Phoenix Arising....Smidsy's insurance have given me a fair payout; Thunder Road Gloucester have a 2-month-old ex-demo with 140 miles on it; they're delivering it Thursday morning

Great news!

That's decently rapid! It's legal claims for compensation for losses / injuries that drag on for years. Enjoy the new scoot!

Slightly off topic but hopefully pertinent. Recently my wife was turning right into parking area of supermarket (inside car park, off the main road) as she turned she collided with an oncoming GSXR. He went over bonnet and landed in road, our car, a 10 year old Volvo V50, had the front offside light cluster smashed and damage to bumper and side panel. Anyway, they wrote our car off for what I estimated was £500 worth of repairs. They gave me £4K! I was staggered as I’d only been offered £2k as trade in around three moths earlier…
Anyway the point is my wife is a good driver and has never had an accident in 35 years driving. Not a bump. She says she just did not see the rider? She looked ahead and then from stationary turned right and hit him. My theory is he was travelling too close to centre of road and too fast for circumstances. But hey, what do I know? Moral of story? Take it easy…

Low sun behind the bike?

A lot of SMIDSY's are probably due to people looking for cars, not seeing a car, then pulling out into the path of a non-car. It happened to me years ago, I was doing exactly 30 mph through a village (known speed trap location), a van stopped at a side road on the opposite side of the road, looked at me then came out across the road and knocked me flying. I was in a friend's car last week who almost hit a cyclist in similar circumstances (we shouted to alert her). Strangely, this doesn't seem to happen to us two-wheelers; we don't pull out in front of cars because 'we didn't see you, mate'!
It can also be the overlarge A pillars, that can be much wider than they used to for 'safety' purposes. These can obscure a bike unless you make a conscious effort to compensate by moving your head a bit.

By the way, did you buy the Volvo back off the insurers? (Always wish I'd bought my Revere back after it was written off...)

Greyerbeard wrote: Sun Oct 31, 2021 2:05 pm

MrGrumpy wrote: Sun Oct 31, 2021 1:36 pm Oh sh....! Did someone open their car door on you?

Pulled out from a side-of-the-road parking space as I passed, and punted me into the gutter on the other side of the road. Luckily no-one was coming the other way. Lots of good witnesses...and the RH side of their car written off.

Effing hell Greybeard . Sorry I didn't see this earlier. Very glad to hear you are not hurt, although I expect you may have the odd bruise and aches and pains. So, a new bike for you then!

Stibbs wrote: Sun Nov 21, 2021 8:13 pm Slightly off topic but hopefully pertinent. Recently my wife was turning right into parking area of supermarket (inside car park, off the main road) as she turned she collided with an oncoming GSXR. He went over bonnet and landed in road, our car, a 10 year old Volvo V50, had the front offside light cluster smashed and damage to bumper and side panel. Anyway, they wrote our car off for what I estimated was £500 worth of repairs. They gave me £4K! I was staggered as I’d only been offered £2k as trade in around three moths earlier…
Anyway the point is my wife is a good driver and has never had an accident in 35 years driving. Not a bump. She says she just did not see the rider? She looked ahead and then from stationary turned right and hit him. My theory is he was travelling too close to centre of road and too fast for circumstances. But hey, what do I know? Moral of story? Take it easy…

Blinking heck Steve. Glad no one was hurt, especially your wife. You gonna keep the car and repair?

No haven’t kept the Volvo. As it happens we were going to get something a bit newer next year anyway and as they gave me more than I was expecting we took advantage and bought another car spending less than we thought we’d have to.

Oh excellent Steve. In a way it's kinda done you a favour then. Shame you have to experience the stress of something like that though! Glad it's all sorted.