Broke my SV650s after less than 30 hours of owning it!

I picked up my brand new fully loaded Black SV650s, big thank you to the guys at Daytona on Pentonville Road, on Thursday evening. On my way home just approaching Stratford station some guy decides he's going to drive straight through me, even though I'm doing 45 in a 30 approaching a bend and the heavy traffic found in the area. Luckily I brake and find a gap between a two cars to ride into and find the guy has just missed me by a metre, he then decides to start screaming abuse at me.

The next day I decide to come home from work and take the bike for a long run. Had a very good long ride but decided not to go to the Soho meet as I wanted to avoid any heavy traffic. Then on my way home I'm turning right at a set of traffic lights and find a car driving straight through a red and straight at me. I try and brake, but new tyres and brakes decide otherwise, and down goes the bike. The driver then decides to stop and look at me, then ride round me clipping my shoulder and carry on as there’s no damage to his car. Luckily a doctor and three other men were walking past at the time and all came to help me. A police car then pulls up and after checking that I was okay decide to go in pursuit. Within 30 seconds I see the car coming back with the police car following closely behind, seems he turned around as soon as he saw the flashing blue lights, the police make sure we exchange details and then leave. His excuse is that the lights were still green when he pulled out. I went home very annoyed but happy I was alive as it was my first off.

Now the bike has a scuffed right mirror, front brake lever, top and lower fairing, broken indicator, bent crash protector, handlebar end and rear brake lever, a scuffed and dented exhaust, and only 50 miles on the clock. The doctor backs up what I said happened as she was crossing at the traffic lights, the other three men didn’t really see anything until I went down, but they all saw him drive off. I also had a call from the driver yesterday asking whether I thought it was his fault and making sure I was okay, and then saying it wasn’t worth reporting it as it was clearly my fault and he had witnesses in his car with him and it would better for both of us if we didn’t tell the insurance companies.

The damage is really cosmetic and the bike rides fine and as my insurance is already quite high I’m worried about reporting the incident and face losing my no claims bonus if he tries to claim anything, as well as having to pay more next year just to try and get the bike fixed. Also, I would have to get the solicitors involved to make a claim against him as I only have TFPT cover, H & R use a company called Albany.

So there’s my introduction to owning a brand new SV650s and I’m not sure I’ve enjoyed any of it yet.

Bad luck dude but at least you're ok.

at least you walked away unscathed (well relatively) mate. just imagine what fun you will have in the long summer nights (if we ever get them)

Damn!

Bad luck fella!

Do not under any circumstances let him get his way... Even the Police saw fit to go in pursuit of him!
HE ran the red light (even if he says he didn't, you have a witness to say he was crossing the junction when he shouldn't have been!
Did you get the Piloce Officer's details? If not, it might be worth while going to the local 'nick and trying to find him/her and getting their version of events... I believe (one of our erstwhile Police members will confirm whether this is true or not, I'm sure) that if the Police car used blues & two's to catch this person, there should be a log of it as well.
I would be very surprised if there are no CCTV cameras covering the area if it was in London (or any built-up area nowadays!).

Get yourself a Solicitor (a proper one - not one of those that advertises all over the TV/radio as a Personal Injury specialist, etc!) and see what they think... At the very least you should get the bike returned to the condition it was in before the incident.
You should also get a medical repoty on the shoulder - I assume there is quite possibly some form of damage or pain - no matter how small, get it looked at and documented... They were in the wrong, not you! You are the one with damage to your vehicle, not them!

DO NOT let the persuade you otherwise!

The witness in the guys car aren't impartial either, so I doubt their statements would count for much.

Get him nailed to the wall

To be honest the shoulder doesn't hurt much at all as I was getting up and managed to get most of it out of the way, it's my thigh/hip that really took a heavy knock from going down. I didn't get the police officer's details, I don't think they actually saw much anyway, they just responded to seeing me in the middle of the road with 4 people around me. According to the officers they didn't really pursue the driver either, by the time they got to him he had already turned the car around, otherwise I think he would been in serious trouble.

I honestly don't really care about the injuries though as I've had much worse just playing football, the bikes my real concern. My Sidi boots, HG jacket and trousers were also lightly damaged but luckily as it was only slow speed I managed to prevent my brand new Arai RX7 helmet hitting anything, I think it was because I was trying to see what was happening to the bike as I was going down. I don't remember seeing any cameras in the area either.

My insurance is with H & R and they do provide legal cover, but uninsured losses must be claimed with Albany Legal Protection, so has anyone ever had to use them?

Am I missing something? , your doing 45 in a 30 into a corner on brand new tyres during a time of heavy traffic on a brand new bike you can't predict.

Slow down and take it easy.

People jumping lights happens all the time, I avoid it by not burning off the milisecond it turns green.

I see your point Andrew. The reason I was going that fast though was because I really believed this guy would have gone straight through me, not something I wanted to experience and I couldn't get out of the way as there were cars in the next lane as well.

I really have been taking it easy and even when I dropped the bike I wasn't doing more than about 10mph, hence only cosmetic damage to the bike and light damge to clothing.

[TSM]

Point and fact, he failed to stop after incident, correct me if i am wrong, that is not legal and thats why the police went after him. If he knew he was not to blaim there is no reason not to stop. I would claim that failing to stop is an instant admission of guilt. Also stupid person (does not matter that he is a car driver) not to stop to give help, that is also a crime in itself.

Originally Posted by andrewcharnley

People jumping lights happens all the time, I avoid it by not burning off the milisecond it turns green.

Had that tonight riding into work, its one of those junctions were people always jump the lights. I slowly creeped forward whilst the bike next to me almost ended up infront of the car. Luckily he saw it too.

Traffic light GPs are a temptation and also a bit of a laugh, but always use some common sense.

Glad that you are (relatively) unscathed Valman. Get a new indicator slapped on, make sure the bikes straight, and make sure your lowers aren't now rubbing against the frame (getting rid of the paint from the frame is a nightmare).