Look Twice for Bikes

The morning commute allows us to become complacent; it is too familiar and becoming distracted is easier with every day we travel to work on the same road as yesterday. Before you know it, someone has failed to look twice and you're hit with a force powerful enough to unseat you from your motorbike.

So the precise events of what happened are: I stopped to let someone out of a junction, she hesitated for long enough that traffic appeared in the oncoming lane, we both saw the oncoming car so I assumed she wouldn't pull out, I move off and I'm half way across the junction when the guy on the opposite lane flashes his lights. I think oh crap and I'm hit by the woman emerging from the side road. She didn't look right (the direction she was turning in), but fortunately was only just moving off and stopped instead of following through. There was a tremendous impact (okay it was a slow speed collision but it felt like being hit by a stampede of boulders) as I was flung from my bike. The ablative titanium ankle pad on my left boot snapped off somewhere, so did the side cover on the left side of my bike, and my right indicator as the bike went down somewhere to my right.

As I picked myself up from the road I was suddenly surrounded by people asking if I was all right. One guy, who gave me his name and number as a witness, was wearing slippers identical to mine. Despite everything that was going on around me, all I could think about was trying to remember where I had gotten those damned slippers from.

Then, as luck would have it, one of the guys from the J S Gedge garage pulled up (from the same side road junction) to help. He wrenched my brake lever and gear pedals back into road-worthy shape and we spoke briefly about what had happened. The other motorist was very apologetic and a little panicky (her first accident in nine years of driving apparently), she kept saying it was all her fault, that she was so sorry and if I was okay. I think the insurance will favour me since I had right of way but to be honest perhaps I should have just sat still when I saw the oncoming car in the opposite lane. I just didn't think he would stop to let her out as well.

Riding the bike back to the garage (very, very, carefully) I left it there for the day to have repairs done to it and an assessment of the damage (for insurance purposes etc.), I ordered my new bike and the lessons to go with it (theory test in February), and went to the hospital to get my aching foot looked at. I thought it would swell or bruise but this morning there are no outward signs of injury. I just get a dull ache if I put too much pressure on my left heel.

So I got out of that very fortunately. I haven't told my brother Sam because he will blab to my mum and she'll get sick with worry every time she hears a motorcycle engine. Also Sam is getting a CBR600RR which may well be the death of him if he doesn't learn to ride responsibly, and Marcos jumped on the band wagon by buying a GSR600 which, combined with his lack of 125cc experience and sometimes less-than-healthy attitude might be his undoing as well. But then perhaps I'm judging them both too harshly. I thought I was a safe rider (rarely filtering, keeping to the speed limit, riding defensively, etc.) and I got into an accident. Also, last night Marcos rang me up asking about 125cc motorbikes to practise on before he gets his big bike. So that shows maturity. The only thing is; would it be worth it for him to buy a 125cc bike only to have to sell it a few months later when he has passed his full licence?

At this rate though, there will be a formidable motorcycle gang in the making. A CBF600 (Adam), a CBF600 Hornet (Richard), a CBR600RR (Sam), a GSR600 (Marcos), and my Versys. I think it will take a long time for Nick to get the bike he wants, it would probably be better for him to save for a 250cc first rather than the 800cc beast he dreams of, that way he will be able to keep up with everyone else instead of being left behind. But he is adamant on getting nothing but the Triumph Bonneville so I suppose we won't change his mind any time soon.