One thing you will hear on online forums is that "the council must have made an effort to repair before you claim negligence". Best i cab tell is that this is nonsense and the coucil has a duty of care regardless. Same as "owner accepts no liability" signs being meaningless.

So thats point one.

Point 2 is whether the council influenced the issue or whether circumstances were beyond their control.

Beyond their control would be ice or an oil spill, and the most common within their control is maintenance e.g. potholes.

However also within their control is road design and layout. Signs that warn of dangerous road layouts etc are common place if the council cannot fix an issue such as inverse camber or a series of twists.

So where am i going with this? There is nothing to stop you requesting the council compensate you. A strong letter outlining what happened, your costs and what you ask as compensation. Will they pay? Who knows! After your initial letter, talk to a TD (they want your vote now), the local paper, a solicitor, etc. If your story adds up someone will help you.

Why might the council pay? If the situation was unrecoverable only because of the bad placement of the drains then it's possible they should have used a different material or placememt for example. They could have put a sign up or marked the drains. It might seem reasonable to a roads engineer to anticipate this need.

Alternatively, the drain placement may have been nothing unusual and you were just unlucky that your specifics (perhaps: angle + speed + gear change + bike type + weather + time of day) caused anforseebable accident and therefore its no ones fault and they would not compensate you.

I short, its possible they would write you a cheque but it all depends on the exact details. I would write them a long letter with every bit of detail you have and go from there.

Heres some help from the aa (uk) http://www.theaa.com/breakdown-cover/pothole-damage-how-to-claim.html