my fz6 v's mountain bike

[SilentG]

hi guys
out for a leisurely ride today, lovely day and all that. anyway, riding down a road when a young lad on a mountain bike decided to walk out in front of me. anyway, no chance i could stop so ended up whacking the kid up in the air then proceeded to slide for about 30 meters down the road. kid just got up and hobbled off before i could get his name address etc.
i have 2 witnesses to prove it was no fault of my own which is good, also one of the witnesses knows where the kid lives.. BONUS!!! so after reporting it to the police at the local station they took all the details and said as no police officers attended the accident (typical or what!) i would receive a call as to when they will visit me for full details.
having slowly managing to get my baby back home a little crippled. handlebars bent, clutch lever snapped, huge great dent in petrol tank, dent to the frame and minor scratches here and there. i called the insurance brokers (bennetts) to which they were to pass on my details to the actual insurance company (equity red star). received a call from the recovery guys and am waiting for them to pick up my baby. obviously concerned about the well being of my bike i asked what the deal was with coverage for the bike to get tip top again, was actually told that i would have to pay the full excess on the repairs even though the accident was no fault of my own. oh yes, im fully comp and have 5 years no claims bonus. which i was told i would possibly lose regardless of fault!!!

can anyone give me any indication of if i get the excess back and if so how do i go about this. or does the insurance company sort it all out? im at a loss as i have been lucky in the past not to have anything like this happen to me.
thank god.

cheers guys

[08fz6]

let me get this right. You have to pay for the repairs and your gonna loose your perfect status.... Sounds like time to sue the insurance company.....

[Davey]

Well, it's not a legal requirement for cyclists to have insurance, so you can't claim anywhere else! It's generally known that if you claim from your own insurance you have the excess to pay, and will obviously lose your no claims bonus as you are making a claim.

If the police attended the accident, took witness statements and then did their job of finding the kid, interviewing him and then him admitting it, you might be able to use the evidence to make a civil claim against him for causing the accident at the small claims court.

It's always crap if a cyclist or pedestrian causes an accident and damage to your vehicle as you can only really go through this route which is long, drawn out and a little expensive. If you didn't have fully comprehensive insurance you'd be completely screwed!

My advice would be to look at the cost of the repairs, and calculate if it is less than the increase in your premium you will have next year (get a couple of theoretical quotes based on having made a claim). If it's cheaper to repair it yourself - don't make a claim!

[Kazza]

Yep, the bicycle isn't insured, so it's down to your insurance.

Not fair, but the way of the world these days

Only thing you can do is for the insurance company to maybe take him to court to recover costs - from him if he's over 18 and his parents if under 18.

[macem29]

Originally Posted by 08fz6

let me get this right. You have to pay for the repairs and your gonna loose your perfect status.... Sounds like time to sue the insurance company.....

I believe when the OP says he has to pay the excess, he's referring to
the deductible, and if he follows through with the insurance route, he'll
lose his claims free status....sucks when there's no other insurance Co
to get involved

hard to believe the kid got up and ran away after reading about the
extensive damage to your bike

and I agree with the comment about looking to fund repairs yourself,
it may make sense to save your claim for a big one (hopefully not needed)

[Davey]

How old was the kid? If he was quite young, maybe you can understand why he ran off - if he was scared or thought he'd be in trouble or whatever. If he's young maybe go and see his parents or something (after any police involvement - don't go harassing them or anything!).

If he's over 18 and you really want to try to get your money back (sometimes it's all about the principle right?), do as Kazza and I suggested - civil action in a small claims court.

Do a proper job of hitting him next time so he can't run away

[Yammi Dodger]

Originally Posted by SilentG

hi guys
out for a leisurely ride today, lovely day and all that. anyway, riding down a road when a young lad on a mountain bike decided to walk out in front of me. anyway, no chance i could stop so ended up whacking the kid up in the air then proceeded to slide for about 30 meters down the road. kid just got up and hobbled off before i could get his name address etc.
i have 2 witnesses to prove it was no fault of my own which is good, also one of the witnesses knows where the kid lives.. BONUS!!! so after reporting it to the police at the local station they took all the details and said as no police officers attended the accident (typical or what!) i would receive a call as to when they will visit me for full details.
having slowly managing to get my baby back home a little crippled. handlebars bent, clutch lever snapped, huge great dent in petrol tank, dent to the frame and minor scratches here and there. i called the insurance brokers (bennetts) to which they were to pass on my details to the actual insurance company (equity red star). received a call from the recovery guys and am waiting for them to pick up my baby. obviously concerned about the well being of my bike i asked what the deal was with coverage for the bike to get tip top again, was actually told that i would have to pay the full excess on the repairs even though the accident was no fault of my own. oh yes, im fully comp and have 5 years no claims bonus. which i was told i would possibly lose regardless of fault!!!

can anyone give me any indication of if i get the excess back and if so how do i go about this. or does the insurance company sort it all out? im at a loss as i have been lucky in the past not to have anything like this happen to me.
thank god.

cheers guys

You seem to have joined the same club as me Did not claim off my insurance in the end wanted me to pay the access and could not guarantee that it would not go up next time. glad you are OK though.

http://www.fz6-forum.com/forum/uk/30...insurance.html (Warning...Insurance)

[spine]

bloody hell. not good.

Excess you have to pay out in any claim and you wont get that back. And like the other posters have said, you claim - you loose your NCB. Its only worth claiming if you've totalled your bike or it's thousands of pounds worth of damage.
Its crap. Welcome to Britain: where the victim is screwed over by the system.

[SilentG]

4 days later and still waiting for the police to contact me guys, pfft. I understand where some of you are coming from with getting the work done myself which will probably cost more than my excess anyway. I priced up a tank alone and a new one is upwards of £400!!!!
Im currently with Bennets as the broker and my actual insurance company is a firm called Equity Red Star based in london.
After scanning through my policy the news doesn't look too bad as far as my NCB is concerned. Having 5 years NCB i will get bumped down to 3 years following this claim, which aint as bad as i originally thought.
Anyway, I have decided I am going the claim route. Equity Red Star have their own repairers called 4th Dimension also based in Heathrow,London who are picking my baby up on Monday and scooting her back down to Heathrow for assessment. As I have never had an accident on this bike (just off roading is the others )and never had to get extensive repairs done I am a little concerned about the overall repairs that will in fact get done. As I said in my original post it's pretty much the whole left side of my bike, tank, engine casing, minor scrapes to plastics, handlebars, clutch and a couple of deep scrapes to the front wheel I 've noticed weren't there before etc but my one worry is the frame as there is a bit of a dent just under the tank where it no doubt kissed the floor. Although I did ride her back I'm unsure if anything internal is damaged.
As for the kid he was barely in his mid teens, if I had to hazard a guess I'd say 14-15, big lad though it has to be said. Yeh I'm sure he was a bit scared and figured he was in trouble. Never know he might have more injuries than first imagined. The f**ker would've had if I could have hobbled my ass over and grabbed him hahaha. Davey I like your style I'll try harder next time buddy. One of my witnesses knows the kid and lives around the corner from him apparently but I will wait and see what the police say when they finally arrive! One saving grace is I am in the process of sorting myself out enough money to upgrade to the daddy version, FZ1 w00t w00t.

p.s as I was checked over by the paramedics the same day I had lots of bruising down my left side which came up straight away, they are pearlers now! But when my shoulder smacked the curb which brought me to a halt I might have cracked something in there as I still can't move the damn thing right I think an xray is in order now

[macem29]

reading this newer post and it appears it was you and the bike went
sliding 30 metres...first read it sounded like it was the kid did the
sliding....now I understand the extensive damage...good luck man,
heal up fast and get riding again soon