Oh no, not AGAIN...

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 8:28 am

My boss comes up to me in the office this morning...

"Hello Royston, is that your bike outside?"
"Erhm...yes?"
"It's now lying on its side on the pavement..."

*internal groaning*

True enough, it had been twatted pretty damn hard as it had almost ended up upside down on the pavement. A brief inspection has revealed:

Bent front mudguard
Scratched fly screen
Left front indicator punched through headlamp bracket
Scratched clutch lever
Scratched left rear indicator
Scratched left rear indicator bracket
Bent rear mudguard
Both exhausts scratched
Broken reg. plate light
Scratched clutch cover
Scratched and bent rear brake lever
Handlebars possibly bent

*sigh*

Now I am in a quandary - do I get it fixed up on my insurance and pay the £250 excess as well as lose my no-claims bonus and get my premium bumped up, or do I pay for all the above myself..?

No note left or anything, just a hit-and-run job. I reckon it must have been a largish truck/lorry as a car hitting the bike that hard would have left bits of car on the road for sure.

It's still rideable though, so I can get home this evening! Worst part is that I'd arranged to take a nice lady out for a ride this Saturday (met her at a friend's wedding a week ago or so). Nuts!!

I love bikes, but they seem to hate me...never anything but bad luck and huge expense.

This is now the fifth time my bike's been twatted by a car causing it damage.

Perhaps I should be used to it by now?

Royston

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 8:40 am

That is really bad Royston. Ever thought of adding some alarm on it - like on cars? So you can hear, if somebody thrashes it. Maybe something, that will beep you a message. Who knows - it may be worth it in the long run. I hope you find something else to do with the nice woman, now that you can not take her for a ride ... I mean ...

(you know I respect you man)

petal · Post by **petal** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 8:51 am

On 2005-08-01 09:40, Immanuel wrote:
I hope you find something else to do with the nice woman, now that you can not take her for a ride ... I mean ...

(you know I respect you man)

ps. sorry to hear about your bike. Perhaps you should lose the "angels" on the sides of the bike, maybe then people will dare tell you that they have illtreated your twowheeled baby.... just a thought

Post by **hubird** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 11:01 am

Too bad Royston!
Feel sorry for you

BingoTheClowno · Post by **BingoTheClowno** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 11:10 am

Ask your boss to install a video camera. Alarms don't do nothing except annoy other people. See if anybody is trying to vandalize intentionally your bike. Fill a police report.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: BingoTheClowno on 2005-08-01 12:11 ]</font>

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 2:24 pm

Hey Royston,

If it may consolidate you, I've had some damage done to my car last month that would cost about the same to get it back to its original state. That's spread over last month, with 3 incidents.

There's a fund here for victims of run-and-hide accidents, and it helps if you don't know the other one involved, but I don't think spreading it over 3 incidents (different places on the car) would satisfy that fund/insurance, they'd withdraw a fixed amount per incident. Mist lamps kicked out, RH front wing severely dented (as if a bag of concrete hit it, couldn't possibly have been another car) and a white scratch like from a key over 2 black doors. Fun, fun

Do you have such fund in the U.K.? It helped my sister and brother in law a lot when they were bumped off the highway by a big van, went head-over-wheels a couple of times, they survived with some bruises luckily...

I'm lucky I don't care much about the car, it's a nice one but I'm not emotionally about it as (some) people can, and I understand, be about their bike. I can keep driving this car as it is, it's serviceable but it don't look too much like it used to be. At least, I won't attract the wrong girls with it anymore

The sensation driving it didn't vanish, luckily :>

After going over the damage to your bike again, I suspect you drove home with it after work, and maybe except for the turn-off light which is maybe too damaged to be legal, it doesn't need much of repair to be used daily.

Ask your insurance agent if there's anything like that run-and-hide fund that we have in Belgium. Few people know about it here, but everyone pays a small contribution in their insurance for the fund. The fund doesn't refund as royal as the insurance company, but at least you get some money to fix the bike.

Sh!t happens, and I hope you dig yerself a way through this pile.

at0m.

ps. We have plenty cam's at work, they didn't see anything.

pseudojazzer · Post by **pseudojazzer** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 3:17 pm

Sorry to here that man, sounds like taxis on saturday night! Dunno whether its best to claim or not to be honest, check out what the damage is and how much and see from there, sounds like some serious bad luck, hope that the weekend brings better things to ya.

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 4:27 pm

The Gods are telling you to get rid of the bike.

narly · Post by **narly** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 7:02 pm

... or to seek out a safer parking spot!

Sorry about the bike - I haven't had one for years, but still dream of having another one day.

Post by **garyb** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 7:07 pm

$%$@#*!!

fix it yourself......

Lima · Post by **Lima** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 11:16 pm

You can try to put a big sign on your bike(that maybe you can store in your office during the night) and you can write on it:
"For those who will hit me... seven years of angry mother_in_law, noisy and annoing neyghborhood and no sex"

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 2:48 am

Cheers for the coments guys.

It's much worse than I'd originally thought - the headlamp is now pointing in a radically different direction from the front wheel and there's no travel whatsoever in the front forks == steering geometry is trashed.

Hopefully they'll write it off and give me the money for a new bike!

If not (bike gets repaired), I have no desire to ride it again...bike's are never "the same" after an impact like that, so I will part-exchange it for a new one if that's the case.

Anyway, it's been once around the world, and has taken me all 'round Ireland, Spain and France so can't complain too much...it's just a bit of a drag to have to catch the train every day (perhaps it's time for my bicycle to come out of retirement?)

As for the lady...we're going for a walk with her dog this weekend

(Watch this space!)

On a final note, one of the five car-bike impacts that occurred happened without anyone even being in the car! It's a car magnet

Royston 'pedestrian' Day

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 6:54 pm

What I really think is that you are a very lucky man not to have been “ever” in five instances of the same kind of accident, riding the bike. Fortunately!

Post by **garyb** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 9:29 pm

new bike. one that's not a car magnet....

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 12:46 am

Nestor wrote:
What I really think is that you are a very lucky man not to have been “ever” in five instances of the same kind of accident, riding the bike. Fortunately!

Just the two incidents with me on the bike

1. Chucked it into a ditch in Wales which (why?) had a brick wall in it - fractured my left hand but managed to ride it home OK (the bike is pretty tough). 2. Dropped it on some diesel whilst going to work. That one really affected me psychologically as I was just riding slowly and normally, then *SMACK* on my arse.

Royston

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Counterparts on 2005-08-03 01:47 ]</font>

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 12:48 am

garyb wrote:
new bike. one that's not a car magnet....

Absolutely!