Forum Rider Down and/or notification of minor incidents

This thread is for you to post about minor incidents involving either forum members or yourselves.
It is categorically not for people who have fallen off their bike owing to stupidity or alcohol usage.

If you were involved in a serious incident which required the emergency services please refer to the Rider Down User's Guide as to whether you should start a separate thread. If in doubt use this thread.

It should go without saying but keep it on topic.
Any off topic comments will be deleted, that includes the little anecdotes people think may be amusing.
For the record, they make you heartless, not humorous.

Go on then...

Was struck head on last night by a BMW in Glasgow. All slow speed stuff, but still not pleasant. Details are fairly tedious, but I've got a statement from a lovely witness in the car behind who saw me moving off with the green light at a crossroads, only to be hit by a car crossing the junction and turning into my road.

The 'bent has survived relatively unscathed. There's a definite benefit to being directly in line with the point of impact and having that point be your feet, rather than being pitched over the front wheel for some bonnet/face interaction. Few more details here.

Hit a speed bump too fast last night, which resulted in the front wheel exploding and me going down at around 25 mph. Landed on my head / shoulder and the docs reckon its a broken scapula. Bloody hurts today, but I am REALLY glad I was wearing a solid helmet:

Shiiiiiiiit man. Hope you're ok.

Cheers dude. Got some super strength painkillers which are keeping me entertained. Going back on Wednesday for another x ray. Right before all the nice riding weather as well!

Faaack! Fix up soon fella! Was good to see you last night, whilst you were all in one piece!

I'm buying a lid.

Wac htfu

Cycling down Tooting High Street this afternoon in the lovely, shiny, blue CycleSuperHighway (littered with parked cars as usual).
Stationary traffic to my right as is also the usual case.

A car turned through a gap in the stationary traffic from the oncoming lane and unfortunately drove through me in the process.
Thankfully I just saw her coming in time to control my fall on to her bonnet and only had a mild bounce along the road.
I had a helmet on and suffered no injuries at all, not even a bruise or a graze.

Alas, the same can not be said for my poor Geekhouse.
My front rim is completely destroyed, as is the hub I think.
The forks and frame seem fine, but obviously I need to get this checked out.

I have the driver's details and told her that I expect her to pay for the damage to my bike but I'm not interested in being an arse and making a claim on her insurance or anything like that, but it's a pretty expensive bike she decided to drive through and I feel she should pay.
She disputed liability as "you were going too fast and not looking where you were going. The other driver waved me through. I had the right of way".
All of this is complete bullshit to my mind.

Can anyone suggest where would be good to get the frame/fork checked out for alignment?
I'm based in South London so local would be better.

I took pictures at the scene, got her contact details, car registration etc.
Anything else I should have done?
I've not contacted the police as I was uninjured - should I call them?

Behold my poor bike:

Defo call police to report the crash. You should follow the instructions in the "what to do incase of accident" thread on here, as best you now can seeing as the moment has passed.

Don't get sucked in to not claiming on her insurance. That way lies problems - she'll bottle out on you and you'll get nothing. She's 100% in the wrong. Crossing a lane of traffic unsighted at such a pace as to be unable to stop is reckless and dangerous and the responsibility for her car impacting with you is all hers.

I just spoke to the police and they recommended I fill out a Form 206 for reporting damage only.
Seemingly a full formal report isn't needed as there were no injuries.

Just looking at the above photos, I've only now realised that she drove 2-3m through me to get to where the car stopped.
Lucky escape.

If she's disputing liability, the police and a formal claim is the only way. In which case, getting witnesses to give contact details would have been a good idea.

You had right of way, she's obliged to look and give way. Simple as that

Get a lawyer involved; if you have an internet search for these kinds of incidents you might be surprised, and disappointed, at what you find.

Hit a speed bump too fast last night, which resulted in the front wheel exploding and me going down at around 25 mph. Landed on my head / shoulder and the docs reckon its a broken scapula. Bloody hurts today, but I am REALLY glad I was wearing a solid helmet:

I had a similar fall doing over 20mph when trying to swerve out of a kerbed cycle path when some prick on a phone walked in my way. I landed on my shoulder and head, no helmet.

My shoulder was the worst injury. I have a lot of scar tissue built up around my scapula area. I get a lot of neck pain and migraines as a result. You should look into physio to help stop scar tissue formation. I've been to Chiropractors and Osteopaths and they're an expensive waste of time.

Couldn't the driver's lawyer argue that the rider was filtering stationary traffic on the inside (that's the reality of most of the CS7) and failed to slow down when a car left a gap to let oncoming traffic turn? I.e. shared responsability ?
I'm not excusing the driver BTW and wish your claim to be successful.

.

Couldn't the driver's lawyer argue that the rider was filtering stationary traffic on the inside (that's the reality of most of the CS7) and failed to slow down when a car left a gap to let oncoming traffic turn? I.e. shared responsability ?
I'm not excusing the driver BTW and wish your claim to be successful.

I really don't see how riding in a bike lane to the left of stationary traffic makes me in any way liable.
Perhaps, if I had cycled into the side of her car then it could be argued that I should have been able to stop, but she drove into my right side.

I really don't see why you shouldn't go through her insurance - that's one of the things it's there for at a base level, to protect people who suffer from the driver's idiocy, and that's the reason it's so expensive.

She's the one being an arse if she's trying to shirk responsibility for it. The pictures alone show who's at fault.

The other car waving her through has no impact on the liability. She chose to cross your lane of traffic so it's her fault. Do what everyone else has said above me, and be ultra careful in future. I've had so many close calls in the same situation.

Also, have you thought about getting a more colourful or eye-catching bike? Perhaps part of the problem was the dull monochrome paint causing you to blend in to the surroundings?

She disputed liability

Get a lawyer involved.
This.

In buckets.

Talk to the LCC / check with your home insurance to see if you are covered.

Approximately the same thing happened to my mother yesterday, apart from that she was in her car.

Which is now written off, but anyway- the chap who swung into her lane, into her car, claims that "you should have slowed down innit, it's your fault", and tried to get witnesses at the scene to that effect.

I've advised her to speak to the police about it, as neither of them did so at the scene.

TW2- want those cranks?

I'm taking driving lessons at the moment and one of the things the instructor is drilling in to me is that you should not do anything which causes another driver to stop, slow or swerve in response.
Hence the other driver's a dick.
Incidents should always go via the insurance company - if someone drives badly, make them pay for it in the form of higher premiums. The only real deterrences to poor driving are insurance cost, time lost dealing with incidents and the risk of prosecution. If it wasn't for those three, human nature being what it is, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near a road. Even with those three, there are still enough dicks out there to make things dangerous at times.