Poor quality pothole repairs putting cyclists at risk, says AA

I agree there are some mean pot holes out there BBB, but in all the years I have been riding (listen to me, "When I was a lad....") I have wrecked one bike (got compensation) and a few rims. Admitted one of my companions broke his collar bone in the same incident as the wrecked bike. I do not really think that means we all need to ride off road bikes on the road all the time. My commuter bike (a CX) does seem to get a pounding, but this is because I ride at night, I think, and in all weathers. Whereas the Carbon gets off more lightly; I still have a 23mm tyres on the CX. Down here in the wilds of Devon we have some right rough old roads. As I have said above we should take the time and trouble to report potholes (CTC Fillthathole) it does not take long and, to steal someone elses catchphrase, "The next life (or bike) you save could be yours!"

Whether you like it or not the quality of roads isn't going to improve and most likely will be getting worse due to the budget cuts.

You will either adapt to it (even if it means riding e.g. 2.35" wide Big Apples on the road) or you will keep breaking stuff or yourself.

BBB, you do know this is road.cc don't you?

Wrecked a back wheel (32mm) on my CX bike – I really shouldn't have to ride a mountain bike to work. Council said they wouldn't compensate me and ignored my questions, eventually they paid up.

I have just wrecked an alloy wheel and tyre on my car hitting a sunken Fire Hydrant cover. The wheel was less than 12 months old as I had to replace one last winter too.

If I had hit that on my bike I would have been over the bars for sure. It could have been my head rather than a wheel.

The roads are a disgrace - for all road users.

God, heaven forbid I should use a road bike on the road. BBB that has to be the most bizarre thing I have read on a bike forum, and considering I read singletrack that is saying something.

Have used CTC Fill that hole, works a treat. The Council do not have a duty to keep roads pot-hole free; it has a duty to inspect at reasonable frequency and repair holes in reasonable time once it knows about them. Once they know about the hole and have reasonable time to repair they can become liable for any damage/injury. Even if 'irrationally?'BBB? using a racing bike!

If Mr. King carries on like this he is going to find himself out of a job!

Potholes are certainly a problem but irrational insistence on using a racing bike with narrow tyres as a every day ride/commuter doesn't help...

Yep I have used the CTC website and the holes were filled. That said they were filled poorly but that is about it with everything these days shoddy workmanship and a be quiet and stop moaning attitude. Having had a good few years experience in all things construction the fact that they just dump some tarmac into the hole, tamp it down if you’re lucky, and then move on to the next one it is no wonder that the roads are in a complete state. The broken edges of a hole should be cut out and a proper patch should be filled in over the top with staggered joints so there is no direct access for the water to ingress to the original hole to cause the problem over again as soon as it freezes, just dumping tarmac into the hole does not do this and the hole will be back and generally worse as the rough edges have now failed. The answer? Many but starting with more regular properly done road maintenance would be a good one. What happened to the tar spraying that they used to do to prevent the water getting into, and therefore under, the road surface as they seemed to last longer when they did it?? Probably about time to bring it back.

Potholes won't go aways because the size/weight of trucks/buses is too much for our roads. In summer the bitumen softens and cracks under the weight of large vehicles, then winter comes along and chunks are removed where cracks exists. Large vehicles that cause road damage need to be taxed based on how much weight they put on each cubic centimeter of road, as this is what is damaging the surface. Maybe this will lead to better vehicle designs that spread the load over a larger surface area and so do less damage to our roads. Either that, or use a harder road surface.

I've tried using Fill that Hole. The problem is my local council does respond, but does that bad a job that we are back to square one a few months later.

My nearest road out into the Peak has been 'marked up' for filling for the past few months and has got that bad that I won't take anything but my mountain bike down it.

Around my way (Essex) they seem to be using a sort of splodge-fix method with a sprinkling of gravel over the top. Which is fine, better than a hole, except that cars going over the splodge while it's setting make a dip in the middle of the hole and a couple of sharp thrown-up blobs either side: lumps are almost as dangerous as holes and they're less visible!

Who needs an app? Pretty sure I've used fill that hole website from my mobile. Big benefit is that it works out the right highway authority for you. Especially handy around road.cc hq with the battling business units... Sorry, I mean small unitary councils.

This is a result of years and years of bodging and poor planning/under investment. Just talking about potholes understates the problem on many of the roads I use. The roads are in such a poor state many are well past their useful life and need completely re doing which would cost many billions of pounds. Many country lanes should be reclassified as bridleways in their current state, and the A and B roads are not much better.

Why are billins being spent on new roads or adding lanes when they clearly can not look after what already exists, it is insane.

Manchester council has a reporting section on their website, no doubt other local councils do too. You report a problem, and about 50% seem to get filled in, but I wouldn't say repaired. Its the proverbial sticking plaster approach. What happens to the other 50% I don't know, you don't get any response saying its been inspected or not, so I've just assumed the report disappears into the vacuum. Is the CTC one any more successful/feedback friendly?

There was a really dangerous one near me which has now been filled in thankfully. It was on a fairly busy B road just after a pinch point at a bridge and was sufficiently big that you had to steer into the middle of the road to avoid it. Couple that with some drivers insisting on being so close to you that they couldn't see what you were avoiding, it all got a bit hairy. If you had gone into it, it would either have totalled the wheel or thrown you off, or both.

Has anyone used the Fill That Hole app for smart phones? I think it's a CTC app. You basically take a photo of the pothole and it sends the info to CTC (?) and they inform the local council who, in theory, then deal with said pothole.

Just wonder if the system works?

Thought CX bikes were doing well.

I was seriously thinking about opening a Twitter account for a hole that my Mrs passes (and comments on) every day on her school run.

I think my local council might as well be filling it with Plasticine as it keeps reappearing every fortnight.

If I could work out away to get the Twitter account to automatically retweet any messages to it, the account (hole) would be able to tell it's followers about any other craters / potholes that are around. (If you see what I mean).

On some parts of my commute the number of potholes has indeed fallen, but it's not because the council have been fixing them; it's because they're now so large they've started joining up.

Potholes that I first reported to our council in 2011 are still there; some of them are now so large they even have potholes inside them!

there are some on my route to work that'd need a ladder to get out from if I hit them!!!

Seen some awful ones in our area and that was before the cold snap. I haven't been out since but I can imagine!