Scooterotica

I do love my riding my Lambretta- either using it for the odd trip to work or to see friends/family etc, its one of life's pleasure HOWEVER since the financial crash of 2008 and various Council cutbacks on road repairs and rebuilds, riding seems to becoming more akin to off road scrambling than a decent ride. Every time time I go out now I'm always conscious about f@@king up a rear hub, hitting a pot hole at speed and coming off or just generally smashing my scoot to pieces. Its not just classic machines which it effects either, work mates with jap bikes and modern twist and go's seem to have similar concerns and issues. Not good really, anyway as well as having a bit of a rant, what suspension set-ups do people run on their machines to reduce the road carnage and have any of you had a major incidents/accidents due to shitty road surfaces? Paul

It's not just potholes, I'm forever weaving around sunken inspection covers and ironwork. It just detracts from the pleasure and safety of a ride out, concentrating on the road immediately ahead of the mudguard rather than hazards further on.

Local councils and the Highways Agency have a legal obligation to maintain roads. Claiming won't be easy but there's a little information on Martin Lewis's Money Saving Expert webpages.

barnsleybilly wrote:It's not just potholes, I'm forever weaving around sunken inspection covers and ironwork. It just detracts from the pleasure and safety of a ride out, concentrating on the road immediately ahead of the mudguard rather than hazards further on.

Local councils and the Highways Agency have a legal obligation to maintain roads. Claiming won't be easy but there's a little information on Martin Lewis's Money Saving Expert webpages.

Very true, I find myself having to look at three things at once, the road surface, my direction of travel and what other road users are doing/going to do- hardly makes for a mellow ride

Its even more noticeable when you've spent few days riding abroad. Compared to the UK Europe's roads are like billiard tables.

Are they trying to tell us something?

barnsleybilly wrote:It's not just potholes, I'm forever weaving around sunken inspection covers and ironwork. It just detracts from the pleasure and safety of a ride out, concentrating on the road immediately ahead of the mudguard rather than hazards further on.

Local councils and the Highways Agency have a legal obligation to maintain roads. Claiming won't be easy but there's a little information on Martin Lewis's Money Saving Expert webpages.

And every time they do the cheap quick re-surface the sunken covers get deeper.

And the resurfaced utility trench that you can't get your wheels out of because they are in your driving line for miles.

Buckled a wheel on my gts in march after hitting a hole that was 67mm deep and 300mm long took pictures of size depth sent to council still awaiting there outcome the sent a letter and almost immediately it says that the vast majority of claims such as this are unsuccessful , I wrote back saying im only intersted in MY claim

Ive only recently ridden to Amien and back on my GP200 and once we got off the boat at Calais the difference in road standards was immediatly noticeable with very few potholes, decent road surfaces and very few sections that have been surface dressed

Just back from a 1,000 mile round trip to France and can honestly say I didn't see one pot hole on the French roads, it's a pleasure to ride there on relatively car free country roads...