1. Knee down...

[JustATrick]

http://www.sinking.in/images/kneedown.jpg

2. Head down...

http://www.sinking.in/images/headdown.jpg

3. Curvy down...

http://www.sinking.in/images/curvydown.jpg

I got knocked off on the Sainsbury's roundabout on the Oxford ring road. Apparently, he didn't see me. On the upside, no real damage to me.

[ogden]

If you ain't crashing, you ain't trying.

[RichT]

SOrry to hear about your off - glad you're alright.

[walkaboutandy]

Oh no!!!!!! Your curvy was mint too!

Hope you take the tool of a driver to the cleaners! :-x

[Milky Bar Kid]

Bugger! At least you are ok!

[Spiderman]

Didn't see the big yellow thing? FFS what does it take to be seen by some people. Hope you're ok, bikes can be mended :(

[ogden]

Didn't see the big yellow thing? FFS what does it take to be seen by some people.

This is why I'd never bother wearing hi-viz kit on a bike. The downside (looking like a prize ****) massively outweighs the benefit.

[Owenski]

Glad your ok,

an love the manor of the thread :)

only just started wearing a Hi-Viz, I've noticed a lot more driver caution around me. I dont know if its a police style hi-viz from paul-6th or just the hi-viz factor. But Hi-Viz or not I'll not be putting the baffle in, a blip of the throttle turns a head a lot faster than the beep of a horn.

[ogden]

Hi-Viz or not I'll not be putting the baffle in, a blip of the throttle turns a head a lot faster than the beep of a horn.

General observation works better than a loud pipe.

I ride through central London every day. The only, and I mean *only* times I find myself having near misses are those mornings when I'm not fully awake and paying full attention.

[Owenski]

General observation works better than a loud pipe.

I ride through central London every day. The only, and I mean *only* times I find myself having near misses are those mornings when I'm not fully awake and paying full attention.

Take this with a pinch of salt cos after re-reading it sounds a bit blunt but its not instended that way.

I never said anything about having near misses, while doing observations through traffic if Im uncertain of a drivers intentions coupled with not knowing if I've been spotted then a quick blip of the throttle (or even a quick roll off to force a pop) and you can see car drivers heads glancing round.
Even more so from collegues I pass on my way to work I've been informed they know Im coming usually by hearing me before seeing me. As I filter the sweeping roads into leeds visibility can be down to 2 or 3 car lengths.

My point been my zaust gets me noticed 360degrees, a high viz only gets you noticed if your in their field of vision.

My pervious post was expressing that its not the having of near misses which has reduced its the traffic moving over displaying that they have noticed me which has increased. Thats thanks to the Hi-Viz and hence less throttle warnings are needed but I wouldnt remove one because of the other, as tesco remind us "every little helps!"

Again I dont intend to sound snappy, but ya gotta seem to stick your neck out to make a point heard sometimes. Neck wound back in now :)

[ogden]

I see plenty of bikes with loud cans on my commute. Usually as I swish quietly by.

They always seem a bit "all mouth, no trousers".

[Owenski]

Brilliant, on a SV forum you've said people with loud exhausts are all mouth and no trousers. You've just said you think that 75% of the people on here are full of ****, classic.

This isnt our thread for handbags, I've said my bit and your obviously of a different opinion which is fine by me.

peace out.

[ogden]

Brilliant, on a SV forum you've said people with loud exhausts are all mouth and no trousers.

No I didn't.

I said bikes with loud cans seemed a bit "all mouth and no trousers". As in lots of noise without much grunt to show for it.

Do you know a way of fitting a loud can to a human? I don't.

[Owenski]

missinterprited at my end, i appologise. Your throat looked soo appealing I just couldnt resist jumping down it. I'll take myself to one side and have a word.

Do you commute on the thou?

[philbut]

Sorry to hear about the bike - car interaction! As you said, you are OK so that is the main thing. That is a horrible round about at the best of times, the surface is pants. I was very impressed to see your knee down in textiles, but then the helmet down picture made more sense ;-) Bike looks fixable anyway, and hopefully it will be a straight forward open shut case WRT insurance.

[ogden]

Do you commute on the thou?

I do. Of the bikes in my garage it's the most practical for a cross-town commute. Something I find quite daft yet equally wonderful.

[philbut]

I do. Of the bikes in my garage it's the most practical for a cross-town commute. Something I find quite daft yet equally wonderful.

Big lardy sports tourer, that's why ;-)

[Owenski]

I do. Of the bikes in my garage it's the most practical for a cross-town commute. Something I find quite daft yet equally wonderful.

Im still in ~SV land so cant comment on the sports bike as a commuter. I think that much power would be wasted on me personally either that or destroy my licence. However if it works for you then it works :) but ya cant be suprised if your on a thou that most bikes dont have the grunt by comparrison lol.

[ogden]

Big lardy sports tourer, that's why ;-)

Hell yeah. Even has a satnav now. And a fag-lighter socket for accessories.

Next up, god knows. Topbox?

[JustATrick]

Do you know a way of fitting a loud can to a human? I don't.

I'm disappointed - I was sure a man of your experience would have loads of ideas :-)

Thanks to all for the well wishes. As I said I'm fine: it was only ~30mph - I got away with a few bumps and bruises (mostly armour shaped), a sore neck for a few days, and more confidence that the kit actually works.

The bike went off for assessment today. People who haven't seen it have suggested it's a total loss, but I don't think so. He hit me on the left, bending the slider and rearset. It slid down the road on its right which has caused most of the damage: tank, bars, clocks, headlight, water pump cover, exhaust, rear plastics. The front forks are now like a pogo stick, but I can't see how the damping leaked out.

I'm not sure I'll get 100% liability from the other party. He was lost, definitely in the wrong place, and should have looked for me before changing lanes. However, there were no witnesses and I had joined the roundabout from the wrong lane. It shouldn't be relevant, but suspect they'll suggest otherwise. Plod thought it was relevant enough to warrant the old "both in the wrong ... 50:50 ... probably no prosecution" speech.

[Owenski]

were you on the roundabout already then and he just pulled out/into you?

Doesnt matter about you been in the wrong lane then surely, if you were on the RO then its your Right of Way. He pulled out on you, he didnt know you were in the wrong lane he just didnt see you. Therefore he caused the accident or does it not work that way?

[ogden]

I'm disappointed - I was sure a man of your experience would have loads of ideas :-)

Loud cans aren't my department.

Eels and Japanese women, otoh...

[JustATrick]

were you on the roundabout already then and he just pulled out/into you?

No. As I approached he was on the roundabout in the outside lane (it's a two lane roundabout; the entry is two lane, the exit is two lane). I matched my speed to join in the gap behind him. I joined from the right hand lane, into the inside lane of the roundabout. He was positioned to go for the first lane of the next exit. I was headed for the second lane of the same exit. He decided it wasn't his exit and turned across my lane to continue around the roundabout.

As I said, it's his responsibility to check it is safe to change lanes: it was perfectly legitimate for there to be a vehicle in my lane heading for my exit. The problem is that I got into that position through not following the rules: he could argue that he didn't expect me to be there.

[Owenski]

ah rite i see, always makes me nervious when there is a car in that position and im taking the right lane of a 2 lane exit.

did he maintain a right hand indicator, and did you indicate left to show your intention to leave the RO?

[ogden]

I did something very similar in a car ten years or so ago.

Claim was settled 50/50.

[JustATrick]

did he maintain a right hand indicator, and did you indicate left to show your intention to leave the RO?

I was indicating left, but I didn't see him indicating at all. (That's not to say he wasn't, but I like to think I pay enough attention to notice when people do.) I wasn't worried about him in the slightest given his positioning: he didn't activate my spidey sense. I'll be far more wary about two lane exits in the future.

[JustATrick]

My insurers have written the bike off. Shopping time. I'm looking longingly at the first batch (2002-ish) of 636 ZX-6Rs... so I'll see if I can sort out a test ride this week.

[Stu]

He was positioned to go for the first lane of the next exit. I was headed for the second lane of the same exit. He decided it wasn't his exit and turned across my lane to continue around the roundabout.

As I said, it's his responsibility to check it is safe to change lanes: it was perfectly legitimate for there to be a vehicle in my lane heading for my exit. The problem is that I got into that position through not following the rules: he could argue that he didn't expect me to be there.
How's the insurance going? Because I would quite often drive, ride or ride my bicycle in the left lane of a roundabout and keep going round and round until I found my exit without thinking I was doing anything wrong :smt102

Oh and get yourself a 600 Ninja, they use half as much fuel ;)

[JustATrick]

How's the insurance going?

Unsurprisingly, the other party has not admitted liability so there's a dispute to resolve.

Because I would quite often drive, ride or ride my bicycle in the left lane of a roundabout and keep going round and round until I found my exit without thinking I was doing anything wrong :smt102

...and as long as you've made appropriate observations that you're not driving, riding or pedalling into another vehicle as you cross any multi-lane exits then I'd agree - not ideal, but not doing anything wrong :-)

Oh and get yourself a 600 Ninja, they use half as much fuel ;)

Really? There's a big difference in fuel consumption between the 600 and the 636?

[Stu]

Really? There's a big difference in fuel consumption between the 600 and the 636?
Sid Squid, Terriyakimonkey and me can easily get at least 55-60mpg* on our G1s, Jambo on his later J (but still not a 636) gets less, and the 636s get less still.
Depends if it's important to you, some people couldn't be happier with 22mpg + oil




*including 100mph or cross London.

[DanAbnormal]

Sid Squid, Terriyakimonkey and me can easily get at least 55-60mpg* on our G1s, Jambo on his later J (but still not a 636) gets less, and the 636s get less still.
Depends if it's important to you, some people couldn't be happier with 22mpg + oil




*including 100mph or cross London.

My 07 ZX6R got about 45-50mpg on a commute. The 636 cannot be THAT bad unless you are spanking it when you expect that kind of mpg.

[ogden]

some people couldn't be happier with 22mpg + oil

I'll be happier if I can get it lower.

[DanAbnormal]

I'll be happier if I can get it lower.

Okay, new question.

What's the worst mpg you've had?

I got about 8 on my Zephyr.






Turned out that the diaphragm on the fuel tap was leaking. :rolleyes:

[Stu]

My 07 ZX6R got about 45-50mpg on a commute. The 636 cannot be THAT bad unless you are spanking it when you expect that kind of mpg.

Just for the record, when I said you'd get half for the 636, that was a bit of an exageration, but I doubt you'd get better than 45, which I would consider as being significantly different from 60 being available.

[ogden]

Okay, new question.

What's the worst mpg you've had?

I got about 8 on my Zephyr.

Turned out that the diaphragm on the fuel tap was leaking. :rolleyes:

Pah. That's cheating.

I'd be surprised if anyone with a four-stroke can beat 22mpg + oil though.

[Stu]

I think a while ago, Bear could have beat your oil consumption.

[ogden]

I think a while ago, Bear could have beat your oil consumption.

Bikes with faults don't count. Mine's working fine and STILL gets that mileage.

[Warthog]

Sorry to hear about your accident JustaTrick, I think I read about it on the Oxford times website as I recall. Good luck with the insurance battle.

[JustATrick]

I think I read about it on the Oxford times website

That wasn't me - someone did himself more of a mischief the next day. Falling off bikes on that roundabout seems to be a popular pastime :-)

[Dave20046]

Glad you're alright, goodluck.


Edit: if you do need some curvy bits and bobs I have a few spares left from my '99 yellow naked.

[JustATrick]

Sorry for dragging up an old thread, but wanted to nip in and give insurance/accident watchers an update. Things were settled recently - 70:30 in my favour. I'm happy with that - it seems about right. Lesson learned!

I'm still about BTW on my ZX-6R, and hope to meet up with some of you again soon.

[Warthog]

70:30 hey? So what, if I may ask, were you doing wrong for 30% blame?

[philbut]

I still hate that round about. They have stilll done nothing about the sh1tty surface there.

Shame the claim didn't go 100% your way but at least you got the least liability. Just keep the ZX6 rubber side down1 hope to see you about over the summer mate.

[Stu]

70:30 hey? So what, if I may ask, were you doing wrong for 30% blame?
That's just the way of the world these days. Unless you have an independant witness insurance companies love to settle by percentage.

Plus, he was riding a bike - bound to be speeding innit ;)

[JustATrick]

70:30 hey? So what, if I may ask, were you doing wrong for 30% blame?

If only it worked in such a way that I got an explanation like that :-) It's basically just the result of a negotiation. The only way I can imagine we'd get proper "objective" attribution of blame to actions would be to fight all the way to civil court - and in my opinion I wouldn't have done any better than 70:30, so took that. And I didn't want it to keep dragging on... and I didn't want to keep putting more money in lawyers' pockets... and I already felt like an ambulance chaser by not accepting it was all my fault.

My take on it is that we were both controlling a vehicle contrary to the highway code: he failed to make appropriate observations when changing direction; I joined the roundabout from the wrong lane for my chosen exit. If either of us had done the proper thing then we wouldn't have collided - even if the other continued to do the wrong thing: if I'd joined in the right lane, I'd have been behind him; if he'd looked and signaled he wouldn't have clipped me. For that reason I couldn't argue for 100% his fault with clear conscience, so was resigned to accepting some liability.

That said, 50:50 didn't feel right: I reckon that you're more likely to get away with what I did that what he did, so I tried offering 70:30. I was surprised his insurer accepted. Given how unhelpful the insurers and lawyers were (Stu's right, they really couldn't care about the percentage if it's not 100%) I'd have been delighted with a 51:49 moral "victory".

[DanAbnormal]

The worst part is 70:30 means nowt to insurers. You're either at fault or not to them. Weird how when you get insurance it bears no resemblance for how an insurance dispute turns out. They have their cake, scoff it and then they steal yours.

[chewmyr00t]

Didn't see the big yellow thing? FFS what does it take to be seen by some people. Hope you're ok, bikes can be mended :(

That shade of yellow is a tricky one to see, lol