Knocked off my pride and joy

[SilverFox]

[size=00]In early July at 6.30pm I was riding with a friend on a deserted dual carriageway in Belgium. I was leading on my Quartz Blue (fast colour) 2014 R1200RT LC and he was following some distance behind on my ex Honda Pan European ST1300. We were riding at about 60 mph and when my Nav5 advised me to turn right at an approaching exit I indicated right 300 metres before the junction and was travelling at about 15mph as I started to turn off at the exit. [/size]
[size=00]My friend explained what happened next. ‘I had lost concentration and was miles away (I think the technical expression is ‘off with the fairies’) when I saw you indicate right and then brake but thought you can’t be turning off this nice straight road. After some seconds I realised that I was catching you up at a rate of knots and panicked. I couldn’t take my eyes off the back of your bike and because I was braking I couldn’t steer. As you were about to turn off the dual carriageway I hit your bike on the inside of the left pannier and the front of my bike knocked off your top box. You were high sided off the left of your bike and your top box went off to the right. Your bike hit the ground on its left hand side and then bounced back up onto two wheels and carved out a reverse S shaped curve before falling on its right hand side in the fast lane of the opposite carriageway’. [/size]
[size=00]Bit of a shame really as if he had released the brakes and looked where he wanted to go he could have avoided me as the road was deserted.[/size]
[size=00]We estimate that my friend was travelling at about 25-30 mph and did well to keep his bike upright although it suffered damage to front fairing, screen light etc. but could be ridden after copious amounts of gaffa tape were applied. My bike couldn’t be ridden as there was a hole in the left hand cylinder head. I ‘phoned BMW assist who arranged recovery of my bike to a safe holding area and its subsequent repatriation back to my local BMW dealer in the UK. The bike arrived in the UK about two weeks later and the repair estimate took about another four weeks to complete. The outcome was that the insurance assessor considered my bike to be beyond economic repair. I was somewhat devastated and admit to being a bit OCD as regards the condition of my bike which was in excellent condition. [/size]
[size=00]I took another friend who had installed the Autocom, PMR radio and Clearwater lights on my bike to look at the bike with me and assess the damage. His initial reaction was that the bike looked in great shape apart from the obvious visual damage to top box, rear brake light, panniers and left hand cylinder. There then followed a conversation between me, my friend and two BMW technicians along the lines of the films ’12 Angry Men’ (showing my age here),  [/size]‘Dirty Harry’ and a Donald Rumsfeld speech. I was Henry Fonda arguing why the bike shouldn’t be a write-off and the other three guys were Clint Eastwood, saying ‘do you feel lucky if it is repaired?’ and Donald Rumsfeld saying in relation to the damage ‘we know what  we know and we don’t know what we don’t know’. Their collective view was to take the money and get a 2017 or later bike that has smoother gearbox etc.
[size=00]In a nutshell the points raised were that the left cylinder head and internals had been badly damaged, that when the head was taken off there was no evidence of grit or asphalt inside but even with flushing oil through there was always a chance that a speck of grit was in the engine. Same with the final drive which had a nasty black mark and friction mark most probably from my friend’s front tyre. Again the stance was it might clean up ok but it’s taken a whack and might have sustained damage which we can’t see.[/size]
[size=00]I slept on my decision and reluctantly decided to take the King’s (Queen’s?) shilling and accept a payment from the insurance company for the write-off amount. Repair estimate cost was £8,900 and I was offered £12,750 for my bike.[/size]
[size=00]There have been many discussions on this forum about the benefit or not of cylinder head protectors (my bike didn’t have them) and engine and pannier protection bars. I’m in the process of ordering a new 2018 BMW R1200RT LE and at the moment am expecting to put the BMW cylinder head protectors on it. [/size]
[size=00]I’m more than happy to listen to suggestions about bike protection second time around. In previous threads there has been reference to ‘I’d like to see the damage to a bike that has been down the road’ so I am obliging with some photographs.[/size]
[size=00]Photos 1 and 2 are taken from the junction I was turning right into and show the line of oil from when the bike hit the road on its left hand side and then stood up and carried on its way before falling over on its right hand side. The volume of traffic in these photos are as it was at the time of the accident. [/size]
[size=00]Photo 3 which I took as it was being unloaded at a safe storage area was just me getting documentary evidence that the bike had Clearwater lights and a Ztechnik screen.[/size]
[size=00] [/size]I agreed with the assessor that the non standard parts could be removed from my bike and it returned to ‘stock’ specification. Photo 4 shows the bike after my friend and I had very carefully and methodically removed Clearwater lights and harness, Autocom, PMR radio, Ztechnik screen, Machineart fender extender and Wunderlich side stand enlarger. The BMW service manager found us a place to work under cover and as he wheeled the bike over there he was astounded that the bike had been written off and was muttering ‘this is insane, the world has gone mad’.
[size=00]The other photographs (not mine) show the bike at the auction site and whilst not of great quality do show the damage to the left hand cylinder head.[/size]

[BoB21]

Glad your alright and photos informative but wondering full break down of damage and are you still friends?

[SilverFox]

Hi,
Yes I'm alright as I walked away from this and one needs a sense of perspective. If the dual carriageway had been busy then running through various scenarios most probably a fatal for me and if others had been involved in trying to avoid me and my bike it could have been carnage. I stayed in Luxembourg for the week and on return saw a GP and had an x-ray which showed three cracked ribs and an AC separation of my shoulder. Fifteen weeks in and the shoulder is getting there. Hope to be back on a bike by end December.

I was wearing a BMW System 6 Evo helmet, Rukka jacket and trousers with Kevlar and armour, Daytona boots, Rukka armoured waterproof gloves and Hi Viz jacket. All trashed and in the bin as everything shredded on the left hand side.

Still friends. I was banged up physically but mentally OK and he was the exact opposite. He is an experienced and safe rider and have ridden with him in Black forest, Vosges, Swiss Alps etc.

As regards damage to the bike. Assessor was very open and pragmatic and stated that the BMW estimate hadn't discounted any parts and labour rate including VAT was £144 per hour.

A ballpark idea of the costs is as follows:
LH Cylinder £1,500
Panniers x 2 £1,700
Final Drive £1,300
Top Box, Luggage Rack, Mudguards and rear light £1,700
Fairing panels £900
Labour £1,200
RH Cylinder head £165
Mirrors £190
Sundries £300

[BoB21]

Get well soon. Unfortunately we all make mistakes in life yet to meet person who hasn't. Looking on phone at moment pictures are not clear to show full damage .had broken ribs and frozen shoulder in past myself neither nice. Amazing how little damage can right off bikes. Hope for full and speedy recovery

[BoB21]

Reason I'd asked about damage was have not bothered with protection myself. Interesting you're now considering as your damage/ write off at relatively slow speed to me suggest not worth expense.

[JBnAZ]

Good luck healing and enjoy riding when you get well enough. Your experience is a great reminder that riding is as much mental as it is physical, and a moments distraction may be a moment too long.

[MacJ]

Nice to see you were so forgiving of the pal that hit you.


I was 'arse ended' by the friend I was riding with and it can be difficult to smile and shrug it off, but it does only take a second's lapse of concentration. As said earlier you have to keep sharp all the time on a bike. Best wishes for a speedy full recovery.

[SilverFox]

Thanks for the kind thoughts.

As far as my friend is concerned I think the biggest problem is not so much the loss of concentration, which after a long day in the saddle can happen to the best of us, but how he compounded that with target fixation on a deserted road.

Bob21. It's interesting that you feel that cylinder head protection is not worth the cost. Up until now I've obviously been in that camp and anyway always thought such protection to be useful in a low speed or stationary drop and not if the bike goes down the road.

BMW cylinder head protectors are about £200 a pair before discount. A damaged cylinder head is about £165 so one could argue that one low speed drop pays for the protectors subject of course to any damage to the protectors themselves.

In my case the one issue that seemed to unite opinion on whether to deem the bike a write off or not was the internal damage to the left hand cylinder and the potential long term problems ensuing after a repair. I really don't know whether in this incident the head protectors would have prevented a hole being punched in the cylinder head. I suspect they might in which case the repair estimate would have decreased by around £1,500 assuming just a replacement of the left hand cylinder head.

That reduction in repair cost would have dropped the bike below the write off threshold and I'm sure that there would then have been open and honest conversations with the dealer to both reduce their hourly labour rate and discount some or all of the parts. As the bike still looked immaculate apart from obvious damage to the top box, panniers and cylinder heads there would also have been a discussion about what really needed to be replaced when push came to shove.

[BoB21]

Might be to do with 6ft 3 and 33inch inside leg so stationary drops tend not to be so much of problem and moving slides would be insurance case anyway. Although bike goes easily onto center stand have found on cambered slope removing from stand can be precarious as long as do not drop it twice will be quids in.be. Years ago i ran up the back of friend, still occasionally get abuse for it and still feel guilty luckily we both stayed upright with miner damage considering i was doing about 70 mph when i clipped him.

[Eddiex]

Thanks for the kind thoughts.

As far as my friend is concerned I think the biggest problem is not so much the loss of concentration, which after a long day in the saddle can happen to the best of us, but how he compounded that with target fixation on a deserted road.

It's good to hear your injuries were no worse and that your friend was OK because, as you say, physically, you could have both been very badly injured.


I have ridden for over 30 years and over the last 8 years have toured with a group of equally experienced riders around France and more recently Germany and Belgium.


Some days are the ridden in an 'enthusiastic and progressive' style of riding and others are more gentle and sometimes the autoroutes are taken.


What I have noticed is after a few hours of riding I sometimes get a bit of the 'target fixation' that you mention. I fail to ride my own ride and follow the bike in front without sometimes reacting to the changing scenario that is developing in front of me. I'm not unaware of whats happening but have a bit of a delayed reaction to say maybe and indicator or loss of the speed by the bike in front rolling off the throttle.


I also find on long boring motorways that its easy to get sleepy! People who don't ride bikes can't see how that can happen - but it does!!


So I became a little concerned about this so, many years ago, I ran this past my fellow riders and it seems to be quiet a common phenomenon and they have all said that they have had the same experience.


For me I guess I now try and really stay focused but I do recognise how easy it is to slip back into this - I just hope it never happens as it did to you.


Scary stuff!! Hopefully you have repaired well!

[Cleverbee]

Is it too late to buy the bike at auction, get it repaired and pocket what's left?  Or even buy,fix and sell, make more money to put towards a new one?????