fill some more, is there a required depth that they don't have to fill ?

[andygates]

My main road, all of it, has now been resurfaced with magical hush-tastic smooth tarmac.

[vorsprung]

My main road, all of it, has now been resurfaced with magical hush-tastic smooth tarmac.

Which one is that Andy?  The A377?  I don't ride up your way much.  But if there is loverly new tarmac....

[mattc]

They have been out fixing the holes today around tetbury, what I do not understand is why they fill one or two then miss a couple then fill some more, is there a required depth that they don't have to fill ?

Yes, I believe so (but I forget how deep). If reporting on fillthathole.org, best to approximate upwards!

I reckon a bit of community effort could help out with improving rides for later in the year though.  If a ride organiser provides a list of major holes on their ride we could randomly report them increasing the level of complaint per hole on the routes. Should compel the councils to favour these of non-route holes. A bit selfish but I reckon worth it.

grand thinking! Listing the holes will be a lot of work, but I guess every little holes* helps.

*(that was a genuine Freudian typo)

Has anyone been on group rides (club runs etc)? Our first large group for a while on Sunday - it was horrible Some poor sod managed a direct hit on a crater, instant puncture. I'm just glad we didn't have more incidents, I hated riding anywhere except the front.

The usual shouts and pointing don't seem adequate for current conditions ...

[aregister]

Horrible as usual in East Kent.
However there was a piece in either C+ or CW last year which said that smooth road surfaces could contribute to osteoporosis for road cyclists. Apparently bones regularly need a good shaking to increase bone density. Mountain bikers were said to have a higher bone density than road cyclists.
There is a good chance that this theory has been disproved already, but I try to think of it whenever rattling down the Elham Valley road.

[Ian H]

I gather there was an accident on a Somersetshire AUK event at the weekend: A rider collided with a pothole and an ambulance was required.

[Madcow]

In North yorkshire ther are plenty of potholes and plenty of places where the chippings have been partially removed either by frost or snowploughs.Having said that on my recent rides on a Kinesis (aluminium frame and carbon fork) bike I have felt remarkably little road buzz.It only seems to be noticeable when I'm hungry.
what seems more interesting round our way is that some potholes have been repaired by a tarmac flying squad but half a mile down the road you will then find a  serious wheelbender pothole untouched.All this patching is piecemeal and wasteful as it will probably only last through next winter.

[TimO]

...it will probably only last through next winter.

I'll be amazed if most of the repairs I've seen in London last the summer, let alone next winter.

Mostly they seem to be pouring some sort of tar mixture into the hole.  It doesn't leave a smooth edge (since that's mostly still broken up material), and half the time after a few days of vehicles driving over it, a lot has "squidged" out anyway.

[Frenchie]

As a result lots of loose material on many roads too.

[andygates]

My main road, all of it, has now been resurfaced with magical hush-tastic smooth tarmac.

Which one is that Andy?  The A377?  I don't ride up your way much.  But if there is loverly new tarmac....

A377 exeter-crediton is smoove.

[vorsprung]

My main road, all of it, has now been resurfaced with magical hush-tastic smooth tarmac.

Which one is that Andy?  The A377?  I don't ride up your way much.  But if there is loverly new tarmac....

A377 exeter-crediton is smoove.

Ah great, I might give that a whirl at the weekend then and come back via Bickley.
If my spare campag cheese-o-shifter decides to work that is