While heading home yesterday, I approached a T-junction from the “South” and stopped to let a car through that was approaching from the right. Suddenly, the guy that was behind me 5 seconds ago forgot that I was there and approached the junction looking right and not ahead. As expected, ran into the back of me but luckily not too hard. I still had both levers (front brakes and the clutch) pulled in so he only pushed me forward half a metre or so (glad I didn’t release the clutch or drop the bike :D).
There’s no visual damage as his plastic bumper seems to have hit my tyre and the number plate holder but I was wondering if there is anything I should check for like the wheel alignment, chain slack, etc.? The bike feels alright and I can’t see any obvious deviations so should I just forget it and keep riding as if nothing ever happened?
The only thing I can think of is number plate light if you have one and the number plate around the bolts holding it on. I can’t imagine too much damage would have been done if he hit your tyre, they’re good at absorbing impact (obviously)!
I have developed a habit of flashing the breaks on and off due to that happening once a very long time ago in Kennington.
Glad you didn’t drop the bike. Hope the driver apologised and offered to pay any damages?
He ran into the back of you, so he is at fault. The fact that you were stationary is indicative of careless driving. Hopefully you have his details? You need to inform your insurance company, even if only for information purposes, in case you do find damage later, and he starts denying it. You took photos too, I hope, of the car and him?
I’ve been rear ended three times on bikes. Every time, I’ve had whiplash, and every time, the symptoms did not show themselves for two or three days after the incident. Genuine whiplash is agonising, and I’d never want to goi through it again, not even for a free motorcycle every six months for the rest of my life.
I was rear ended in my car earlier this year. I went and got a session of physical therapy the same day and the day after. Because of my job, I cannot afford to take the risk of not being fully able bodied. I’d suggest you get checked out with a private physical therapist, as prevention is far better, and less painful, than cure. As for the bike, if it’s a newish, get a dealer to check it out, after clearing that with your insurance company. You should not be left out of pocket for that. Try and claim directly from his insurance, therefore not claiming off your own fully com insurance, and risk loosing any NCB you may have gained, until it is cleared up.
The worst whiplash I had was back in in 2009. The symptoms only showed up three days later after going to the gym. I didn’t fall off my bike either, but for the agony I was left in, I would have quite happily have lost my R1 and been out of pocket, rather than go through that pain again.
Send me a PM with your mobile number, if you want to discuss this in detail.
You should get the bike looked over at a dealer. When I was rear ended I had the bike inspected and there was just some damage to a bracket that holds the indicators in place and the rear number plate needed to be refitted. That all came to £200 as they had to take the rear end apart to inspect for damage. There was a possibility that the rear sub frame was bent which would have been thousands to fix.
I would suggest to everyone that if they are rear ended to report it to your insurance company and make sure you get the drivers details. If they refuse to give their details call the police or report it to your insurance company then go to the police station as that’s the process if they refuse to give details.
The taxi driver who rear ended me came across all nice and helpful suggesting that I move the bike out of the road to get a proper look at it. He was saying that so I would change the scene and that there would be less evidence. When I started taking photos he got irate and refused to give details because “there’s no damage, just your number plate.” He was obviously a motorcycle expert. Anyway I took loads of photos as he became more and more irate, saying that I just wanted to hold up traffic and complaining that he was going to lose his fare as his passenger got out of the car. In the end I just decided to take the hit on the damage. I didn’t know at that time it could have been a lot worse. So prepare for the worst.
To be honest it wasn’t as serious as it probably sounded. He didn’t ram me at full speed but rather rolled into me at around 2-3mph, hence I mentioned that I only jumped forward by half a metre or so.
He was keeping relatively close to me all the way because of the gridlock on that stretch of road (this is the direction I was facing https://goo.gl/maps/XE3r6ycREhu, there was nothing but cars behind me). I was slowly rolling up to the junction as I wasn’t sure if there was anyone coming from the right (you can’t really see unless you actually stop and look). I reckon he thought I would continue on and started looking right before I started breaking but at that point the speeds were already very low.
Regarding your questions - I was probably stupid but I didn’t take any pictures nor any details and just checked the back of my bike. He apologised and asked if I was alright first thing but because of the amount of traffic and it being so dark I didn’t start taking pictures or arguing so just told him to look forward next time and rode away. I’d probably get lynched by all the people queueing behind us if I was to do that
It’s been almost two days since the accident now so I doubt I have any injuries, but still thanks for the info, I didn’t even know about whiplash. Regarding insurance companies - last thing I want to do is inform them. I’m already paying through the nose to my current one and I’m sure they would only use this incident as a reason to hike the price next year.
Will keep an eye on things but I hope it’ll be alright.
On daytime telly yesterday, there was a programme on motor-insurance (cars and bikes). It is now common practice to bump up policy values for “none fault” incidents that are reported - even if no claim was made. In their weird minds the insurance industry has decided that if you get hit once - you’re likely to get hit again.
Values for none fault increases were proven to be anything between 10% and 50% (!!)
Devil’s advocate: Though if you think about it, they are kinda right. If you ask yourself hard questions you might be surprised to find you could have helped to avoid the accident that you thought was not your fault and this is what makes you a higher risk (of claiming) to an insurer and thus why they are obliged to charge you more. Of course none of us like to explore the possibility we could have ridden safer because, well, riding super safe would also be super boring and yes in some cases you really could not avoid an accident no matter how safe you are, but well, most of the time we could have avoided it. Sorry to say
I think it’s pretty universal that we just don’t like to admit that sometimes we could have prevented an accident and therefore are a higher risk than Mr Straight-A-Boring-Pants and therefore need to pay more in insurance than him.
And if you ride at 100+ mph … you’ll always get away faster from the “black spot” and so negate the accident happening in the first place … makes sense in my mind anyway !! LOL
I have to say, I thought exactly the same as Ian re. the insurance tbh.
And I agree with Tigercub re. the non-expectation as well, so I always watch my mirrors when giving way.
@Jay - I agree if it’s a generalisation but I don’t think I could have avoided the incident in this case as I was in the middle of the lane and had been there for a while as it’s almost impossible to filter on that road. The guy was behind me all the time and I didn’t suddenly appear in front of him out of nowhere. I was probably doing around 5-6mph and obviously had no choice but to stop at the junction to let the car approaching from the right through. A rather regular situation in my view. Surely it’s not the fault of the driver/rider ahead if someone behind them forgets to look forward while approaching a junction, is it?
Glad you’re ok cypher and that there’s no seemingly major damage done
Being rear ended is hard to avoid but as others have said if I’m sat in the same spot I tend to tap my brake lights when I see cars coming up behind me, I just don’t trust them since there’s so many rear ending other cars! I generally don’t sit behind queuing traffic either as again, I don’t trust cars to pay enoug attention.
Don’t worry about fault, it’s clean cut and as suggested, get your bike properly looked over, there could be damage you’re not seeing, such as subframe etc. You have a gixxer right?
