Reimbursement from road damage?

[fossyant]

Can you have a go at rebuilding the wheel. Buy a new rim, same as the old one, tape it to the existing wheel, valve holes lined up, then transfer each spoke and nipple one by one. Then comes the bit where you tension the wheel, take the stress out and over again until straight.

Did it myself last summer, took a few evenings bit by bit. Very enjoyable though, and the wheels have been true ever since, and I reused some 20 year old, but lightly used rims. Cost nothing.

 

[gambatte]

I have to agree with the comments above. I mentioned fill that hole as if a problems been reported they should have dealt with it. However it's a rare day I don't have to deal with something similar, usually because I've missed it and notice as the bike 'bumps'. I then spend the next half mile waiting to see if I've got a snakebite....
I guess the problem with these is sometimes the worst thing you can do is see them. It's strange how knowing a defect is there is the best way of guaranteeing you'll ride over it! The bike follows your line of vision. The best thing is to notice it, then ignore and look the direction you actually want to go. Despite the inclnation to 'keep an eye' on the dangerous bit.
As I said, if you need a new rim, whats the option? Presumably all apart from walking have a cost as well?
If things are really that tight, have you thought about putting an ad on freegle or freecycle, for a quick fix? It's probably the wrong time of year as everyone will be looking for bikes. However if you put on you're just looking for a wheel or a bike with a decent wheel....
I've previously got 3 scrappers off there when I asked for a 'project' bike. Knocked up a great little hack, with only the additional expense of a couple of new cables and tyres.

 

[fatblokish]

It is more costly to continue to repair damaged cars than it is to fix a pothole (or surface imperfection as you so quantly describe it). Yet if the highways authority sees none of these costs it has no incenive to repair the fault. Your misplaced altruism may be costing us dearly.

 

[Norm]

If the choice is between altruism which may be costing us dearly and looking for someone to blame when we missed a surface imperfection which definitely does cost us dearly, I don't see much merit in changing my mind.

 

[snailracer]

If roads were better maintained, I suspect cyclists would simply use even lighter wheels with even fewer spokes and we would be back to square one in terms of wheel damage.

 

[numbnuts]

When I hit a water filled pothole did £50+ damage to my bike and lots of brusing to me
all I got was sweet FA, I hope you do better than me.

 

[fatblokish]

If the choice is between altruism which may be costing us dearly and looking for someone to blame when we missed a surface imperfection which definitely does cost us dearly, I don't see much merit in changing my mind.

Fortunately myself and others do not share your view so I for one will continue to ensure that councils cannot get away with perpetuating dangerous roads as an acceptable solution. And how many accidents, such as mine or even worse, would it take for you realise that we must hold those who jeopardise our safety to account?

 

[Amanda P]

A hole may be perfectly visible; obvious even. But you can't ride looking down at the road all the time; some of the time you need to be looking over your shoulder, trying to make eye contact with other road users and so on. It's when you take your eyes off the road surface that you hit a pothole or raised ironmongery. And in fact riding through a car-park access road like this one, you need eyes everywhere - there's a junction every few yards.

I say put your claim in. Whether you get any cash or not is secondary - if you don't try, the hole will go unfixed and you certainly won't get any compensation. Phone City of York Council and ask for the form to claim for damages from road defects. Let them worry about whether it's their road or not when they get the completed form (in my experience they can be pretty hazy about exactly which roads they're responsible for; you never know, they might pay up without checking whether it's theirs or not!)

 

[Jezston]

When I damaged the car on a pothole (about 8" deep and 2' long, which appeared overnight and was hidden by a puddle), I figured that the council had better things to spend their money on than checking and paying claims from motorists.

That sounds pretty dreadful and not sure why you blamed yourself for it. I'm sure there's plenty better things councils could be spending money on than they often do - a few hundred quid or whatever it cost you for repairs would be an awful lot less to them than it would be for you.

 

[hennbell]

What I am learning here is that the english are just as litigious as Americans.

This is road repair in Saskatchewan. Sometimes they do not even put up the sign, they just put up hi vis flags at the start and end of the pothole.

 

[Bigsharn]

I'm not ignoring the people that are anti-claiming-for-the-repair. Granted I made a mistake, but if I don't claim and get it fixed, how many others are going to twat it and dent a rim before it gets fixed?

So whats the option?
Walk?
Bus?
Car?
Even if you were successful with a claim. It's not going to be settled in a day or a week.

I have more than one bike, and at the moment am on my MTB. She's old, she's a little bit heavy and puts up more of a fight than my Ribble, but she's there when I need her

A hole may be perfectly visible; obvious even. But you can't ride looking down at the road all the time; some of the time you need to be looking over your shoulder, trying to make eye contact with other road users and so on.

This is exactly what happened, If the people that are giving grief looked at the video they'll know that I was concentrating on checking my shoulder ready for a right turn I was about to make.

Fortunately myself and others do not share your view so I for one will continue to ensure that councils cannot get away with perpetuating dangerous roads as an acceptable solution. And how many accidents, such as mine or even worse, would it take for you realise that we must hold those who jeopardise our safety to account?

Exactly.

 

[cyberknight]

I had a similar encounter last year , in the end i had to replace my shifter which was not cheap and the claims company representing me and another cyclist told us that unless the claim was for more than a grand we were wasting our time, it sucks but i think your not going to get very far.

 

[gambatte]

I'm not ignoring the people that are anti-claiming-for-the-repair. Granted I made a mistake, but if I don't claim and get it fixed, how many others are going to twat it and dent a rim before it gets fixed?

I guess it's harder for them to be held accountable if they don't know its failed? Thats why it's important you go to 'fillthathole' and register the problem. If I remember right there's a section for notes, you could state it's already caused damage.

 

[Norm]

And how many accidents, such as mine or even worse, would it take for you realise that we must hold those who jeopardise our safety to account?

I think there are many better ways to address the issues we face on the roads than seeking damages for riding into an obvious pothole. That's not holding people to account, that's selfishly abusing blame culture. IMO.

That sounds pretty dreadful and not sure why you blamed yourself for it. I'm sure there's plenty better things councils could be spending money on than they often do - a few hundred quid or whatever it cost you for repairs would be an awful lot less to them than it would be for you.

I didn't blame myself. I did, however, take into account the half dozen cars which were pulled over within 500m of the pothole the following morning, obviously having suffered more damage than me, and the fact that the pothole was filled within 24 hours. At that stage, there was no point to be made from pursuing damages and I think, on the (w)hole, the local councils (this was South Bucks, so it's not even my council tax doing the maintenance) do a pretty good job keeping the roads sorted. As I haven't popped round to thank them for the hundreds of thousands of miles that I've travelled without an issue, I felt it churlish to point fingers at the one pothole so I withdrew my claim.

 

[screenman]

How come things like this happen more often it seems to people wearing a camera, or is it just me.