Had My First Accident :( Thoughts?

Originally Posted by kaivalagi

Thanks, it sucks aye, just starting to sink in now, only happened about an hour ago now

Much the same thing for you then? I wasn't sure what your accident was from...What did you end up going? I know you are selling off scratched panels etc so did you just sort it all out yourself sourcing parts the best you could ot did you win your claim?

No i fell of all on my own(numpty) so i had to repair on my own. Got exhaust system, front brake lever and handlebar end weight from members on here, new fairing lowers kit brand new on e bay, and used a pattern rear brake lever, cost me less than 180 quid all in.
The only things that i did not do was to repair a small scuff on the top fairing and replace the front indicator as it only had scratches underneath and could not be seen.
With a bit of haggaling i found that the p/x figures i was getting were broadly similair to yours.
Hope that helps and if you need help changing exhaust etc then just pm me.

Sorry to hear that mate, that's crap !!


When I binned my sv, although no one else involved, I could've still claimed.
I repaired it myself, I dented my tank, heavily scratched my nose cone, clutch lever, Indy etc, cost about £400 I think.

As it was my first years insurance, I didn't want a claim within 6 months of my first year, so took the self repair route.

[Mr Speirs]

Definately don't go down insurance! Scratches are scratches and whilst they look unsightly they don't stop the bike working. Fix what you need to get it working and over the course of time keep your eye out for cheap replacement panels, eventually you'll get it back to shiny mcshiny.

How much does scratches take away from resell value?? Not as much as the increased premiums you will pay for the next few years.

[kaivalagi]

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

Nah, chalk it up to experience. They'll f*** you next year even for a non-fault claim.

My F/C policy costs me less than £300 as I am 36 and never made an insurance claim before in my life, not needed to...do you think my insurance costs would still suffer that badly from a claim whether it be 50/50 or 100% their fault?



I just had another look and I think I can maybe polish out the scratches on the exhaust and touch up the bar ends (and fairing panels at a push maybe)...but I will need to replace the R&G bung plastic, foot peg and rear brake lever and front right indicator. Not sure if the whole right peg assembly (the alloy bracket) will be needed or just the lever and peg as I can't fathom right now if the peg is bent or the bracket is warped or both...it's too dark. I will know for sure what the situation is tomorrow in daylight and once I've cleaned it a bit

Fingers crossed things look better rather than worse in the morning...

I am assuming if I did trade in with scratches I would lose the cost of replacement panels and labour off the trade in price right? What would a front and right lower panel cost, do you know?

Originally Posted by kaivalagi

I think she was 100% at fault as I was on the main road and she wasn't showing due care and attention pulling out in front of me without checking first. What do you think?

She didn't see you, doesn't didn't mean she didn't check first.

If she was pulling out of a minor road though a gap in traffic, and you were filtering, you were either completely obscured by the car to your left, or she could only see your helmet over the roof of that car. Put yourself in her position, with her view, would you have noticed that detail?

Who is "at fault" in the eyes of the law, and who is really at fault are two different things, even so, I think you'd struggle get get more than a 50/50 fault from an insurance company if you were filtering.

Sorry, but you need to aware of this kind of danger when you are filtering and mitigate accordingly. You have to take some of the responsibility and can't say it's 100% her fault. If you see somebody pulling out from the left when you are filtering, you have to expect that they haven't seen you. If you don't accept any responsibility for an accident, in terms of what you could have done to avoid it, then you can't learn from it.

[TamSV]

If there was no impact you might struggle to get anything out of her insurance, depending on what she would say to them. If there's no witnesses then all we can prove for sure is that you dropped your bike.

If she doesn't cough up and admit liability to her insurers you're probably onto plums.

It's sh1te I know but that's why you need to get those witness details (although I admit I've never had the presence of mind to do it after an accident)

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by kaivalagi

I put on the brakes fairly hard to stop hitting her and lost grip on the front, eventually losing the bike altogether at maybe 10mph and slided to a halt just before the front right corner bumper of the car.

I think she was 100% at fault as I was on the main road and she wasn't showing due care and attention pulling out in front of me without checking first. What do you think?

You probably don't want to hear it, but if you slid along the road and didn't hit her you could easily have stopped by not grabbing a fistful and locking the front

Chalk it up to experience, don't tell your insurers, fix it on the cheap and move on...

as there is not too much damadge, i'd reccomend the fix it up route, take off the lower panels if they are that bad, that's what the shop did that i sold my sv to, they then priced it higher than i had bought it for in the first place, glad you are ok though, good luck and be carefull out there

As Ralph said you would lucky to get 50/50, as you were on the wrong side of the road and as the road was clear the other way you could be seen to be overtaking, not filtering. To put it another way if you were in the car you would be looking left to check for traffic coming from the left, not for someone overtaking/filtering past the queueing traffic as it was a 2 lane road. As I said in another post, in the IAM if someone was overtaking/filtering past a junction it would be an instant fail in the test. Put it down to experience and leave the insurance out of it if possible, they might put you totally to blame which would definately cost you more in the long run.

Daryl.

[kaivalagi]

Thanks all, all fair comments, I am new and inexperienced and should chalk a lot of it up to that...

I will learn from it, I'll learn that in every single situation on the road no matter how trivial it seems I cannot assume others will not make silly mistakes and so I have to act accordingly and defensively...and I've learnt that a fall at 10mph is still expensive!

I could have gone slower than 20mph, I could have stopped/slowed right down before the side road just in case, I couldn't see her either until she was in the road because she was obscured so should have been more careful in this section of the road, I could have been even more progressive with the brakes when I had to stop (in my defense it had just rained and the surface wasn't great, main bus route, busy road)...but most importantly I should have gotten her to write down and sign what she was admitting to...she said she didn't look, she said she just followed the instructions of other drivers flashing her to pull out...

Time for a strong beer and to chill out, it wont help me any thinking through all the what ifs. I'll look at the bike tomorrow, ring a few places to find out the cost of parts, maybe try and settle with the lady for cost of the broken bits without any claims...I don't know...all I know right now is that I'm annoyed with her, annoyed with myself and want a bike with ABS so I can grab a handful in a situation like this one when instinctively that's what you do...

Thanks again all for the words of wisdom, much appreciated even if I don't want to hear it