Anyone scratched a car by accident?

snooks

Don't panic, I haven't scratched a car by accident or on purpose...But on the way home last night I was passed by an Audi R8, a rather delicious looking car if ever there was one.

And yes I had to overtake it a couple of times on my 95/6 rusty Marin MTB while they were stuck in traffic, it's not everyday I get to overtake a supercar on my bike now is it???

Anyway it got me thinking, in my car I have insurance to cover me if I hit or am it. If I'm hit insurance will repair my car and go after the person who caused the accident to recoup their money - Usually from their insurerers. On my bike I don't have insurance...so if by some freak pothole, brick on the road or other roaduser I'd piled into the £80,000 R8, would I be paying for a respray/bodywork out of my own money? :?

Has it happened to anyone out there?...if so what was the result?

Funny how I don't think about these sort of things as I'm passed by a Ford Focus now isn't it? (I have a Focus btw )
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t4tomo

I once clipped the rear of a car with the stoker handlebars of a tandem I was riding solo. Didn't leave a mark though.

Anyway back to the original question, technically yes you are left footing the bill, so if you do clip a supercar, make sure you pedal off pretty quickly leaving the river with only his own insurance to claim off

I think this is less of an issue than the numerous uninsured car drivers there are nowadays plowing into over vehicles with increasing regularity.

spen666

join the CTC and get 3rd party insurance to cover you for such costs as part of your membership fee

homercles

A friend of mine piled into the back of a Jag once in wet weather. Went flying over the bars, bounced off the bootlid and landed on the roof leaving a person shaped dent. He eventually settled with the driver for something like £600-700. At that point I figured liability insurance was a good call.

BentMikey

Apparently you might also be covered if you have household insurance.

graeme_s-2

spen666 wrote:

join the CTC and get 3rd party insurance to cover you for such costs as part of your membership fee

This is exactly what I was going to say. This is one of the main reasons I joined the CTC, it would be all too easy to rear end a car (especially in the wet), and I can't afford to shell out £600 in car repairs at the drop of a hat.

Belv

I scratched my wifes car when my bike that was leant against it fell over.

:oops:

Gussio

I scratched the bumper of the MPV that hit me head on, driven by a private cabbie on the wrong side of the road. The scratch must have been all of an inch long. My front wheel, on the other hand, was bent double. He paid up in the end. I looked at it as a tax on the stupid.

There are times when I would like to "accidentally" scrape inconsiderately parked cars. I once saw a fixed wheel commuter with sharpened handlebar ends for just that purpose. Sadly I don't have the cohones.....

snooks

BentMikey wrote:

Apparently you might also be covered if you have household insurance.

Now would be a good time to dig it out and have a check...not that I'm going to scrape any cars, at least I hope I'm not
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prj45

I scratched a taxi once, was squeezed and caught it with my bars, took the paint right down the to metal. My fault.

To this day I still feel really guity I didn't stop and offer to pay, and that was about 10 years ago.

fossyant

I rear ended a Porsche 928 as a kid...fortunately the owner was OK despite the dent - he had mates in the car repair business...the guy still lives down the road from my folks.... :oops:

Get CTC or British Cycling cover.....

Aidocp

On a horrible (wet & windy) day cycling uphill at about 6mph I managed to clip a slow moving cars left hand mirror :oops: . It joined a queue shortly later and I was able to put the mirror back in its socket and the driver was very nice, ahem nice about it. I had CTC cover but never really thought about it.

el_presidente

I clipped a car's rear wing with the end of my handlebars while filtering the other day. It was quite a nice BMW. luckily the chunky grips on my bars meant there was no damage not even a mark. The driver had seen though and he got out to check - I apologised, he didn't look happy but with no dmaage what could he do?

cberry

I ran into the back of a merc which overtook me aggressively then promptly stopped to make a left turn- I wasn't keen to go inside him so I braked hard, skidded sideways, dropped the bike which then, without me on it, plowed into the car. The glaswegian owner wasn't chuffed and tried to get me to pay him something near a grand. Him being a swanky businessman in a merc, me being a student at the time, we never settled and he never bothered taking me to court. It was all a bit iffy on the laws but needless to say we were both adamant it was the others fault.

I have since joined CTC....

delcol

i clipped the wing mirror of a vw bora (or was it a passat) it pinged back it was in a line of traffic approaching a roundabout and he pulled into the kerb despite there being chevrons painted next to it i think he did it on purpose to block me from over taking him i moved to the left my pedal clipped the kerb and unbalenced me to the right then crack i hit his mirror,.. :shock: i carried on through the traffic to the roundabout..

then irony struck i nearly got killed slipping my spd pedal as i pulled off flying over the bars on a busy dual carrage way roundabout in peak rush hour.. :oops: :oops: