Drainage lids in various countries?

[mellowJohnny]

Most I've come across in Canada are identical to most in the US - rotated 90 degrees. In fact I seem to recall some with a tab in the nine o'clock position (relative to the direction of travel) preventing the lid from being placed in the wrong orientation.

Glad you are OK! At least you can buy beer late at night...

[Franklin]

Not sure how I managed to land on my feet but my new carbon rim is cratched up pretty bad.

When I was 16 I was riding 50 km with two friends and had a race for the last few KM. I trashed them and was waiting at the "finish" when they showed up and started to sprint. One of them got his frontwheel stuck in a drainage lid with ±50 kmph.

Instead of needing dental surgery he managed to unclip, leapfrog over his handlebars and land relatively undamaged.

Sometimes people are incredibly lucky. He could try that 100 times and would end up 99% at the first aid or worse.

[stella-azzurra]

But what he did do right is not hold on to the bars which is what only 5% of the people do.
The rest hold on to those bars for dear life.
Holding on would face plant you into the pavement.
Or get the old broken collarbone

You have to let go and catch your self as best as you can.

[taina]

In 1970 Sausalito California had a marked bike lane with at least one drainage lid that was a hazard for bikes. I was passing through town with a bike I had just picked up at a shop in Menlo Park, watching the cars on my left that were stopped in traffic, not watching the road. My front wheel dropped in the lid. I landed on my face and broke two teeth. Weeks later I went to the law library, looked up laws supporting a case against Sausalito, and wrote a letter to the town governing body. They responded with a "no merit" letter, but a representative from their insurance company contacted me. He and I settled for more than enough to pay my dental bills.