My Sons first road crash
 

He's ok. Girl pulled out in front of him leaving school. He grabbed the front brake and it threw him down. He was riding my Superhawk. I have been letting him ride it to school because he is a good rider and responsible. Girls insurance has contacted me already and they are filing a claim. Andrew is pretty bummed out. My superhawk will need upper left fairing, double bubble windscreen, turn signal, handlebars, lever, tank, seat, left foot peg bracket, left stock exhaust can. Andrew hit his helmet on the road so I would like insurance to replace that too. Any thing else I should be doing? thanks, george

Just be thankful he's OK.

Remind the insurance company that once a helmet is exposed to impact it has done its job and should be replaced. Just because it looks OK does not reveal any cracking or weakness from the impact.

You are right, the main thing is he's OK. He's still a little bummed because its my bike. I told him no big deal. Yes they should replace his helmet, it did the job, and his jacket has some neat battle scars now. g

glad he is ok. when my bike went down it had a lot less damage then that, and it got totaled. left and right uppers, rearsets, stator cover, turn signals, and exhaust tubing on left side. you might be looking at the same thing. i bought it back from insurance for $700. Luckily I had all parts that needed to be fixed in my spares box and pocketed the money they gave me.

that sucks bud, luckily he was quick enough to get on the brakes before hitting the other car. glad hes ok

Glad to hear your son is fine. I've got some of the stuff you need - OEM Clip ons, seat, lever, OEM windcreen. PM me if your interested

Glad he's ok. My son did similar on another of my bikes.

I'd bet with the damage you describe that they will total the bike.

I have the stock exhaust cans and an extra set of clip ons if you want/need them.

And my .02 about insurance. If you don't want it totalled, you'll have to leave some of the more expensive items out of the appraisal. OEM tank is $900 from Honda... When I wrecked last year I was able to keep damage down to $2000 just because I didn't have the plastics on and almost half of that was the tank. Be frugal with what you decide to claim.

When ordering replacement parts check out motosports.com, they do price matching at 110% and free shipping on any order over $100. Good group of guys that I dealt with there getting my stuff ordered.

On the helmet issue. Most of the maufacturers will X-ray the helmet for you. If your insurance doesn't want to pay for it, this may be a way of proving that it is necessary.

It would be the other drivers insurance , she already admitted fault. Failure to yield.
Parts I will be needing;

Double bubble windscreen

Upper left fairing (red)

Left foot peg bracket

tank (red)

More parts are damaged , but they can be bought as cheaper aftermarket.

I might still have a stock left exhaust can kicking around if you're interested, just pm me!

Good to hear your boy is ok.

Have you discussed with him what he could have done differently to prevent the situation?

What have you discussed with him regarding the dangers of street riding?

He's taken the MSF course, there was nothing he could have done different, in my eyes. She pulled right out in front of him. Simple failer to yield.

Glad your boy is ok. It's scary how fast one mistake can translate to broken bones and busted metal. I hope this girl has learned something from the experience, too.

I've got a black, hand-painted tank that you can have for shipping. It's not exactly pretty, but it's functional to the best of my knowledge. I'll check the locked chest to see if I have any other stuff, too.

Glad your son is okay! Life is full of experiences, and some of them suck. Hopefully he can learn from the experience as well. Damn cage drivers.

I was rear ended at a red light by a 19 year old last March 21st. My bike was at least $1000 over the limit for a total ($5000 parts and labor to put it back to pre-crash condition), but I made some concessions, left some minor rashed parts on, and paid $300 out of pocket to get my bike back.

Good thing his young body bounced well. My back still hurts, almost every day.

I don't really mind a scratched up bike, so the last two times I've been hit it's like hitting the lottery. I had to fix a couple things but for the most part its cash in the pocket. Glad to hear your boy didn't get hurt. Make sure he pays attention to the whole insurance process, there's valuable lessons to be learned there.

He mentioned to me today after getting home from school, " I really notice every little thing now" He rode HIS bike to school this morning (1980 cm200 honda) and his buddies where very suprised he rode after yesterdays get off.

Chas wrecked one of my Interceptors a couple years ago. I never want to feel that feeling again when I was getting the call. Your son will benefit from the wreck because after all our preaching, begging, yelling it takes something like this to wake them up. Suddenly it's not just preaching and bitching - there is a reason and they hear the message for the first time. It's not something they get over quickly just because they're young. At first he didn't want to ride the other bikes at all.

I had a hard landing in 07 with the Superhawk on the side of an Izuzu Trooper. I went through the same things after my wreck and we talked about it a lot after his. Gradually he has returned to his old form but it has been a process and not one that he has forgotten.

Good luck and glad the kid is ok.

Glad to hear there were no serious injuries. But in all honesty.....if she'd have pulled out in front of me and I was unhurt, I'd be in jail shortly after for "B" slapping the driver.

Fish

After he got up , she was parallel to him , he looked at her and said "Are you Fucking stupid?" Thats my boy.

You mean he couldn't have slowed down, scanned further ahead or ridden in a part of the lane that would have given him more time to react? Or all of the above?

I understand that legally the driver was at fault. I'm not shifting the blame, but the reality is your son was the one on the ground.

Anway, check this forum out if you want a really honest crash analys and foster a means to prevent future ones.

for the crash analysis forum.
http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/fo...splay.php?f=94

And the primer to the forum
http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/fo...d.php?t=213885

and the main forum.
http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/index.php

Good luck.

Good to hear he's back on a bike again, I have friends that had a close call and they never rode again.

All due respect, Karbon - I will check the links but I refer you to our esteemed admin who is MFS Instructor, in charge of the nuclear powerplants aboard the GHW Bush Aircraft carrier, has been down once on the road and twice in parking lots. The road takes smarts but there's little cure for morons in a parking lot.

I think what ever little "cure" or preventative medicine available for idiots in the parking lot should be explored and detailed. After all, it is your life.

You gotta be smarter than the idiots in the parking lot.

I'm going to have to agree with Karbon. It's very important to have situational awareness at all times, but be especially careful when there is the risk of someone pull out in front of you.

It's also important to know how to use the brakes in events like these and not panic. This is of course difficult to practice and then use in an actual situation, but it's also a very important skill to have.
Not saying that it was your son's fault, on the contrary, however I am just pointing out that events like these are very easily avoid by paying attention, which he seems to have picked up on after the crash, and learning to avoid panic-braking.

+1 Karbon. Riding in traffic is never a good thing in terms of relaxing. We have to realize it's not about who's right, but who's vulnerable. One day going to work, a 15 minute ride, I had 3 drivers pull in front of me. Hence, I now look at it like this: I'm riding on "their" road, I have no lane, no rights, no safe place to be; therefore, i need to avoid everything and everyone, make myself as visible as possible, to know what others are doing and are going to do, and be as alert and defensive as an ant in a world of anteaters.

we can be legally right, yet legally disabled or dead...

I just got a call from State Farm and they are going to pay to fix my bike.
Where do I start? They want an estimate from a shop. I will fix it myself but dont want them to total it and have to go through the salvage title crap. Here is a list of what was damaged.
Double bubble screen (smoke)
Red tank (dent on top, right) new honda $800 used $200
Red upper, left
Superbike bar $30 at Mikes XS
grips $8 dennis kirk
Left footpeg bracket, FIXED I welded it up today!
Left exhaust can scratched, but totally livable. Thats it.
thanks, george

Better get what you can!

I have state farm and they will try to low ball you. They did it to me and I told them, okay, find me a bike in the same condition as mine and I'll take that in lieu of the the low ball. I told them that I wasn't happy with the figure and that i wasn't the kind of client that turned in a scratch on the bumper or dents from hail storm, so I wanted fair treatment. They consulted on it for a while and called me and gave me what it wanted. Of course it was demo'd and I then bought it back off them for salvage.

They also tried to screw me on a van we had. They appraised our new 84 van and said since it was a custom van, they would have to charge me a higher premium. Several years later, someone hit and run he whole side and they didn't want to pay to redo the custom paint job. Once again, I had to argue my case and they succumbed.

I don't care about a salvage title because when I like something, i'm gonna keep it. A little PIA but worth it to me.

Oh great Kelly blue book trade in value is $1865. What a scam. Insurance companies use this to estimate a vehicles value???