Moral Dilemma

ok so last night im coming home and some guy ploughs into the side of me sending me flying, and absolutely raped my forks but the rest of the bike seems to have survived, he immediately stops rushes over to see if im ok and offers to pay for damages, now the dilemma is should i get stuff that is equivalent to what i had or should i get something a little bit better for my troubles?

wait a few days and make sure your ok, last thing you want is a hidden injury coming up, or to find a dent in the frame.

you are entitled to value of parts and cloths damaged, and some money for pain and suffering. if this guy is paying out of pocket then let him off and just get the parts replaced he is doing good by you, you do good by him innit

if his insurance is paying, you will probably get new for old and go for the cloths and pain money. didnt you have this same problem with a phone or was that some one else?

nah not me, i dont seem to have injuries but i get what your saying

muscle damage can take a few days to turn up, and that can be serious, get any knee, back or neck pain checked out, they can be potentially serious.

He's been a helluva lot nicer than most would be, don't take advantage. Stinging him with huge bills for bling parts will mean he's less likely to do the same if it were to happen again.

...I would never do such a thing ...Ma3k, Build shut your pie holes! ;)

Best to get these things checked out, maybe put it into your LBS to get the frame checked for integrity/alignment, and why not embellish a little on the forks as your going to be public transport for a while, I mean you could be asking for the cost of transport untill the bike gets fixed, new forks as well as the cost to get the bike checked out not to mention if you wanted to try your luck with "Cash for Injurys for you .com"

So he would prob be happy to pay out for a pair of nice forks if you said that to him.
Also I would report it just in case he tries to be funny. Incident numbers make things a bit more official.

definitely wait to see if any injuries to yourself or damage to your bike make themselves known in a day or so. if everything is gravy, then i'd replace like for like. i wouldn't upgrade or anything. i know it sucks to get hit, but the driver seemed apologetic and wanted to make amends quite quickly.

yeh i went to my lbs and they said 35 for new forks (standard steel road ones) and the frame appears undamaged i already got an incident report from the police listing his details my details etc so if he tries to back out it'll be a big old court fest, frame hasent even got a dent tho
p.s i dident mean getting bling parts like dura ace or anything just a little bit better to compensate for the minor injuries and depressing lack of bike i have to suffer til its sorted

hmm, lets see when the driver gets a quote for £85 for new forks + fitting and then decides maybe he wasn't in the wrong. I had a guy who was all apologetic and wanted to pay but as soon as tried to sent a quote to his "address" it got returned, lucky he had the website of his company on his car which I photographed.

Not to sound pessimistic, but report it get an incident number, and get it repaired how you want it repaired don't just settle for replacement forks, get the rest of the bike checked out. Some people are saying go easy as next time he hits someone he will be honest and pay up ..lets hope he gets a shock at how much a bump in a bike can cost ..AND TRY NOT HIT SOMEONE AGAIN! I know accidents happen but there are a high number of people that think "oh well if i hit him ill slip him £20 quid to buy a new bike."

...I need tea

hael: i don't know if i'm just in an unusually good mood, but i don't think drivers (except if they're psycho) TRY to hit cyclists. i'm just in the mindset that fairness should be on both sides: cyclist and driver.

ratboy: i know you didn't mean kit out your bike with DA or stuff. i suppose compensation to the extent of you being without a bike is something that only you can judge. in any case, i'm glad that you're okay after the accident. that's the important part.

thanks for the concern but i seem to be a master of falling down/being hit without taking (major) damage, although i feel a bit disillusioned at the thought that i could easily have died. I'll get over it and be back on the bike asap tho :)

I hear what your saying. But how many times have you had to swerve/skid heavily because some driver tried to pass you and the vehicle infront in the next lane brakes and instead of the overtaking driver slowing down or being patient has just pushed on through almost making you stack it by hitting the curb, they wouldn't try that if it was another vehicle probably because in the back of their mind there thinking "if i hit another vehicle = money" , and when you ask them at the next set of lights if they think they could have got any closer you get the answer "fuck off you cyclist cunt"
My experience has been drivers will take more risks round cyclists than they would round another vehicle. Is it the drivers brain assessing the situation and deeming one to be less of a risk than the other? am I being unfair? ..maybe, but thats just my opinion, fairness should be on both sides you are right there unfortunately I only see one sided drivers who think they have more right to the road than you do.

Maybe your in a good mood today and I'm in a bad one ;)