Bloody awful British roads

....sorry for the slight hijack but at last........someone who actually looks at where they want to go and then decides whether or not to go there......instead of thinking "I should be in position 5" and then going there only to be dismayed by what they find....bit too late, then

Anyway, back on topic, if things keep going the way they are at the moment, we will be relaxing with a mug of acorn "coffee" remembering the days of road dressing with a wistful smile, as we watch the ox-carts trundle slowly up the ruts in the muddy quagmire that used to be the M1.......

 

So you’re saying I need a trail bike... one that runs on methane

Which, somewhat creepily, swings right back to my avatar.......

Hmmm???

Yeah I know. Just thinking where I've been in the last few years that had worse roads than us and so far only come up with Russia, Turkey and Egypt. It's just so depressing. As for riding elsewhere it's a bit difficult to have an afternoon whizz in France for example.

Kenya's roads are pretty crap. Went there a few years back, we asked about the roads and he told us Kenya had 3 full tarmac roads only.

Potholes like bath tubs.

The best road surface around here is the new Weedon/Flore by pass on the A45 .

Race track smooth with a beautiful sweeping bend downhill to a roundabout, straight over into a long open RH curve to an undulating straight about 2 miles long.

Wonder how long it will be until that is littered with pot holes?

Nice.....how's the M45 these days?

Still fairly quiet but the surface ain't so great.

I went along there a few weeks ago in the car, dark and raining overtook a truck and went through a deep puddle I couldn't see, car aquaplaned across it which was pretty unpleasant

So you’re saying I need a trail bike... one that runs on methane

Which, somewhat creepily, swings right back to my avatar.......

 

Hmmm???

Your new bike, Southbound M5 near Gordano Services, February 2021

I've been thinking about this lately, as I took the bike back in to the dealership a whole ago after feeling that it was a bit snatchy, particularly in 2nd gear at lowish revs. i had the map for second gear uploaded again and the bike was fully tested before being returned. Subsequently, though, I concluded that it's the consequence of a particularly sensitive throttle and road surfaces that are absolute pants.

It doesn't help that - aside from potholes and other such defects all over the place - the quality of workmanship for cable laying, etc, is really, really poor.

I work for a council in charge of highways. Cuts in funding for roads from central government. That is all. That £420 million they recently released to all councils to share wont go very far at all. Lincolnshire for example, the council covers over 5000 miles worth of road surface, and of that 420 it's only been allocated around £1 million....

Plus £1 million is all well and good but that is just for temp pothole repairs. Most of our roads are due completely pulling up and resurfacing.

Kenya's roads are pretty crap. Went there a few years back, we asked about the roads and he told us Kenya had 3 full tarmac roads only.

Potholes like bath tubs.

I used to go out there quite a bit with work, and every time I did I swore I'd never complain about British roads again.

I work for a council in charge of highways. Cuts in funding for roads from central government. That is all. That £420 million they recently released to all councils to share wont go very far at all. Lincolnshire for example, the council covers over 5000 miles worth of road surface, and of that 420 it's only been allocated around £1 million....

Plus £1 million is all well and good but that is just for temp pothole repairs. Most of our roads are due completely pulling up and resurfacing.

As we've just moved, I looked up our local MP and their vote history to get an idea of our area. He's consistently reduced funding to local councils, reduce their autonomy etc etc.

I'm pretty sure one of our cars needing to go back in the garage is purely from some of the pot holes in local roads, they look more like meteor craters!

Not this last summer, one before, we went to France on the bikes for two weeks and the main grumbles when we got off the ferry were the road surface being Awful and middle lane drivers

A

I've been thinking about this lately, as I took the bike back in to the dealership a whole ago after feeling that it was a bit snatchy, particularly in 2nd gear at lowish revs. i had the map for second gear uploaded again and the bike was fully tested before being returned. Subsequently, though, I concluded that it's the consequence of a particularly sensitive throttle and road surfaces that are absolute pants.

It doesn't help that - aside from potholes and other such defects all over the place - the quality of workmanship for cable laying, etc, is really, really poor.

Yes, and how often does the road get dug up by the gas company for example, then a few months later it's the electricity or the water ad infinitum. The patches they make are always crap.

Kenya's roads are pretty crap. Went there a few years back, we asked about the roads and he told us Kenya had 3 full tarmac roads only.

Potholes like bath tubs.

 

I used to go out there quite a bit with work, and every time I did I swore I'd never complain about British roads again.

This is so true but Kenya is not exactly a country claiming to be a first world powerhouse which our politicians regularly do and it's just not the current crop either but both sides going back 30 years. Comparing our roads to 3rd world ones is perhaps appropriate at this point in which case they are amazing.

Since I have lived here, the through road my road joins at its end has had several fatalities including 3 bikers. Its dangerous. In the end the council acted and installed speed humps all the way down. not really savage ones.. but the sort that you would have to slow down for to at least near legal speeds. (it used to be a race track)

They had the job done and inside less than a year these speed humps, every single one of then had a huge trench cut through them for a new gas main. Then a few years later another trench. because severn trent needed to update the water main. Then.. a speed hump had to be completely removed because a another pipe that crossed the road underneath it needed to be replaced. The speed hump was put back, badly. it was surveyed by the council and the contractor was forced to do the job again.

net result.. the entire road is now a mess. cars have to drive over the humps far more slowly or risk losing an exhaust. There have been petitions to the local councillors to have the whole lot taken away and replace them with 'chicanes.

I know the road well and can negotiate it without any difficulty. but every hump has to be approached at a different place. And.. walking up it, hardly a time goes by when I don't hear a crunch as a car goes over one and the exhaust hits it.

The lack of any kind of joined-up thinking so far as road building and maintenance in this country is an absolute joke.

The lack of any kind of joined-up thinking so far as road building and maintenance in this country is an absolute joke.

Too true. I came back from France late one night and every route north from Folkestone had night closures. In the end I had to go round the M25 the 'wrong' way, to Birmingham via the M40, to Manchester on the A34 and then on to Preston and cross-country to Harrogate. Absolute bloody nightmare.

A number of years ago we went on holiday to Italy we drove thro France Germany Switzerland into Italy then home again this time adding Belgium. The only road works we saw was in the UK not one traffic cone no road works no delays due to road works yet evey road was like sikly Smooth. Even when we went to the USA . Fantastic roads we saw some road works but never held us up THEN WE went to state of NEW YORK what a shit hole of roads. There was just as many potholes as dead dear toll booths in the middle of nowhere and trailer trash as they call them (pikeys here ) you want to see massive pot holes go to new York state .. not city ..

The lack of any kind of joined-up thinking so far as road building and maintenance in this country is an absolute joke.

 

Too true. I came back from France late one night and every route north from Folkestone had night closures. In the end I had to go round the M25 the 'wrong' way, to Birmingham via the M40, to Manchester on the A34 and then on to Preston and cross-country to Harrogate. Absolute bloody nightmare.

Which, somewhat creepily, swings right back to my avatar.......

 

Hmmm???

Fury Bike.PNG

Your new bike, Southbound M5 near Gordano Services, February 2021

So long as that’s not human skin I want it. Where do I buy such a vehicle?

Hmmm???

Fury Bike.PNG

Your new bike, Southbound M5 near Gordano Services, February 2021

 

So long as that’s not human skin I want it. Where do I buy such a vehicle?

You don't.......you build it.......

Join the Vuvalini....... P. S. - it probably is human skin..... try and get a bit without any tattoos on it.....

finding human skin without tattoos these days is like finding hens with teeth

finding human skin without tattoos these days is like finding hens with teeth

I have no tattoos at all. What I do wish though is that I had enough cash to invest in the technology which will inevitably appear once tattoos are deemed to be utterly naff. And people line up by the millions to have theirs removed without pain or scarring.

Of course there are a great many people who have them for their own personal reasons. but the vast majority have them for one reason and one reason only. Fashion.

And fashions change.

One day the fashion industry will decide tattoos are naff. and when that happens...

and most people got them when they were popped up

And people line up by the millions to have theirs removed without pain or scarring

If they were painful to put on............