I think I'm very lucky, some police are great!!

[kiwifruit]

there are good ones out there, most of them are in the south island

[Macktheknife]

What a great story, glad you are ok and that they were so good to you. Restores some faith in the existence of common sense in coppers.
Good luck with the repairs.

[Babelfish]

When I had my big spill some years back it was due to a old f'er doing a u turn right in front of me (well, truth be told in all city prangs is due to lack of concentration as I reckon you have to harsh on yerself to survive). I was on a fzr400, learners licence, no insurance, no warrant, no reg, but since it was his fault the policeman was pretty cool about it and didnt do anything about it. So I know how you feel re: begin lucky!

That said though mate, keep those eyes out as from what you said you sounded a little preoccupied at a roundabout.

[unhingedlizard]

overtook a copper on the hayward hills yesterday. By the golf course. Left it a little late. overtook a black holden commonwhore. half way alongside a car appeared round the corner and so gently opened the trottle to about 125. As I came past the driver door i saw two uniformed traffic cops in the car. bugger thinks I but cant really stop what im doing now. all that happened was he wiggled his finger at me after i passed! So thier are some who chose the use discretion. Good on them

[mark247]

The accident has nothing to do with me riding a 400cc motorbike on my learners. The police, if they decide to give me a ticket or not, are dealing with that side of things. The woman failed to give way to her right ( a fundamental part of how a round-about works. ) In all honesty, i know i was a bad boy riding a 400cc on my learners, but it has nothing to do with this incident.

[mark247]

Here is the damage. I got a quote for all the repairs ( everything right down to the small scratch on the tank ) and its $1300. $400 would get the bike warrentable again. As you can see i have already taken the light and stuff off. If you like my taping skills feel free to PM me and ill teach you the art

[Babelfish]

The accident has nothing to do with me riding a 400cc motorbike on my learners. The police, if they decide to give me a ticket or not, are dealing with that side of things. The woman failed to give way to her right ( a fundamental part of how a round-about works. ) In all honesty, i know i was a bad boy riding a 400cc on my learners, but it has nothing to do with this incident.

End of the day you need to control the situation and predict what the tosser cagers are doing...whether you're on a scooter or an superbike. The way I look at it, its always my fault if I prang into someone....sounds harsh but that way I'm always on me toes....the trash heap has spoken

[KLOWN]

I'm sure thier insurance company will try and screw but stick to your guns. Your in the right no mater if you were ridding a 1000cc and had NO license. Your indisgressions, if they have nothing to with accident, won't count against you.

[mark247]

End of the day you need to control the situation and predict what the tosser cagers are doing...whether you're on a scooter or an superbike. The way I look at it, its always my fault if I prang into someone....sounds harsh but that way I'm always on me toes....the trash heap has spoken

I disagree. She was in the left lane and a van was to the right of her waiting to pull into the roundabout. I can't see through vans. The van had seen me and was waiting ( i have talked to the woman who was driving it. ) The woman who hit me pulled out blindly from the left of the van because she had seen me 6 seconds ( or whatever ) before checking my rear tyre quickly. She fucked up. You dont ever pull out into a roundabout if there is a vehicle in the lane to the right is of you is waiting at it. Its obvious the van was waiting for me to go past!!!

Perhaps if the woman had been coming into the roundabout and 70kmh and i could see she wasnt going to stop then yeah, i would of been kicking myself because i know you should look out for everyone and not just the cars who you should give way to. But that wasn't the case, i couldnt see her.

[Babelfish]

I disagree. She was in the left lane and a van was to the right of her waiting to pull into the roundabout. I can't see through vans...

bla bla bla, whiney whiney whiney, of course its her fault mate (esp in terms of insurance) but we dont get a slight ding and second chance as you've found. If that was a truck doing the same thing you wouldnt get to whine about it.

We're gonna make mistakes but whining about what the cars do does nothing, taking on where you went wrong will help prevent it happening next time which is why I focus on it being "my fault"....i.e. "I enterred the roundabout thinking I was going to get through without dodging yet another dopey tw@ in a car"

Agree with you, shes a dumb bitch and I wish the 88 year old cock that hit me had pegged out at 87 but he just would have been replaced by another. It mightn't sound it but I'm on your side.

[mark247]

I agree that i would of rather it never happened and would of rather, if i had the chance, avoid what happened. But in the future there is nothing i can really do ( other than not riding a motorbike ) to stop this happening again. Maybe getting xray vision would help but i do think that in the situation i was in i was very unlucky. Perhaps if the van wasnt there, then i would be happy to agree, yes its her fault, yes i could of avoided it by waiting for her to go. But, i really dont think, no matter how much experience i would have had, i could of avoided it. I'm not disagreeing with you either, i realise that on the bike its not just a dent in the front grill and a scratch on the door.

[scumdog]

I notice too many rider/drivers have blind faith that the other driver is going to obey the road-rules and do the right thing.
i.e. they assume that because the other driver can't see what's coming that they won't pull out on front of them or because the other driver is coming up to a give-way sign that they will do just that or because the other driver is coming up to a stop sign they will stop.

Assume nothing people, treat the 'other' driver/rider like they're a blind incompetent and you might just live a little longer.

[mark247]

I agree, but i didn't even know that the car was there.

[mark247]

Oh and by the way scumdog, you interested "if you can drink it, drive it, root, shoot or ride it I'm interested" is fucking classic!

[Babelfish]

Ok Mark, here's where I take my reference and why I come up with arsey trash heap soapbox cocky comments:

So i was coming through a round-about in Tauranga today on my Honda GB400 and a lady in a car failed to give way and i met with her front right.

So does this mean if you were going slower, noticing there was another lane on the other side of the van and not being able to see past it, you could have slowed to avoid something popping out?

She pulled out because she though because i had turned my head around to look at my rear tyre really quickly to check if it was alright

So you could have seen her waiting there? Did you? Or were you looking at your rear tyre?

I got half way into the round-about and she just pulled out and gave me about 3 meters to go from 40k to 0k, which didnt happen.

So you smacked into her, not her smacking into you...obv still "her fault" but still means you weren't keeping an eye on the entry lanes.

police ( two very friendly woman ) offered to take me to polytech

Just a side note here, this would have been an excellent place to start a playboy letter...

Definately dont think there is nothing you can do, the above is oversimplified but there's loads you can do to help avoid the prangs but you have to be 300% more alert than the other tw@s. Xray vision helps.