First bin - friggin dissappointed!

[tbone]

Only had the bike for a month and binned it - guess it had to happen sooner or later! Friggin stupid mistake - basically came into a roundabout, wanting to turn right - no traffic on my right and a car bout 20 meters away on left.

I went into the roundabout, all good, starting to turn right - still good. Going a little bit slow as I'm still getting used to roundabouts and the car on the left decides not to give way at all and basically runs me down. No damage or even touching the car as I just let the bike down .

Not much damage to the bike, pipes have a wee little scratch on them - no damage to the paint work. Only major things are that the handle bar is a little bent and the brake pedal seems to have been bent up as well.

People were quite friendly though - they stopped and made sure everything was OK - good thing the bike is only light (compared to a Harley!) - else I would have had a hard time getting her back up!

[homer]

bummer man

hope you got there details
its there fault , get hold of your insurance and give them all details and there rego

[sAsLEX]

guess it had to happen sooner or later!

With that attitude it was likely to happen!

[tbone]

I'm just chalking it down to experience and next time watch the other car's speed as they come near the roundabout or intersection and see if the other car actually notices me.

Bit harder in this case when I was in the bloody roundabout!

Everyone at work has been saying sooner or later I'm going to wipe out - I'm pretty sure it's part of learning anything with mistakes and all - just as long as I don't do the same thing again!

Not sure if it's worth getting the insurance involved though - the cost of my excess is probably more than what needs to get fixed!

[Mom]

With that attitude it was likely to happen!

Sadly that is true!

Everyone at work has been saying sooner or later I'm going to wipe out - I'm pretty sure it's part of learning anything with mistakes and all - just as long as I don't do the same thing again!

Your baby looks so cute!

Dont go out on your bike expecting to get cleaned up worst mistake you can make. But do expect that other road users will not see you sometimes and mow you down as a result. You own your bit of road, whether you are a new learner or an experienced rider! The bit of road you are on is yours!! For sure be aware of other road users, particularly those with 4 or more wheels, they tend to not see us!

Thank goodness you were not hurt.

[James Deuce]

Not sure if it's worth getting the insurance involved though - the cost of my excess is probably more than what needs to get fixed!

What excess? It's someone else's fault, they didn't give way and people like them, no matter how polite, kill people like you and me because they fail to give way. Your excess should be the lunatic's issue.

Bet you anything you like it will cost at least twice as much as your excess to fix ALL the damage, not just the bits you think are damaged.

next time watch the other car's speed as they come near the roundabout or intersection and see if the other car actually notices me.

Don't even think that way.

They CAN'T see you. They WON'T see you, you are INVISIBLE. Rely on no one but yourself. At first you will have to rely on conscious decisions. These are bad, because they take too long to work through, but they are BETTER than expecting other road users to respect you and your motorcycle. Eventually you will from experience develop a set of instinctive responses that go from 50% correct to 90% correct in no time and your skill and confidence will have increased to deal with the remaining 9.99% of potential accidents that aren't meteors hitting you in the head.

[merv]

So why did you call yourself tbone? - the cars go and tbone you eh!

[Okey Dokey]

Man, that stinks. Unfortunately, a lot of 4 wheeled drivers just aren't giving driving their full attention. I guess motorcyclists just develop a hyper awareness to compensate.

But it sounds like they were in the wrong and that their insurance should cover damage to your bike. Good luck sorting things out.

[sweetp]

Dude that sucks. But roundabouts are tricky wee fella. My point of wisdom on roundabouts is dont change down in heavy rain while on a faily decent lean.

[BiK3RChiK]

Always ride with your light on too... Anything to increase visibility of yourself!

Sucks though, dude!

M

[tbone]

I got home last night, decided to take another look at the damage, and low and behold - it's not as bad as I thought it was. The handle bar is not bent - the brake assembly on the handle bar rotated a small amount which made the mirror go out of alignment - made it look like the handle bar was bent because the mirror was on a weird angle.

Had a look at the foot brake and it seems that when the bike went down, the foot pedal pushed passed the screw that determines how high or low the pedal is, but bent the screw in the process. So just had to re-adjust the screw (still need a new one) and the free play at the wheel and it's back to normal. Still going to take it in to get it looked at just to make double sure about the condition - looks like it's all small scratches and cosmetic stuff though.

Had a test ride this morning, taking her up to 50, then 60, then 70 and so on and at each interval listening and feeling to make sure nothing is out of the norm - seems OK - no dodgy vibrations and no weird sounds.

The little fella in the photo is actually my nephew, though at times he's like a son (good thing with being an uncle)! I absolutely hate getting my photo taken and that photo is about the most recent one!

I got the name tbone from my driving days - many moons ago I had my first car - a '77 Ford Escort with a 2.0 litre and a 5 speed - in hindsight it was not the right type of car for my first one (power to weight ratio was ridiculous!) and one night whilst driving decided to overtake a car on a straight road but lost control and into a building I went. Car was a write off, but when you looked at the car it looks like the building tboned me! Then about a year after that I was at an intersection where I couldn't see what was coming from my left (lots of parked cars) so decided to gun it and hope for the best. Needless to say the best didn't come, only a car and it smacked the car's left door in.

Both are superb examples of the stupidest driving possible - but I've learn't alot from those times and haven't had accidents since. Good thing no one was hurt in either situation though!

My real name is Tyron - so people tend to shorten that to Ty, Tysee, T, Teebs, T rone or T bone - I didn't pick the name though - just kinda stuck! Also get called T bag - that's from that Prison Break show due to my likeness to that T Bag fella on there (not sure if it's the mental or physical likeness though!)

Thanks for the advice though guys !

[James Deuce]

Tbone - did you hit your head in the accident?

That "cosmetic" stuff costs a fortune to repair to original condition. They just devalued your bike and you're willing to accept that?

Plus you've just given permission to a loser to run down bikes on roundabouts at will.

The dude should be getting a failing to give way charge and lose his NCB.

[tbone]

When I fell over got the bike back up and proceeded to get out of traffic's way (that was interesting - I've never held up traffic by standing in a roundabout before!) and the other driver had pulled over and was seeing if I was OK - you could see that they were actually remorseful.

If they had either sped off or had any other attitude - yeah - I think I would have been in a different state of mind. But they were sorry and when someone is trully sorry - it's abit hard to get angry yourself at them, although they did fail to give way.

Speaking (writing?) frankly it's just cause I've had enough anger in my life, I don't won't to instigate an angry situation if I can avoid it. If my nephew was on the bike with me (or anyone for that matter) - another life could potentially be at stake and I probably would have taken a different stance.

Although I am proud of the bike and love being on it - when you fully look at it - it's just a bike. I'm OK, they're OK and to me that's what matters. The bike is just a material possession (don't get me wrong - I still look at the scratches and think bugger!). It does provide the means to enjoy other things - but it's a means of getting there. If there is now a couple scratches on the bike (bloody small - you can only see them if you look really, really hard) - it's better than having my leg ripped off.

Hopefully that driver looks twice at the next roundabout they come to - I think that's what it comes down to - just trust that they've learnt something (as I have) and they won't do it again.

[toebug]

If you are in an accident and its deemed the other persons fault dont they pay all costs to fix your vehicle? Therefore no excess cost?

[FROSTY:Me]

Tbone. Dude NOW that the shock has worn off a little. Sit down and think what you could have done different to avoid the accident happening again.
SERIOUSLY mate.

If you don't mind--Could ya post up your thoughts

I will tell you that what happened WAS definitely avoidable.
In this case hey a couple of scratches on the bike -next time??