2016-12-08 - Rider Down, Stamford Street SE1 9NH 20:14, Velocio

Ah, that's all a relief then.

Cyclefit are going to have a look. I'll take it in soon. I've basically said that what I want is a strong outcome, to have full confidence in whatever I ride. I'd prefer that to be the Serotta, but if they can't declare it safe then they should declare it unsafe such that I can replace it with one that is safe, maybe a Seven.

David - let insurers do leg work.

I had my scooter stolen recently and they are validating the shit out of the claim and liasing with police.

n-1+1 good to hear.

The Serotta is dead.

Took it into Cyclefit and explained that my ideal was simply "replace bars and certify the bike is safe then have it serviced".

They asked me to describe the accident, so I went through the impact points from the collision and they took a look at the bike. It took them seconds to identify places of concern, and a couple of bits of external damage that when pressed revealed too flex and internal damage to the frame and fork.

Their initial advice is that at minimum I'd need to replace: frame (due to top tube), handlebars, stem, fork, levers. Then they would need to take a closer look at the wheels and would look at the rest too.

That's already enough that the whole bike should be written off and scrapped. The cost of replacing those parts is already the cost of a new bike.

The Serotta is dead.

RIP Serotta :(
Safer that way.

Yep - that's what they have to do in this situation.

Shame if you wanted to keep riding it. Not so bad if you do not.

(I was very surprised that my every day hack wasn't written off after a 20mph head on with a car, but given it was 520 steel and there was no evidence of ovalisation or crumpling a well renowned shop was happy to give it life yet. Still, got a new fork.)

Cool wall art though

Fuck 11 pages... you selfish git.

:P

Serotta is dead? Arse. Now you MUST track the driver down.

Vigilante Crew, activate.

And by that I mean, chase the cops, get the video, chase the cops more.

Being angry on Twitter at least means the police are now talking to me... even if it is just the communications centre and it's just Twitter DMs.

Oi, only just seen this - heal up quick David!

+1 only just seen, hope the po-po step up to serve some justice.

Police have emailed to say that they've emailed a different department to ask them to contact me.

On the flipside, Hiscox who I've been recommending for insurance for almost a decade now:

• 1st phone call 2 days ago to notify them that there may be a claim = "Thank you, that sounds awful, not a problem".
  
• 2nd phone call this morning to say I would definitely be claiming = "You're insured up to £9,500 as a maximum value of one bike, this will not be a problem, as soon as we have the report from your LBS we'll issue a cash payout".
  
  

I mean seriously... cash payout for a Serotta with no quibble at all. I'll only be claiming around £8k - £8.5k as this is £6k bike, £2k wheels, ~£500 in related minor costs incurred this last week.

I love this insurer.

Hiscox doing a sterling job of taking a really horrible situation that the police are only making worse, and turning it into a really positive experience.

"You're insured up to £9,500 as a maximum value of one bike

What's the annual cost of this, if you don't mind sharing?

It's a home contents policy, so it covers all contents. Any individual bike could never exceed 7.5% of the total policy, so the contents are insured for over £150k. I pay about £140 per month for this... but it covers the Robin Mather, Serotta, Thorn, Brother, Brompton... as well as tons of computing equipment, my wife's research library (several thousand expensive books) and so on.

It's not cheap, but we have expensive things... I originally chose Hiscox as they insure fine art and collector cars, and I wanted my bikes to be insured on a similar basis by an insurer that could comprehend custom build expensive bikes.

I tried to use Hiscox based on your recommendation previously, but they won't insure our house because of it's proximity to a river. Which is understandable, but the said river runs through our neighbours gardens in a concrete culvert. I explained this, and the fact that the last flooding incident was in 1959, but no dice.

/csb

Hah.

They originally argued that for our property, I had to emphasise that being on the 19th floor that if I ever made a claim on the basis of flooding by the river then we (global population) may have other things we'd be worrying about.

£140 per month

Oof.

I need to run some sums.

Living next to a Canal however doesn't seem to be a problem for them.

river ... in a concrete culvert

Any idea what distance qualifies as close? We have similar, 100m from the house.

What's the annual cost of this

140 per month
Oof.
I need to run some sums.

I think you just times it by 12.

It's 30 metres from our house.

400m is the distance they use.

Only just seen this, glad you are OK!

Going offtopic, but Bikmo use Hiscox as underwriter. I've got £9,500 worth of cover for £47 a month. Accidental, can leave unattended locked to hard point for 24hrs (We'll see how long it takes...) etc etc.
Contrast, my house contents is £25,000 and its £6 a month. Doesn't cover the bikes over £500 though... But there is a stream that runs 4m from the front door.

Edit: should have said I don't live in London either!