Poor road surfaces expose cyclists to vibration-related injuries, research finds

You realise what a completely different sport road cycling is when you're on a very rare stretch of smooth tarmac. Then you're back on "normal" surface and the relentless vibrations start again, sapping the joy out of cycling. Realistically, for most roads where I live -- West Sussex -- a gravel bike is a much better option than a pure road bike.

The answer is to move to mid-Wales and reap the benefits of smooth road surfaces courtesy of EU money.  Here in SE England, I've moved from 28mm to 32mm tyres, and use double mitts.

Bradford's roads are notoriously bad, but even I was shocked at the state of the surfaces in Liverpool, and that was in a car. At least you know it's down to poor maintenace and no money.

Top dressing is a scourge, and that on roads that are actually being maintained. Apart from a rogue badger, my scariest and most abiding memory of the Dunwich Dynamo was coming upon a bank of gravel where an undressed road met a 'dressed' surface at a sweeping junction. I imagine running aground on Chesil Beach in a south westerly gale would have felt much the same.

So I remember a motorway program on TV saying the network is subject to the standard of no variance of greater than 10mm in 2m of road (hardly an engineered surface finish but its something), but common roads are a free-for-all of whetever councils think they can get away with?

I still maintain someone should take a highways dept of a council to court on breaches of HSE laws regarding lethal infrastructure. Might have more weight if the individual is an employee of said council, but it would benefit everyone if such a test case forced universal standards that all councils had to adhere to. HAVS from abysmal surfaces, dashed white line cycle lanes, lanes that start and end arbitrarily, lethal junctions inc Constant-Bearing-Decreasing-Range (CBDR) type scenarios, pinch crossings on blind corners, and woeful roundabouts are all things that force fatal scenarios, are cheaply and quickly avoidable, and yet are so commonplace we barely recognise them anymore

I left my house couple of years ago and they did that spray and chip and as soon as i hit it, within seconds my crud roadracer shattered due to the loose stones sticking to my tyres and rotating to the narrowest point, i had to take it off and hide it and collect it later, and i had to ride on the pavement until i got past it all, was so pissed off.

The only solution then is to get a full sus MTB, a bit ridiculous really. 

Perhaps if (road) cyclists finally understood what pneumatic tyres were invented for...

Edinburgh Council?  "Fix the potholes"???

Aye, right!!

I've lived in Edinburgh for the past year and I've never known such universally awful roads. The main roads are bad enough but away from them the surface is a patchwork of potholes, lumpy, bodged repairs and loose broken tarmac. 

There are a few routes I've given up on due to vibration related problems. Literally 30 minutes in and the hands will be numb.

I have come back from rides with numb thumbs from the vibration.  Gel track mitts work well, but the roads ought to be smooth enough for all users, not just drivers.

The worst is surface dressing, where a layer of tar is laid and gravel scattered on top, which not only creates massive problems with drifts of loose gravel on corners, but the vibration is appalling.  I brought this up many years ago with DfT to be told that cyclists didn't count and they had to do the roads for drivers.  I wonder if it would be possible to sue them for vibration damage caused by their awful roads?