Not my fault this time... but it's only a grim consolation.
Had to take the bike to work, was cruising down the street in office clothes (luckily I had anti-rain/anti-wind overalls on which protected me from grazes... and obviously helmet and gloves, which I always wear) when some dumb, old beeatch who was parked on the right hand side of the road decides to PULL A U-TURN to park on the other side of the road!!! I saw her start the maneuver, I slowed down, and for a moment she stopped. I thought she'd seen me, so I got off the brakes and back on the throttle. At the last second she pulls out and blocks my side of the road entirely... I slammed brakes and swerved to the left, but I must have slipped on the tram tracks and I went down.
"Fortunately" I managed to avoid her (I'll get to that), and just slid on the cobbled road on the other side of the road (into oncoming traffic, fortunately there was none!).
Unfortunately both the bike and I sustained damage (the bike a lot more than me!) and because I didn't hit the dumb beeatch, I'm having to go through lawyers to get any money from her insurance company!!! At least the lawyer is a family friend and isn't going to cost me anything...
As for me, the bike basically landed on my left calf-muscle (I lowsided and dumped it on the left side) and squashed it. I partially tore the muscle (ecography next week to better understand the extent of the tear) and it got bruised pretty bad... hemorrhage in the muscle and general damage to the muscle cells. I've been at home for a week with my foot above my hips and today I'm back at work, but it's still swelling and obviously I'm limping because of the tear. My whole leg from just below the knee is an interesting shade of yellowish-green... it's a sight for sore eyes!
As for the bike... it didn't seem that bad at first but to repair it to "good as new" is going to be expensive... around 5.000 US dollars!!! I REALLY hope the lawyer is going to come through :biggrin: Most expensive bits to replace are front rim (it got bent), rear fairing (the tail of the bike), front tyre (it popped), windscreen and windscreen frame, left clip-on. The minor bits are: left footpeg (a must, obviously), passenger footpeg, left bar-end, left-side mid-fairing, left rear-view mirror, and other assorted bits and pieces.
In the next few days I have to talk with my lawyer and the shop and see how to proceed - a lot of the bits that the shop quoted me for are only cosmetic (eg.windscreen and windscreen support, mid-fairing, bar-end etc.) so I want to understand if I should proceed and get the whole bike repaired and cross my fingers, as opposed to fixing the essential and then waiting to see how much money (if any) the lawyer is able to get out of the insurance company, and eventually fix the rest. Time will tell.
In any case the plan is to get the bike up and running as soon as possible, since I REALLY don't want to take public transport to work anymore :biggrin:
LESSON LEARNED - from now on, anytime I see ANYONE pulling ANY sort of maneuver in front of me... I am going to slow down to a crawl... because even at 30 m/h, if someone pulls out right in front of you... ain't nothing you can do about it. At 10 m/h you can :smile:
Had to take the bike to work, was cruising down the street in office clothes (luckily I had anti-rain/anti-wind overalls on which protected me from grazes... and obviously helmet and gloves, which I always wear) when some dumb, old beeatch who was parked on the right hand side of the road decides to PULL A U-TURN to park on the other side of the road!!! I saw her start the maneuver, I slowed down, and for a moment she stopped. I thought she'd seen me, so I got off the brakes and back on the throttle. At the last second she pulls out and blocks my side of the road entirely... I slammed brakes and swerved to the left, but I must have slipped on the tram tracks and I went down.
"Fortunately" I managed to avoid her (I'll get to that), and just slid on the cobbled road on the other side of the road (into oncoming traffic, fortunately there was none!).
Unfortunately both the bike and I sustained damage (the bike a lot more than me!) and because I didn't hit the dumb beeatch, I'm having to go through lawyers to get any money from her insurance company!!! At least the lawyer is a family friend and isn't going to cost me anything...
As for me, the bike basically landed on my left calf-muscle (I lowsided and dumped it on the left side) and squashed it. I partially tore the muscle (ecography next week to better understand the extent of the tear) and it got bruised pretty bad... hemorrhage in the muscle and general damage to the muscle cells. I've been at home for a week with my foot above my hips and today I'm back at work, but it's still swelling and obviously I'm limping because of the tear. My whole leg from just below the knee is an interesting shade of yellowish-green... it's a sight for sore eyes!
As for the bike... it didn't seem that bad at first but to repair it to "good as new" is going to be expensive... around 5.000 US dollars!!! I REALLY hope the lawyer is going to come through :biggrin: Most expensive bits to replace are front rim (it got bent), rear fairing (the tail of the bike), front tyre (it popped), windscreen and windscreen frame, left clip-on. The minor bits are: left footpeg (a must, obviously), passenger footpeg, left bar-end, left-side mid-fairing, left rear-view mirror, and other assorted bits and pieces.
In the next few days I have to talk with my lawyer and the shop and see how to proceed - a lot of the bits that the shop quoted me for are only cosmetic (eg.windscreen and windscreen support, mid-fairing, bar-end etc.) so I want to understand if I should proceed and get the whole bike repaired and cross my fingers, as opposed to fixing the essential and then waiting to see how much money (if any) the lawyer is able to get out of the insurance company, and eventually fix the rest. Time will tell.
In any case the plan is to get the bike up and running as soon as possible, since I REALLY don't want to take public transport to work anymore :biggrin:
LESSON LEARNED - from now on, anytime I see ANYONE pulling ANY sort of maneuver in front of me... I am going to slow down to a crawl... because even at 30 m/h, if someone pulls out right in front of you... ain't nothing you can do about it. At 10 m/h you can :smile: