The Rules

This is pretty simple, the pothole must be one you've found in your travels. We need to see a picture and need a description of where we might find it. No searching the web for someone elses photo (like I did above)! Make sure this is your pothole...

 

 

This one was submitted by our good friend Kelley in Granby, MA. I'll let her describe it:

 

The features of this pothole are as follows:
- I wear a size ten ladies shoe, (in case your wondering that is a mighty big shoe, equivalent of a mens size 8.5)
- It is approximately 4 feet in length, and the depth is a staggaring 8-12 inches!
- Due to its narrowness, it really is a body jarring experience be it hitting it in your car, or possibly bending the rim on your bike...the narrowness makes for a really good THUNK.
- I know I hit it in my truck about 2 weeks ago,making a right onto Pleasant, and now my truck pulls to the right....

 

Here's another one submitted by my good friend Ben in the greater Chicago area. I'll let him describe it:

 

Found on Wrightwood Ave., just West of Ashland Ave. in Chicago, IL.

The folded towel pictured is 10 x 13 (slightly larger than a magazine or standard piece of paper). While dodging traffic I was able to calculate that the pothole is roughly four towels in length (52 inches or 4.3 feet) and just under four towels in width at the center (slightly less at the edges). The deepest point (just left of center) is nearly 9 inches, and along the left side runs as shallow as 7 inches. It actually slopes upward as you move from left to right in the photo to a minimum depth of 4-5 inches, then it jumps up to pavement level.

Traffic is moving from left to right in the image, so the 9 inch drop is first, then the slight slope upward to the four inch return to pavement. Many of the rocks are slightly smaller than my fist, the biggest one is almost the size of an eight inch softball. Everyone driving down the street either avoided it completely or slowed to a stop, dropped in and crawled out. The latter is my preferred technique when I can't go around it (in my SUV that has seen its fair share of off road experience). You'd have to be in a Snake River Caynonesque mood to even try to navigate this thing head on while on a bike.

Not 30 seconds after I took this picture, some moron in a Beemer talking on a cellphone hit it doing about 7 MPH and bottomed out. How do you say "I just dropped a grand at the authorized BMW repair shop and all I got was this lousy t-shirt" in German?

 

 

I know we've been having fun with this pothole thing but these things can be dangerous. Keep your eyes out and do your best to avoid these things. Consider this your public service announcement:

 

In looking for potholes, I found these gems at 835 Memorial Ave in West Springfield, MA at the railroad crossing. It was very difficult getting good shots of this as it is a high traffic area. At a distance the railroad crossing looks safe enough, but the closer you get you can see that is it not. It looks as if these pot holes have gone uncovered for quite some time. They look to be up to 9 inches deep now. All that was available was a roadside coffee cup for a size comparison.

As you can see, these potholes are just after the "Hi-Rail" brand rubber plates. These are on the on the westbound side of the tracks. If you were riding over these going "eastbound" this would not be a pretty site. It would be like hitting a 9" sharp curb. Granted you wouldn't want to ride against traffic normally, but you might have to swerve to avoid other possible hazards and catch one of these head on! These could also go unnoticed at night or ignored as just puddles in the rain.

Some of the "Hi-Rail" rubber plates are also raised above the road surface. It looks like plows have been taking some "pot shots" at them over the years. Just nearby is an open access hole missing its' cover. It looks like a plow must have popped it out and tossed it past the sidewalk. This hole is partially filled with dirt now. I don't think the cover would have fit back in without digging out the dirt first. Since I forgot my shovel at home, I wasn't going to try to put it back in. I do see some of these access covers missing or flipped 90 degrees in my travels. I am leary of putting my foot down at a red light to find my leg down one of these uncovered beauties.

I will forward these pictures to the West Springfield, MA D.O.T. It might just save a life!

For riders not in Massachusetts, you will have to search the web by "your state" and DOT to report similar road hazards in your state.

Here are a few links to report road hazards:

Massachusetts:

http://www.mhd.state.ma.us/

Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois:(motorcycle specific) (NICE)

http://www.roadhazard.org/

To all the riders the there, be more alert than ever crossing railroad tracks.

If anyone finds something out there like this, report it! The life you night save could be mine!

Ride safe!

Billy Wiz

 

Looks Safe...

A Closer Look...

What A Mess!!!

 

Some of these are a whopping 9" deep!

 

 

Here's another submission from the Chicago area. Denise from www.vavavroomonline.com submitted what we'll call "The Twins" to us. Unfortunately she waited too long to take a picture of her first choice. I understand it was as wide as the road and "scary deep". I suspect this is the same one Ben spoke about. Unfortunatly (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) this was already patched.

 

 

Here's another strong entry submitted by Bill from Chicopee, MA. This was found in Springfield, MA at 2150 Main Street. That would be the main road through one of the larger cities in Western MA just for a little perspective as to how dangerous it is... Looks like it could be a cousin of Ben's... Here's Bill's description:

 

This pot(canyon)hole was so wide (10ft) that it could not be driven around.You had to center the car and drive through it. It has since been filled.

 

 

All right, this thing's insane! This next one was posted by Kevin, one of our regulars. He found this thing in Chicopee, MA on the road between Walmart and Home Depot. He took the time to stick a couple of cairrages into this thing for effect:

 

 

 

 

Here's another big one from Bill W.! What it lacks in depth it make up in sheer size. Think of it this way, you could park a car in the thing so there's no way around it. Here's Bill's description:

 

"I had to take a few pictures. It is a very busy intersection so I didn't place anything next to it for a reference like a bus. I thought by counting the cobblestones would be a good size estimator. A standard cobblestone is 9" x 5". However many of them look to be double length. I estimate it to be 15 x 20 feet. You be the judge!"

Another view, notice the old cobblestone road underneath...