Mown down (reversed into)

[Bill C]

just had a woman in a land rover reverse into me on the xTc fillet brazed
i have her name, reg No, address and also details of her insurace company
i'm O.K bit of a bash on the leg, but the bike is looking very poorly, i'll upload pics later when i can use my son's pc

need a bit of advice, any one claimed against a car driver and won? how did you go about it
any suggestions on replacement forks? as the paint on the back of one of the legs has cracked in a few places, so they must of been bent
front wheels is trashed, doubt it can be straightend, mudguard folded and the bars left a dent in her back door so i reckon they will need replacing

I'll have to go down the Police station later and report it

if only i'd had a bike cam

[John Saxby]

Ah, jeez, Bill -- good luck.  I can only hope that she has the integrity to admit her mistake.

[Danneaux]

Oh, Bill...! So very sorry this has happened to you and both you and the bike were hurt.

Awful stuff. Wishing you fully well and healed from the leg bashing soonest and hopefully the same for the bike.

Please keep us updated on events and progress.

All the best,

Dan.

[jags]

Bill claim new bike with top of the range parts I guarantee u it willbe settled out of court.its how solicitor s operate seen it first hand.guy I know was knocked down on his 150 euro bike heended upgetting top of the range colnago and a fair fw grand in his arse pocket.

[geocycle]

Sorry to hear that and hope you recover quickly.  I'm pleased the woman in the landrover gave you her insurance details which suggests she will do the right thing (she didn't have a head scarf and a load of corgis with her did she??). 

These are the solicitors the CTC use https://www.slatergordon.co.uk/personal-injury/cycling/what-to-do-in-the-event-of-an-accident/

[Matt2matt2002]

Sorry to hear the news.
I required new forks for my Raven last year.
Damaged on an airline flight.
Ridable but I wanted to be safe.

SJS very helpful indeed.
Correct one was not listed on their computer stock list but they tracked one down out back and it was sent ASAP.
Only £90 as I recall. Cheap for such a vital part.

No experience of court cases against drivers.
Best of luck.
Matt

[Bill C]

Hi All
things aren't as bad as i first thought,
the front wheel is ok, i had to carry the front end of the bike home as i couldn't turn the wheel so thought it must be knackered, turns out that the forks twisted and that jammed the front wheel
have been right over the frame and there is no apparent deformation to the tubes, pretty sure it would show up as it's nice and shiny and looking along the tubes the reflections in the paint are still smooth, if you get what i mean?
looks like just a new pair of forks and some paint, not sure about the bars hopefully they will be ok but i'll unwrap the tape and see if i can feel any distortion/bending as they are swaged so i'm a bit wary of trusting them without checking first
the mudguard isnt a problem as i bought a load of rear 50mm guards off ebay a while ago so i just need to cut another down to fit

i have seen some forks that look like they will work so hopefully it will be all fixed without too much cost
I just want me bike back asap 

atb Bill

[martinf]

I'd replace the aluminium alloy handlebars as a precautionary measure.

I had a crash with one of my old Moultons several years ago (fork snapped due to bad brazing dating from the early 1960's). Bars took some of the impact, they looked OK but I scrapped them anyway.

If you've visually checked the frame, being steel it should be OK.

I had a car drive slowly into my bike at a roundabout, he just damaged the stainless steel rear mudguard on my old 650B bike. I made the driver fill out an accident form, mainly to try and make him take it seriously, but the repair cost me nothing as I had a spare. Driver in question didn't know the rules for roundabouts, quite common with older drivers here in France who are used to the "priority to the right rule" which used to apply for the majority of junctions.

[Andre Jute]

Sorry to hear about the incident, Bill. I hope you're okay.

[Pavel]

Dang, you are a better person than I about this as you seem calm and rational. I would not however go and try to do this the cheap way, given any other option, as it's possible that you will discover subtle damage down the road. Steel is tough, but still, the lady who was careless has insurance and here in the US they would be happy that you don't have serious personal injury (thank goodness) and a new Frame is of a low cost to them and high piece of mind to you. Don't use just eyeballs to gauge the damage, SJS Cycles or another bike shop of equal experience (Is there one?) should make that call.

I'm glad that there were no journalists at the scene.  The headline would probably read "Bicycle injures Land Land Rover while not moving out of the way. No helmet mounted on Bicycle. Cyclist only partially mangled, refusing to let go.". it would be pronounced to be a "Thorny Issue"

[Andre Jute]

Dang, you are a better person than I about this as you seem calm and rational. I would not however go and try to do this the cheap way, given any other option, as it's possible that you will discover subtle damage down the road. Steel is tough, but still, the lady who was careless has insurance and here in the US they would be happy that you don't have serious personal injury (thank goodness) and a new Frame is of a low cost to them and high piece of mind to you. Don't use just eyeballs to gauge the damage, SJS Cycles or another bike shop of equal experience (Is there one?) should make that call.

See, totally unrelated of course, "Dealing with the insurance company after a car crashes into your bike" at http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=12400.msg91823#msg91823 for an example of adding up the costs of all these uncertainties attendant upon riding a bike that has been assaulted by a motorcar and not properly vetted afterwards. For my "magnafluxer" you may substitute "SJS". Shipping the complete bike to SJS to have it stripped down and sent for painting, and afterwards having the bike returned to SJS for refitting the components and forwarding to Bill, may also be a costly fixing option to be presented to the insurance company.

It seems highly unlikely there could be another bike shop with much experience of Thorns, never mind more than SJS, the owners and makers of Thorn bicycles.