The problem is for drivers not thinking ahead!

[Off road all day]

The roads in Canada are not good now, freeze, thaw, repeat.
As a biker i have to avoid these "potholes" or wait until summer to drive.
Before i was a biker in my truck i always looked at them, slowed down and gave a wide birth, they may have to avoid holes.
Now it's a game, how close can i come without actually hitting one and get likes on my facebook page. Really!

 

[ebikemom]

Potholes are rough. I live right between two Seattle area metro regions, and one has great pavement, the other horrible. I have to take things slow so if I come up on a pothole I can avoid it. I try to go around it toward the curb. Gotta keep track of the rear-view mirror to see if I can go around it toward traffic or not. I feel like I'm in a video game sometimes, but, hey, at least I'm not in a race!!!

 

[Credible Hulk]

I live in Toronto, where most of the bike lanes are located in the downtown core, and if you live further out, there are very few lanes. My city councillor actually nixed a bike lane extension which would have connected a major bike lane from a neighbouring city with our city. The lane goes all the way across the greater Toronto area - except in my ward.

They maintain roads selectively here. The part of the road used by drivers is always kept relatively smooth. The bike lane areas are a mess of potholes, cracks, uneven pavement and debris. The rich mansion lined streets are as smooth as glass, even the sidewalks are made of beautiful coloured paving stones instead of the concrete which is for plebes. This is where the city councillor who nixed the bike lane lives. I often ride in these areas for recreation because these are beautiful neighbourhoods with smooth roads and little traffic.

On my scooter the bumps were so bad that I was always being thrown out of my seat. I was constantly pushing myself back onto my seat while riding. When I had the e-fatbike it was a lot better. Those wheels do a lot to smooth the bumps, though I still had to avoid the worst obstacles. But it's pretty bad when you're forced to focus on avoiding the road hazards and it takes away from your ability to focus on other things, like what drivers around you are doing.

 

[mrgold35]

I have a much smoother and faster ride once I switched to fat tire ebike for my commute. Potholes, uneven road surfaces, and road debris in the bike lanes or street are my main obstacles when riding. I can sometimes look like I'm intoxicated on my bike weaving around that stuff at +18 mph at 5:30am. I have certain stretches of road I don't like to ride the "share the road" bike lanes and stay on the sidewalks at a slower speed. The majority of my flats were in those areas because of the uneven surfaces and amount of road debris that get pushed to the bike lanes.

It really helped me to pick my riding path with extremely bright headlight AND helmet spot light on early morning rides. The headlights are bright enough in the morning where I don't out run them at 25 mph (not as bright as a regular car headlight). I can put twice the light down in one spot OR see twice as far down the road on the road for obstacles and steer clear, turn my head to light up turns, and shine my helmet light to alert cars driving up to a stop sign (people run a lot of stop signs that early in the morning).

Not that big of an issue during daytime riding. I just make sure to avoid puddles at double-digit speeds because you can never tell how deep they are (and you get extremely wet with fat tire splash).