Take one patch of diesel and add a flying brick moving at 55mph:














Then take the same patch of diesel and add four cars, at which point it starts to get messy. One through a hedge and into a field, one through a field gate and into a ditch and two splattered on the other side of the road. Very messy. I've never seen so many bits of car strewn down the road.

Total damage to me, believe it or not, is one large bruise on my left hip where I hit the road. The armouring in my clothing did its job superbly. What amuses the hell out of me (genuinely) is that it's going to cost more to replace my clothing than it will to fix the brick. Given that the patch of diesel had been previously reported to the local council by the police and the council did nothing, the insurance company think this accident will show up as a 'no fault'. Best bit of that? The council's gritting/sanding depot is less than two miles form the crash site.

Bruising only to all the other drivers and passengers too. Some very lucky people last night.

Hopefully you are OK?!
Shit happens, could be worse.

I wish you all the best
Cheers

Sorry to hear about this but you have survived to tell the tale.

I have a spare silencer for your bike if you need one  (in Killough at the moment - so not far from you)

It's harder to fix people than bikes. Glad you're OK(ish).

Ringfad wrote:Sorry to hear about this but you have survived to tell the tale.

I have a spare silencer for your bike if you need one  (in Killough at the moment - so not far from you)

I've collected some scrape marks at the back of the silencer but, being stainless steel, it's nothing I'd complain about. Thank you for the offer, Simon.

It was odd, but as soon as I hit the road and started sliding rather than rolling I knew I was going to walk away from it all. I followed LFB down the road and watched it transit from one carriageway to the other trailing a shower of sparks from the crashbars. First thought was:

'Oh f*ck, not again'

followed by

'When the hell is that going to stop sliding? I'm going to stop before it stops'

and then

'I hope nothing comes the other way before it does'.

It was a blind bend, you see. I wasn't worried about being hit from behind because I hadn't seen any traffic behind me for the last four miles. The only thing that really bugs me is how did the gear lever get sheered off like that? For that one item, what could have been a screw-off, screw-on repair is now a major stripdown.

I also have a spare lever - but on closure examination of your photos it looks like you need a gearbox.

Good luck with the rebuild.

Hi Dai,

Sorry to read about your off and glad you are ok. Interesting to see how the crash bars took some of the impact. I guess they could not protect the fairing and silencer but do you reckon the cylinder head would have been seriously damaged without them?
Bit of an excuse to put some more SE bits on the bike now?!!!

Best of luck with your healing and bike repairs!
Regards
Nigel

Sorry to hear of the mishap but glad that you're ok.  Hope you are still feeling alright tomorrow, as sometimes it may take a day or so for the shock to wear off.

Not sure how these things are handled over there.  Will the council pay for your damages?

Hope you pull up OK over the next couple of days Dai and the Council comes to the party with the costs.

That gearbox damage sure is interesting - you would think the lever would bend/break before the shaft.

Did you find the diesel patch before or after the cars?

Point-Seven-five wrote:Sorry to hear of the mishap but glad that you're ok.  Hope you are still feeling alright tomorrow, as sometimes it may take a day or so for the shock to wear off.

Not sure how these things are handled over there.  Will the council pay for your damages?

Not directly. My insurance level is what is called 'fully comprehensive' i.e. whatever the cause of the accident (my fault or not), the insurance pays out immediately. If the underwriters then think they stand a good chance of recovering their money from the other party, they will take the legal action and I'm not involved. 

Next insurance level down is 'third party, fire and theft'. In this case if the accident is clear-cut not my fault, the underwriters will chase the other party for the claim. If the fault is not clear cut, the two insurance underwriters may go 'knock-for-knock' i.e. you pay my claim and I'll pay yours. Either way, I have to wait for the other party to pay up. If the accident is in any way my fault, tough shit.

Most people have TPFT because when you're younger, FC can come in at twice the premium. At my age (56 going 57) the difference is minimal - about thirty pounds more than TPFT (£283pa IIRC and that covers the brick, my Cali and the Bandit).

Should this accident be classed as 'no fault' (because the police reported the diesel patch to the council earlier in the day and no action was taken to deal with it), then my insurance premium will not be affected. However, the local council are very well known for wriggling out of most legal action involving motor vehicles. As it happens, because my insurance is due in three weeks time and the mess will not be sorted out by then, the accident will be classified as 'at fault' for the time being and I can look forward to a hike in the insurance premium price. If the final result is a 'no fault' then the price hike will be recinded at next renewal but no refund.

Gaz80 wrote:Hope you pull up OK over the next couple of days Dai and the Council comes to the party with the costs.

That gearbox damage sure is interesting - you would think the lever would bend/break before the shaft.

Did you find the diesel patch before or after the cars?

The first car found the diesel patch a couple of hours before I did and ended up backwards through the hedge (hence my comment about the police reporting it to the council). The next two appeared after LFB and I had quit sliding and stopped to help. The fourth car to hit the patch was heading in the same direction as me and just lost it. She came across the road, hit the two helpers and bounced back through the gate and into the ditch. The girl was not speeding or doing anything stupid; in fact at that point she would have been mentally in 'slow down and stop' mode anyway because she was picking her father up from a point about one hundred yards further on.

G'day Dai, very sorry to hear about yous mishap and glad to hear you are ok. Is your motorcycle clothing and helmet covered by your insurance policy? Cheers Tom

good to hear you are still mobile Dai . LFB on the other hand may need some TLC time. could be a chance to redesign and freshen the image. I hear naked has its benefits too.
Hope the insurances are not too messy for you and you can get back to the enjoyment of riding LFB soon .

Tom: they're on separate insurance which for £23.50pa pays out £1000 max. Close inspection today shows only my trousers, gloves and boots took relatively minor damage but that's almost the full payout on those items alone. There isn't a mark on my crash helmet and just mud on my jacket. If it wasn't for the fact that the damage to the trousers has punctured the goretex lining and on my boots has punctured the sheltex lining (rendering both non-waterproof at those points) I'd just replace the armouring and carry on using them. You get what you pay for: I had that spectacularly proved last night.

Grover: You won't believe this, but at about 20.00 tonight a courier dropped off a large box which contains an entire RS top fairing complete with Powerbronze flip screen. Shame there's no lowers with it!

Bad luck there Dai!

Makes you think of what would've happen if you weren't wearing the gear.

Nightmare scenario!

Surely the insurance company will see the gearbox and fairing damage, laugh and immediately write the bike off? If you then buy it back off them for pennies you could be quids in.. Shame about the work required though.

I've already priced the parts from Motorworks. Including a s/h gearbox the total is £670.63 and of that, the gearbox is £245. I am the authorised repair shop, so labour costs don't come into it (although the last time I did an authorised repair on one of my own bikes, the insurance assessor insisted on paying me £20ph!!!!). The only problem with the bike being written off is the category they put it into. If it's Cat.D then no problems. If it's Cat.C then it can go back on the road but I have to suffer putting it through an SVA which legally then makes it a new bike (!!!), so it has to be given a new registration. I can 'apply for the old registration' though.

Insofar as the gearbox is concerned, ebay will almost certainly be my friend. I'm going to start taking LFB apart tomorrow, ostensibly to 'check for further damage' but in reality, the Dragon's only five weeks away. It will be faster repairing LFB than trying to finish Brick2 - eight hours is all I need to replace the gearbox, crashbars and fairing.

Ah right, seems it's all in hand!

I was always under the impression, apparently quite wrongly, that Cat C bikes could go straight back on the road. Something to bear in mind if I'm ever tempted by a project or if it happens to me..

And what's wrong with the crash bars? They look to be in perfick nick to me

Pleased to hear you survived with minimum bruising from the bump and  slide and that no other car interfered with your slide. I have only slid my K once up to now and it was an accumulation of grease and oil  at an intersection. I was on a short (less than 10 minute ride to work) and realized from that incident that the protection you get from a full riding suit (as time consuming as it is) can be priceless.
In the last picture your left hand mirror appears to have a different mounting arrangement than mine, between the mirror and the fairing.  The steel with the nipples on both my K bikes is against the fairing whereas yours shows shows an insert against the fairing with the mounting steel on the outside of that plastic insert. Does this help you avoid seeing your elbows and shoulders in the mirror by pushing the mirror out slightly? Does this help eliminate some of the mirror vibration which I have quite often with my mirrors?
May you and yours (your bike that is) have an expeditious recovery.
Shep

I read somewhere (probably here) that the extenders for the mirrors were an aftersales item. If so, it must have been a popular aftersales item because the last three RS fairing uppers that I have bought have come equipped with them. I've never noticed any mirror vibration so yes, it sounds like it helps in that department but I can still see a good half of my hands (not elbows) in both mirrors.

Dai,

Glad to hear that you are Ok after your off. 

Not much you can do if you hit a patch of diesel like that - especially when the weather is perfect for making it as slippery as possible (very mild and very wet). It's that heart sinking "Oh Sh*t" moment when you realise that you're going down and there's nothing you can do to stop it and you just know that something's going to get broken. At least it wasn't you that was broken and you were able to walk away with a few bruises. 

Good luck with the LFB rebuild - as you'll have seen, there are are quite a few gear boxes of LFB's vintage on eBay - some come with swing arm and final drive (and I assume drive shaft too). Most for a reasonable price, but a few chancers too. 

Oh, well, I guess it means you get some quality bonus time in the garage nursing LFB back to health. Hope you've got heating in there - the cold weather is on it's way (apparently).

Hey!

The gearbox could be less expensive.
This one could be fine, shipping isn't to expensive, there are a few more in Germany.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/89-92-K-100-75-1100-RS-RT-LT-89V1-GEARBOX-/361450461721?hash=item5428205a19:g:eJYAAOSwSHZWcTYj

Shipping from Germany is
20kg = 31,99€ with DHL
31,5kg = 43,99€ with DHL
I have a spare gearbox and could check the weight

Anyway luck repairing, so you'll be back on the street in spring :-)
Cheers

Dai

Sorry to hear bout the off, hope it all turns out ok.

Tough old boots...are they the ones the cat pissed in last year??

Olaf

Dai,
Sorry to hear about this and glad that you are OK.
It seems that the big auxiliary light may have protected the fairing.
Good luck with the repair.

40 years ago, the same thing happened to me when I was going to a motorcycle rally in Lahr (Germany). Came into a curve at a pretty decent speed and when I realized that it was an oil patch, I didn't have time to even say "Oh sh**t" as the bike was already sliding on the ground.
Here is the funny part of the story:
When I was filling up the accident report with the German police, a friend (from France) stopped . He took the cops about 200 ft from the accident site and pointed to them a BMW car parked on the side of the road. About 1/2 hour earlier, this guy lost the oil drain plug and my friend stopped him to let him know.
This was real luck and the insurance of the car driver reimbursed all repairs and our clothing.

Thanks Olaf - as it happens, yes.

I've located a gearbox from the same guy I'm going to India with; it should be here by the end of the week along with a new pair of auxiliary lights. LFB will be stripped and ready by then (I hope), so unless Murphy puts in yet another appearance LFB could be back on the road as soon as next Monday. That is, if the insurance assessor has been by then.

BAE: when the backend twitched my initial thought was 'Puncture! - I've picked up another bloody nail! Keep the power on and get out of this damn bend before the tyre goes flat.' Then the front wheel twitched, followed by the back one again, followed by me thinking 'oh f*ck not again'. It's amazing how much can go through your mind in such a short time. This is actually the second time I've walked away from a 55mph crash; well, last time I limped away from it with a hole in my knee. This starting to look like a habit.

Bert: nice story!!!!

Good to hear you survived without serious injury Dai.
Hit an oily patch myself a couple of weeks ago but was going in pretty much in a straight line at the time. A bit disconcerting feeling both wheels lose traction to say the least.

Dai wrote:Thanks Olaf - as it happens, yes.

I've located a gearbox from the same guy I'm going to India with; it should be here by the end of the week along with a new pair of auxiliary lights. LFB will be stripped and ready by then (I hope), so unless Murphy puts in yet another appearance LFB could be back on the road as soon as next Monday. That is, if the insurance assessor has been by then.

BAE: when the backend twitched my initial thought was 'Puncture! - I've picked up another bloody nail! Keep the power on and get out of this damn bend before the tyre goes flat.' Then the front wheel twitched, followed by the back one again, followed by me thinking 'oh f*ck not again'. It's amazing how much can go through your mind in such a short time. This is actually the second time I've walked away from a 55mph crash; well, last time I limped away from it with a hole in my knee. This starting to look like a habit.

Bert: nice story!!!!

The cat and the boots was a good luck thing, an extra life. Good to see the humour is intact too.

Glad to hear you are okay "Diesel" not nice at all hope you get the bike sorted soon, Take care.



D

Dai wrote:BAE: when the backend twitched my initial thought was 'Puncture! - I've picked up another bloody nail! Keep the power on and get out of this damn bend before the tyre goes flat.' Then the front wheel twitched, followed by the back one again, followed by me thinking 'oh f*ck not again'. It's amazing how much can go through your mind in such a short time. This is actually the second time I've walked away from a 55mph crash; well, last time I limped away from it with a hole in my knee. This starting to look like a habit.

I hate that front end twitch feeling. I had a bit of a buttock clenching moment a few weeks back, when going to work on a dark wet morning, thanks to one of the local farmers who try to transfer as much mud from their fields onto the road with their tractors as they can. The Wurzzles round these parts aren't the brightest bunch at the best of times ("I can't read and I can't write, but I can drive a Trac'or") and for some reason, they and the local council seem to think it is acceptable to put up a mud on road or slippery road sign rather than just cleaning up their mess (often, they don't even bother with the sign and let the mud speak for itself). It doesn't help though when the sign is placed immediately after a bend and just yards away from the hazard, and even worse when you are being dazzled by on coming traffic headlights. Fortunately, it was in a 40 mph limit and I hit the mud (big slimy, knobbly lumps) reasonably straight on and fairly slowly, but it still had me skating about trying to keep the bike upright as first the front slipped and then the back. Plenty of "Oh Sh*t"ing going on along with a few other choice expletives until I got past the muddy section. In a car, you are supposed to steer into the skid to regain control -  that is kind of hard on a bike as you tend to be leaning the wrong way at the start of the skid and trying to steer the front wheel the opposite way with the handlebars would quickly make everything a lot worse.

Probably a good time to try and kick your "habit" - 3rd time is not always so lucky.

Good gear obviously Dai. Glad you survived with minor injuries only. 

Damned annoying but no bother fixing the bike to a man of your skills!

I cant understand how the crashbar stayed intact, each time I dropped my bike I lost the crashbar, must be my mounts fail to easily

It didn't Both lower mounts sheered and the top mount went part way through. The rear crashbar leg wrapped itself behind the front leg and both wrapped themselves around the engine. There's a light mark lower front of the cambox where it hit the ground - that was the total engine damage.

Sorry to hear about your prang, but glad to hear you are O k. These things do scare the bejesus out of you though. I am more convinced than ever to wear all the gear now. All the Best