Hitchcocks Forum

I've never quite understood it when people say they never saw anything coming, well I do now. Riding back along the A20 on a well light 40mph road, when a car pulled out from a side road on my left and bang. The bike has a bent LH footrest, bent brake pedal, possible broken shaft that the brake pedal connects to, and a crushed L/H tool box. The car sustained damage to the front offside corner. My foot & ankle was in the middle of all this. I have absolutely no idea how I kept the bike upright. Managed to ride it home (about 2 miles) then spent till midnight in Maidstone A&E. Luckily there are no broken bones, but I now have one foot a different size, shape and colour to the other one. I've always considered myself very aware when I ride, especially after doing the met police's bikesafe training. Maybe a bit of complacency setting in, but I saw absolutely nothing. I'm wondering if the car driver had her lights on. She stopped and gave me her details and her insurance company got in touch the next morning to deal with the damage to the bike, and injury to my foot/ankle. I'll be looking everywhere from now on and maybe it's time a helmet cam - Ride safe and take nothing for granted.

I nearly had an accident a few years ago (not seeing car lights soon enough) so decided to see an optician just in case, she told me one eye was on a border limit for riding/driving glasses but the other was ok. I could read a number at 20m no problem but decided to wear glasses for self preservation. Surprisingly opticians don`t have to report to the D.V.L.A. drivers/riders who cannot see and refuse to wear glasses or should wear glasses. So ride assuming everybody is blind.

Sorry to hear about you and your bike, hope both recover ok.



Oddly, I have never dropped or decked a bike. But of course the only time I did have an accident was when a young guy in a mini who seemed to be looking, (His head was doing the motions of looking both ways) suddenly pulled out at the last moment, I was only doing about 20 MPH being a road to access several car parks, but still remember how strange it was to be going along the road as usual, with the white lines going past, except that I wasn't sitting on anything any more, then the lines got rapidly closer.....



I was ok, and 'Rusty', my old Honda CB 125 S was still upright, footrest embedded in the front of the guy's mini!



Here's the irony, the Mini's reg was MOR 240 N. Take out the '24' .... Yeah.... right....!



We both recovered to carry a few thousand more miles between us.

Simon

Jaffa - hadn't thought about an eye test but that might be a good idea.
Simon - thanks, hopefully we'll both be back on the road soon.

Hello Jools, sorry to hear about your unfortunate accident. As it wasn't your fault please make sure your insurance company doesn't penalise you I know they shouldn't (but it has happened) . On a more practical note is there a way to ensure your frame hasn't sustained damage/ gone out of alignment, maybe I'm being overly cautious but cars bikes etc are designed to take impact in this day and age hence crumple zones etc so I'm very wary of vehicles that already have been in accidents as they have protected their occupants once already I don't think they are designed to take repeated collisions.
I know the Enfield design is over 60 years old and probably doesn't come into this category however you can't always tell with the naked eye and distortion of frame or swingarm , forks etc . I not meaning to scaremonger, I'm just saying see if you can get a local dealer/ specialist to check it properly.
Best wishes
Vespa

I have my eyes tested every year due to an issue with one of my eyes which fortunately has remained stable for some years now, regular eye tests epically fore older 50 plus drivers are a good thing and when you get into your 60s they are free

sounds horrendous and pleased you escaped without relatively too much damage given the circumstances. I dont know if this helps but I am hyper wary of that scenario, and of roundabouts. I just slow down and eyeball the stressed driver waiting and hoping to get out. On some occasions I have stopped in the heart of the roundabout (we have an insane double roundabout near us that is a death trap if you are not careful) in anticipation of drivers not seeing me and sure enough....... I just think slowing right down (who cares about cars behind) and eye balling - it has worked thus far touch wood

Thanks for your good wishes and advice. I'm getting everything checked out by a garage that knows Royal Enfields well so I'm cofident it will be as good as new.