Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day perfect for riding your bikes. So I get the gear on and off I go. Ten minutes down the road I come behind a bloke in his car, who suddenly decides to stop and reverse, I stopped in the middle of the road and he just kept on coming until he had reversed over my mud guard and scrunched the fairing. Now I could not believe this. Things then went from bad to worse because he will not admit liability and of course it is my word against his. Bloody fuming or what. I could go through my insurance but then will have to pay and possibly loose my XS. He has offered to settle if I can get a quote to repair the fairing as long as it is reasonable. Now my dilemma is, is it an expensive procedure to mend it because it is not terrible but it has got several cracks in it, or do I take the hit and go through my insurance.

If he has offered to settle then that is as good as admitting he is at fault. If you can get a recording of him saying that he has offered to pay. Cant say for the UK but in Oz if you are part of the recording and it's not on the phone then it will stand up.

Thanks for replying. The trouble was he was too quick for me.Plus I do tend to think that everyone is as honest as me. Lesson learnt the hard way. The other thing that concerns me is, as you well know fairings are not easy to come by and I am just a bit worried that if it is mended will it look as good as it did before, because it was bloody immaculate. Is it difficult to change it to the RS model ?, or is that a stupid idea.

I think I would have snatched his fancy "Cat" stature off the hood of his Jag and held it for ransom till he fixed my bike! Lord knows if he's driving a Jag, he has the funds to make it right.
Hold out for an undamaged part......as a cracked, repaired part will always be a cracked part.
Get a lawyer

Go and report it to the police and in the conversation tell them that you think he may have been drinking because he was acting like he wanted to get the hell out real quick. They will catch up with him and give him the third degree. If he is insured go his insurance then they have to fix as they dont have a write off contract with you only him. Dont tell your insurance unless its a last resort.

RicK G wrote:Go and report it to the police and in the conversation tell them that you think he may have been drinking because he was acting like he wanted to get the hell out real quick. They will catch up with him and give him the third degree. If he is insured go his insurance then they have to fix as they dont have a write off contract with you only him. Dont tell your insurance unless its a last resort.

sorry to hear that JOINYMAN

Here is what's happen to me about 20 years ago.
On a rotary, a car cut my way and dented my fender.
It was a young guy and he was very afraid that his insurance would go up sky after a collision.
As a cop was standing not far from the point of impact, to avoid a police report, he agreed to sign a paper and took the full responsibility for the damages.

Few days later, he called me and decided not to pay as his insurance told him that on a rotary, it was a 50/50 fault (This is false and you can argue in court).
On the statement that he signed on the accident scene, nothing was mentioned about where the collision happened.
I just told him that if I didn't get the money within the next 2 hours, I would go to the police and told them that he went through a red light and as he was impaired, he signed the statement to avoid being convicted.
An hour later I had the cash in my hand.

For your bike, get an estimate and submit it to him. ask him to Email you his answer.
If he replies that this is too expensive and he will not pay, this is an admission of guilt as if it was cheaper, he would pay.

CF

Bstd, what to do? If you are covered and have his plate, name address etc, make a statement to your insurer and police, agree advise him you suspect he was inpaired, he must have been even if it was genetically predispositoned.
If not insured I'd go to his adddress and have a word re him paying up, include your time in the quote. I assume the wheel was wrecked. What a total nutter he must have been under the influence / impaired.
I had a Holden - a threatened species of Aussie car - run thru a give way sign on me yesterday and wave a fist at me as I locked up the rotors, probably half pissed. Extremely dangerous out there, good luck with the struggle for K justice.
rick

I agree with the guys Joinyman, always best to report these things to the authorities and let them know he has offered to sort it out. If he fails to come good you can always revert to them and go the official route later.

88

It should be reported to the police..... It is an offence not to.
Your ins. company will want to know what was said.
The only problem is that replacing the fairing is so expensive it may be cheaper for the ins. company to write the bike off

the.postman wrote:It should be reported to the police..... It is an offence not to.

Only if personal injury is involved or the owner of property damaged isn't aware.

That's a bugger mate, glad you're OK.

If there is no legal requirement to involve insureres I would maybe not bother as someone else has said they would be quite likley to write the bike off. I would do a rough c;aculation and ask for the cash now before the guy changes his mind. You can then get some parts from Motorworks/Ebay etc and fix her up. If you need respray include that too.

Cheers
Dave

Bummer. Similar happened to me when I lived on the Isle of Man. Turning right at a set of lights, the old boy in front decided he didn't want to turn right and started reversing - into my F650. Horn on but he kept reversing finally hitting the bike but kept on going, pushing me backwards! A passerby slapped his car so he stopped. Thankfully no damage, he said "I didn't see you". I wont post what I said back as CF will ban me. Hopefully it all works out for you.

GMcQ

We call them a SMIDSY Sorry Mate I Didn't See You. And I have been known to shout at then Where 's your bloody hat.

The days has come when we should use cameras. Look on youtube and see whats recorded. Amazing stuff but cant be disputed.



92KK

ae the cameras are getting really good now and cheaper?. I'd have loved a good one mounted when on tour, to get the shots you can't stop to get. A lot of commercial drivers have them streaming continuously these days to capture incidents as they happen.
hope he gets compo for being jagged.

yes camera's are a good idea so's a mattock handle, depends on the mood really

To get back to the original question...... No

I drive a Jaguar, it's a delightful car, cheap to buy, because of the fuel it uses. mine is the last of the real jags, before they started putting jag badges on ford mondeos (x series) ,a 1996 x300 with only 85,000 on the clock,
it cost over £80k when new, I picked it up for £1500.
So you don't have to be rolling in it to drive a classic Jag, driven carefully I can get 20 mpg on local runs and 35 mpg on M/way journeys. It's cheaper than the bus or a taxi.

When I first posted this topic I wondered if any of you guys had a jag , lets face it there was a good chance someone could have one, so I must apologise to the K forum members. However , the second it happened I knew I was in trouble , the jag was a 61 plate , black , shiny , and oozing tosser , and it turned out to be correct. When you ve been on this planet long enough you just know.