manhole cover on corner....ow....slide crunch ow

[northwind]

Originally Posted by Spiderman

Maybe its all the bikers who have had an off over the smooth ones that are going round and nicking them... as a way to force the councils to replace them with new ones with some grip at least.???
Who knows eh?

If I ever ride into a pit where there should be a manhole cover, I'll know who to blame then

Up here, they're dead keen on putting them right in the middle of crossroads... So not only do they get in the way of the maximum number of bikers possible, but any time they want to use them they hold up four times as much traffic...

[Spiderman]

Originally Posted by northwind

If I ever ride into a pit where there should be a manhole cover, I'll know who to blame then

Up here, they're dead keen on putting them right in the middle of crossroads... So not only do they get in the way of the maximum number of bikers possible, but any time they want to use them they hold up four times as much traffic...

I always wonder why when they are diging up a pipe or cover or whatever, they dont move that bit to the pavement? Surley its easer to make a few pedestrians walk on the road for a few feet than to have all the traffic disruption that these sort of roadworks cause.

They couldnt make it any worse a system if they actaull sat down and tried could the?

Maybe the BMF or someone should lobby Govt so that all manholes are sunk by about 2 inches and the tops are filled in with that grippy stuff they have on diving borads in swimming pools.
Anything..just not wet metal patches in the middle of roads. Is that what our road tax pays for...roads more suited to 4 wheel transport?

[northwind]

Shellgrip coating's only a couple of mm thick, I wonder if it'd stick to the covers?

Needs maintenance though, not a realistic proposition then!

Really sorry to hear of your off. Glad the bike is not to badly damaged. As for your collarbone, I have done both now, painful at the begining but after three or four weeks you should be good to go. Another couple of weeks and you'll be back to full fitness.

That isn't always the case though and sometimes drastic measures are need as I found out to my cost. 3 months after the accident I had to have this done. It's still there now.




Best of luck with your healing.

[northwind]

You fell on a rake?

Originally Posted by northwind

You fell on a rake?

Yup and swollowed all my cd's too

Hi mate, glad to hear ur relativly ok,


Just a quicky, i woudl have a word with the council as they may be liable if it is plished smooth! as i believ they are supposed to have a certain co effiant of friction to avoid this sort of thing, if they havnt maintained it, its possible they could be liable,

all the best with fixing ur self and the bike

Alex

Originally Posted by 454697819

Just a quicky, i woudl have a word with the council as they may be liable if it is plished smooth! as i believ they are supposed to have a certain co effiant of friction to avoid this sort of thing, if they havnt maintained it, its possible they could be liable,

Hope you make a speedy recovery.

I asked Devon County Council on a bikers safety forum they used to have about manhole covers. I can't find the forum on their website now so they might have got rid of it.

I asked would they be liable if someone crashed due to slipping on a wet manhole cover. They replied that most manholes are not their responsibility. Only those associated with drainage, usually in the gutters. All the rest are the resposibilty of whichever utility company owns them.

I also asked why they don't have a non-slip coating and the reply was that finding something durable that adheres to the metal is a problem.
It also takes years of trials to test a new material.

I guess its just not a high enough priority for them to do something about it. Until people start successfully sueing the utility companies for causing accidents they wont do anything about it.

I have actually high sided going over a manhole cover. In fairness it was my own fault to a degree. I went out for a rather rapid trip with friends. I got close to home and slowed down to more acceptable speeds, but the Adrenalin was still flowing. I went round a corner doing about 25mph and leaned into the corner and shifted my **** off the seat. It was as it was starting to fall over that a realised that I was going nowhere near fast enough to be hanging off the bike and it was going to fall over. The only thing I could do was yank the throttle and speed up to keep the bike from falling over. At this precise moment the rear wheel went over the manhole cover. Needless to say the rear span on the cover. It stopped spinning when it got back on the tarmac, causing the high side. I shot up in the air and did a somersault before I hit the ground again. With a round of applause from some workmen working on a near by scaffolding, I watched my bike slide down the road. Sparks were flying and plastic bits and pieces were dropping off as it slid down the road. No bother I thought, all these bits are more or less easy enough to fix. But then I realised that it was heading for the curb, not good. It hit the curb front wheel first, the suspension compressed and then catapulted by bike in the air, did a half spin and landed back on the ground. End result was a totally written off front end. and both sides trashed. DOH