So I was enjoying the beautiful unseasonable weather the other day with 6 other riders. We were doing a pretty fast paced back road assault but I was hanging in the back with 2 other guys since we weren't familiar with the roads or other riders. The 3 of us were keeping a safe distance between each other the whole time and we were using hand signals to communicate when we were approaching a sharp turn and in addition to turn signals when making turns.

We turned right off of a back road onto a 2 lane highway and the other 4 riders up front turned left onto another backroad about a 1/4 mile from the last road. My best friend Mark was behind me and the last guy in the group was behind him. I put my turn signal and used a hand signal to indicate we were turning left (we didn't even reach the speed limit before the turn) and began turning. I was crossing the left lane when I heard screeching sliding tires come up behind me and the next thing I knew a bike and rider T boned me and we both went sliding into the ditch. I jumped right up and ran over to him and he was lying face down in the ditch groaning. He said the only thing that hurt was his foot so we rolled him over. He was obviously in severe pain and didn't want to get up. A few vehicles stopped and asked if we wanted emegency services but we said we were ok and I told them I'm an EMT. A gentleman pulled up and offered us a ride. Fortunately the guy that hit me only lived 15 minutes away so we got a ride to his house and picked up his trailer and got the bikes loaded up.

I guess there is a target on my bike or something cause my roommate hit me last fall at a stop sign and knocked me over. I think this is just bad luck but very strange that I get hit by another rider twice in 4 months! I can't believe that we had been riding with this group for a couple of hours and were doing very well communicating with each other and maintaining a safe distance between riders and the idiot still barreled into me! I think the insurance company is gonna total my bike but the damage is definitely repairable.

The bike went down on the left side after the other rider's elbow went through my wind screen and took off the top corner of my front fairing. Somehow my foot got pinched but I had my Astars on so it was just sore for a day and the left fairing got some rash. The shifter I had just fixed with a bolt (notched thankfully) bent on the bolt and not the actual lever, exhaust mid pipe got flattened a bit but the frame sliders took most of the damage. I think the front wheel is a little twisted in the forks now too. The other bike was a 95 FZR1000 and it is done. The frame got a dimple in it, the subframe got bent as it hit the ground after bouncing off of my bike and all the fairings are busted up. He only had liability so he's screwed. And the ******* had the nerve to tell the insurance company that Mark was riding erratically the whole time, speeding up and slowing down, and seemed like he didn't have any control of his bike. We were all riding like that actually, speeding up on straights and slowing down for turns. None of that had anything to do with him looking at everything BUT the 2 bikes signaling a left turn in front him and brushing by Mark doing some sort of wild endo before nailing me as I completed the turn.

Sorry this is a long post. I'll put some pics up later. Anyone have any knowledge of insurance companies totaling bikes and buying them back cheap?

 

Wrecked my 00 Hawk a couple months ago when a kid pulled out in front of me. Mostly cosmetic except the broken clutch and wrecked exhaust. Total damages were $2843.00...book value was $4435.00. State Farm declared it a total loss and paid the entire $4435.00 and I bought it back from them for $900. Because the damages did not exceed the actual cash value, it still retains the original (not salvage) title. I should get it back from the shop in the next couple days...after that, I need to take the bike to State Farm so they can assess the value for insurance purposes. State Farm has always treated me right and I was pretty happy about how all this worked out. I had to pay the $500 deductable, however, I should get that back after San Antonio PD does the hit and run investigation and State Farm recoups the damages from the kid (who fled the scene). Hope your situation works out as well!

 

My insurance company totaled my bike and cut me a check. I purchased it back from them for just under a grand.

Sorry to hear about your two accidents. Were the other riders not paying attention?

 

Sorry to hear you got crashed bro Buy it back from Ins co. cuz they don't know what to do with it anyway!

You gotta keep riders with lesser ability in front of you and even then if you find you can't predict most of their moves you shouldn't ride with them at all

 

Funny thing is I had been riding behind him all day. At some point he let me by which I was okay with cause he wasn't quite keeping up with the group and I thought I had his skills felt out pretty well. He wasn't a dare devil and was riding with some sense. I don't know what caused him to miss 2 bikes with turn signals and hand signals not to mention the other 4 bikes that had just turned down this road and he really doesn't remember what happened either.

So I think I'm in the market for a RC51. That way I will stay way ahead of the daydreaming idiots.

 

Go for it bro! Here's one right up there in Va:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2001-...QQcmdZViewItem

Then you could smoke all those morons

 

Damn man... glad you were not hurt worse.

That's the thing w/ group rides... it's like a box of chocolates.

Been doing some group rides the past couple weeks around Richmond. Several times people came flying up on my rear closer than I like. And I came up behind someone else faster than I expected when he braked heavily for a couple of oncoming SUVs passing a group of bicyclists. Even when you have good spacing, it only takes second to catch up with someone braking in front of you.

Anyway, I like my space & will wave a tailgater on by. I used to get all wound up about this stuff, but now I just let 'em go on by if I don't feel like trying to lose them.

 

That's why I don't do group rides with more than 2 or 3 guys and they have to be guys I know well. When I first read your account of the accident I though that surely you must have been at fault in some way, but after re-reading it I don't think so. Yeah, it could have been much worse.
I did almost rear end a buddy of mine ten or so years ago when he braked early and hard for a corner I knew we could have gone through about 15-20 mph faster; I just didn't expect him to slow down that much and it almost caught me out.

 

Talked to the insurance adjuster today...bike is totaled (although there is absolutely nothing wrong with it mechanically) and I can buy it back for $1100. I figure it will cost about $500 to make it look good again. The rest of the money is goin in da bank! Pics of the horrific crash are on myspace under bikes. The damage is kinda hard to see cause its mostly light rash and the frame slider took a lot of it.

http://www.myspace.com/larkinw