Hit by blind driver

[ramseybella]

Damn the driver - he's taken down a legendary tiger and rider!

Let's hope you and the bike recover well.

Annoying that the driver's not man enough to take responsibility for the accident.  Maybe when he's walking about (and vulnerable) you should run him over and refute any blame.  See how he likes it!

Well, thanks.:) I believe the bike will survive this. It´s built like a tank and the speed I had when I hit him must have been only about 30-35 km/h. Nothing much for a Steamer... :twisted:

A fellow biker volunteered to hold the blind one while I borrowed his bat and.....
Nah, leave it to justice...

Another issue is the salvation company. When I came to the compund, Rocinante was lying on its side in the gravel. Seeing it from the outside I was sure she was history. But when I was locked inside I saw they hadn´t bothered using the side stand, they just flung her off the tow truck.  

I lifted her up (with my wife´s help, my left shoulder wasn´t any good), and saw that on the left side the side panel was ground down where it must have been resting on the tow truck. It was probably not strapped down much, if at all, which must have let the bike move against the surface.

I´m quite sure the driver had already written the bike off as non-salvagable(the police took the license plate on the spot, not sure why), and didn´t care about it. When I talked to the office personell and repeated several times that this bike was to be salvaged, they finally agreed to put it in a locked container until the insurance matter was settled. That´s where it is now.

Nobody called me after the accident, not the police, not the driver, not the insurance company. I found the bike by guessing where it was, and saved it from being binned by being a pain in the ass. I just don´t understand or like that.

Dag

Man I know what you mean some Towers don't have a clue when it comes to your bike, just another Trashed Insurance write off to them fringing Animals.

Glade U are OK and keep us posted on this Loosers fine so he can pay to get your Cat back up to speed.

Getting rear ended is always on my mind at stop lights and intersections hate driving in town. :shock:

[WVdyhrd]

Thank god for agatt!!!! And for your limitied injuries


Cant believe the original op's opponent is claiming non-liability. In my experience it's like re-ending someone. Regardless of speed, if you cut across traffic it's at your own peril, if you misjudge and anyone hits you that is your fault!

Dumb@ss cagers

Remember
"I didn't see him" is not an excuse for manslaughter!

[Rocinante]

Thank god for agatt!!!! And for your limitied injuries


Cant believe the original op's opponent is claiming non-liability. In my experience it's like re-ending someone. Regardless of speed, if you cut across traffic it's at your own peril, if you misjudge and anyone hits you that is your fault!

Dumb@ss cagers

Remember
"I didn't see him" is not an excuse for manslaughter!

Aha, a little search revealed what agatt was. I cannot say I live by it though.
I had been on a day´s ride and was about 3 minutes from home and dinner with red wine when this happened, and was wearing everything including the spine protector (don´t know the name in english).
I don´t normally do that if I´m in town for a short ride, but I´ll probably wear more from now on.

The main saver in this particular instance was the helmet, naturally. But as a good number two was the shoulder padding. Even though I almost (me think) broke the shoulder or collar bone, there was no particular mark on the skin, which leaves me to think the padding distributed the hit just the way it was intended.

My shoulder is a lot better now, but still hurts, especially in the morning. I still have a week left of my vacation and hope to be back in shape by next weekend when I´ll start working again. I depend on a good shoulder when doing my work as a photographer.

Dag

[harre]

Glad that you're OK Dag. Really good news actually, but I'm sorry that Rocinante was abused.

The main saver in this particular instance was the helmet

Perhaps it was actually your speed that saved you. The fact that you're here to tell us your story is that you adjusted your speed to the situation letting you use the brakes.
We have a saying that all cars are Moose, quite unpredictable. Whatever happens to Rocinante, things could have been much worse. I hope you will be back in the saddle again when healed, but your family may have a different opinion.
New Tigers are coming soon, maybe this is a sign that you have to upgrade...

[Sin_Tiger]

Really sorry to read about that but glad you survived as you did and still can take a rational and balanced view of events.

It's more painful knowing that you take as much care as you do and still get caught out.

Sounds like an excuse to do some major farkling while you heal  :D I like the look of the "Dakar" screen, been rooting around in the local accessory shop at a few but not being on the road yet haven't had a chance to try them out, let us know if you find an off the shelf one that does the job.

[Rocinante]

Thanks again folks for the sympathy. I´ve finally been interrogated by the police and they still seem very convinced of where the blame should be placed. Nice to hear.

Really sorry to read about that but glad you survived as you did and still can take a rational and balanced view of events.

It's more painful knowing that you take as much care as you do and still get caught out.

Sounds like an excuse to do some major farkling while you heal  :D I like the look of the "Dakar" screen, been rooting around in the local accessory shop at a few but not being on the road yet haven't had a chance to try them out, let us know if you find an off the shelf one that does the job.

If the insurance company pays up, I´ll farkle Rocinante a bit yes. I´ll make that screen myself from a plexi glass or plastic. Advice is appreciated. But I think it should be quite easy, since the screen will be straight - looking at it sideways, and with two bends which narrows somewhat towards the top. I´ll use two of the fairing bolts on each side pluss two bolts through the screen hooked up to the gps holding frame, which is another add-on. I will try to make a slight horizontal curvature on it, to fit in better in with the curvature on the rest  of the original front fairing.

Don´t know if that made a lot if sense, though, but photos will follow when I´m done.

Other farkles: I´m thinking about swapping the slightly damaged instruments with a rally instrument from either Touratech:
http://shop.touratech.se/SE/Catalog/instrumentering/imo_farddatorer/01-012-0011-0.html
or Motobau:
http://www.motobau.de/cat-equip/rallye/sixo/main.html

Not that I plan to ride rallies, but I like all the options and info they have.

And a new GPS maybe, but I still haven´t seen the ideal gravel gps, so I´ll stick to my Garmin 60csx for a while I think.
Btw, the ideal gravel gps should be easy to make for Garmin, all they need to do is to get the option of searching up gravel roads on their new routable topographic maps and there you go. The info is there but the option´s not.

But all that depends on whether poor locked away Rocinante is in good enough shape to be salvaged. I´m in a cabin down south on the coast for the rest of this week, and next week when the holiday´s over and Norway comes back to life,  I hope to get more answers. But I will do a lot to save Rocinante. She´s been with me for so long.

Dag

[Sin_Tiger]

I saw a unit that was basically a seven inch waterproofed touch screen mounted on a box with solid state memory processor that ran open source software and more or less allowed you to switch between several displays, including GPS and with some of the free mapping stuff around that might fulfill several needs.

Unfortunately it was one of those 100 links later really cool geek sites that I came across just as I was about to leave the office and forgot to save it, my history auto clears  :roll: and I have never found it again  :(

Norway really shuts down during your summer holidays, I have pretty much given up hope of getting any answers out of Bergen during that period  

[Rocinante]

I saw a unit that was basically a seven inch waterproofed touch screen mounted on a box with solid state memory processor that ran open source software and more or less allowed you to switch between several displays, including GPS and with some of the free mapping stuff around that might fulfill several needs.

I know Touratech has a touch screen Windows XP based thingy going for around 4500-5000 Euro. Not in my ballpark or my cup of tea though.

The more I read about the Sixo, the sweater it sounds. It´s basically an open source instrument which has been and still is being developed by contributors around Germany. This might mean that there will be several different firmware versions for it, some directed towards racing, some towards touring, etc.

It´s accompanied by a application where you through some minor programming skills will be able to customize it for your own need and wishes.

The downside is that all the forums and most of the documentation is in German.

Sounds like the ultimate farkle to me though, and to be honest, it sounds a bit dangerous. Combined with the GPS there could be too many things to play around with while driving.

But I´m very tempted...

[Rocinante]

An update on this issue:

Insurance company seems convinced as well of who´s to blame, so that matter goes my way.

Rocinante was inspected yesterday and will be wrecked. This is actually good news, and "wrecked" is only an insurance term, ie the repair costs are higher than the bike´s value. I´ll get the listed value for the bike and the bike itself.

The actual damages are great if you look at paint, but who does... The front needs serious repair though but I still think forks and frame are good. Even if not, I can at least get forks quite cheap on ebay.

As for me, I still have a bad shoulder, but it´s improving. The doctor says there might be a compilation which will delay healing, but time will show.

It seems I have caught another problem too, something to do with crystals in my ears. I always suspected something was loose in my top section, and now it´s confirmed. This causes nausea and dizziness on a level I´ve only heard of before. But I hope and believe that it will go away over time.

I plan to pick up the bike today or tomorrow. It´ll be good to have it back in the garage.

[Rocinante]

Just another follow up, for those interested.

I rode Rocinante just now. :D  :D

After pulling the bent front subframe back, swapping the bent clutch lever with a spare I carried through North- and South America ten years ago and bending back the shifter, I took her for a short spin.

And wow, she runs like allways. Not at low revs though, but the battery´s dead after a night on it´s side, so maybe that´s the reason.
The instruments are at a big leftish angle, but that´s minor. I can see the crack where it gave in, and it looks straight forward to repair.
The front light assembly is bent and cracked. I may buy a used at some stage, but it works for now.

Anything else I should look for since she´s been lying on her left side for about 16 hours?

As for the insurance, she´s more brused and abused than any bike I´ve seen I think, so it´s fine with me that they pay up big. I was actually thinking about a paint job at some stage, so now I might go through with that.

The work that remains to get her up and running good, is to straighten the front subframe back into position, maybe strengthen it a bit at the break point, get a new battery and make a new rally screen.

Who knows, if I heal up myself I might be able to make the OTC meeting next week after all....  :)

Dag

[BruKen]

Good news indeed. I would go over the front subsection with a fine toothcomb searching for fractures in the metals before investing too much time in repairs though and if so get it repaired by specialists. That is one part of the bike that really can't afford to have any potential defects.
Hope your shoulder mends quickly. That's two blokes here with dodgy shoulders. You are in good company :D

[Bob Tosi]

Glad you are OK and good luck with the case and the repairs.

[Rocinante]

Anyone wan´t to comment on my question about things to look for after the bike spent 16 hours lying down on the left side?

As mentioned it does run poor on low rev, but fires away like before when I open the throttle.

Doesn´t that sound like carbs (of which I know very little), maybe a stuck somethingy?

On another issue, here´s the mock up of the new rally screen. It will be shaped amd made tomorrow at a workshop nearby.

[Bob Tosi]

Cant say about the running problems, maybe the slides are stuck somewhat.  I was hit once and some weird things broke.

What material are you using for the rally screen?  Looks good.

[Mustang]

As mentioned it does run poor on low rev, but fires away like before when I open the throttle.

Doesn´t that sound like carbs (of which I know very little), maybe a stuck somethingy?

possible the air filter sucked up some oil ......gas in crankcase ..............stuck float maybe .  Just some thoughts that might cause poor low rpm running