Nice sunny afternoon, done work nice and early. I thought I'll just take a ride up and see mum (any excuse to go for a ride). Sit through the Spanish inquisition for a bit (How's Jen, How's work etc, etc, etc..........).
Start back for home (you can guess what's coming).
WHAM! The bike and I are skidding down the road, the bike is on top of me and I getting rather worried. We come to a stop and I hear a car screeching off around the corner. (Fu*ker, isn't sticking around, A**hole!)
The car that hit me was stopped on the right hand (nearside) curb, dropped off a passenger and turned left into me without looking, then fled the scene. The bonehead lost his front bumper and licence plate after hitting me so it wasn't too tough to get an ID in the vehicle.
I was able to pick myself up and was thankful that the panniers, as bad as they are, had kept the bike off of me for the most part. What surprised me was the number of people that had heard the crash and came out to help, I don't know how many people offered me water etc. while I was collecting myself. Thankfully a woman driving behind me saw the car hit me, she called the police and gave a statement when they arrived. The driver of the car came back after about 15 min. he was given a bollocking by the police and charged with failure to remain at the scene of an accident right there.
On the plus side I was doing a little less than 40kph (25mph) at the time, the textile trousers, jacket, boots, gloves helmet etc, did their job, but they all have to be replaced. Just a few aches and grazes but nothing too severe.
It looks as if my riding is done for this year, the bike will require a bit of repair if it isn't written off, mostly cosmetic but it wouldn't steer in a straight line when the tow truck arrived, both rider footpegs had snapped off as well as the clutch lever.
A few pictures from my Blackberry:
bike where it ended up on the opposite side of the road facing the wrong way.
upright again, you can see the silver paint on the black part of the exhaust and the smashed pannier where the car hit.
you can just see the scratches in the road where I first hit the tarmac.
The car was stopped just behind where the silver Ford focus is and turned into the road on the right of the picture.
If you're going to leave the scene of an accident this isn't the best thing to leave behind!
The insurance adjuster is going to contact me of Monday so no
for a bit, just a little :limp:
