A short string of bad luck...

[Newsasquatch]

2 weeks ago, I was in a single lane in a 2-way road on my way to my university (Cal Poly Pomona), when I was stopped dead in traffic. It was the first day of fall quarter so traffic into school was from 0 to 5 mph. I decided to "share the lane" to pass cars on their left--which is legal in California, as far as I know. When I was passing a car at about 7mph, a car decided to try a quick illegal U-turn on a solid double-yellow line and hit me right as I was passing him. I sort of got knocked/jumped off and luckily had lots of safetly gear on and was only sore. The bike was pinned under his car, with the right side of the handlebar bent up to 80 degrees. I had to actually bend it back down to ride it, but it's still off. I called the insurance, but I think they aren't going to put the driver at full responsibility because I was lane sharing. It's still rideable, just has scratches all over the front body and the handlebar is still bent.
Made an insurance claim and figured that worst-case scenario; I didn't get it paid for by them and at least it was just cosmetic, but then last night someone tried to steal my bike! I have an alarm system on it, and a U-lock on the rear tire. They started it somehow, went forward and stopped short because of my U-lock, BUT the U-lock ended up hitting my right-rear shock and bent it, leaving it stuck and unmoving. So I had a painful ride to school today
I went online and bought some yss shock z-type shocks but it's gonna be pretty hard on my back until it gets here.
I decided to put a flashing bike light on my handlebar to prevent the same type of accident from happening again during the day.
Other than that, I'm a year into having my bike and it's at 6000 miles, and I've loved every minute of it. Just sucks that this happens lol. If anyone lives near me and has tools, I'd love it if you'd lend me a hand, but if not I've got it covered.

[Newsasquatch]

Here is a few pics of the damage and the minor damage on the car.

[TheMaverick]

Sorry to hear!

I have no idea if your laws are the same as ours (here in New Zealand) but for us, from a legal perspective, if traffic is physically stationary - and not indicating - then legally it's deemed to be "parked" and there are no legal issues overtaking it on either side. Might be an avenue worth following up?

If the dude didn't give a 3 second indication of his intention - and crossed a double-yellow - and you were overtaking them legally - then I'd like to think that legally it was pretty cut and dry.

Having just said that though, I'm not a lawyer, and I generally only filter (a little) but not lane split - it's just too easy for things like this to happen (even filtering is bad enough if a pedestrian tries to cross between cars).

Hope you get a good outcome - be sure to let us know.

Sucks with regards to the theft attempt too - I've got an old iPhone 4S that I'm tempted to hot-wire to the battery and tuck away on the bike somewhere so I can GPS track it if it's ever stolen - and hopefully get some low-life locked up in the process.

[alx123]

I'm so sorry to hear this happened to you. Hope you'll figure it out and get the PCX back to its glorious state.

Anybody know of any ritual to cleanse bad luck and any negative energies from Newsasquatch's PCX? Time for a Japanese Lion's dance?

[Newsasquatch]

@TheMaverick, thanks that makes sense that it would be legal in my case. The insurance guy just said that they weren't sure if they'd take full responsibility, or what percentage they'd take and that they'd get back to me. That made me wonder if they thought what I did was illegal.

@alx123 thanks for the positive vibes. Though this was bad luck, I kind of saw the accident as good luck, in that I didn't get hurt and I learned something: to either not do that at all, or at the very least put on my bike flasher. The problem is that where I live, there is almost nothing but cars, and living in Los Angeles County, there is stopped up traffic every day and it's too tempting to resist cutting through. If I lived somewhere with less traffic, I doubt I'd even be doing this.

[TheMaverick]

@TheMaverick, thanks that makes sense that it would be legal in my case. The insurance guy just said that they weren't sure if they'd take full responsibility, or what percentage they'd take and that they'd get back to me. That made me wonder if they thought what I did was illegal.

No worries - hope it works out for you.

Unless Harvey Specter or Mike Ross (or even Louis Litt) are your lawyer(s) though, then it still might pay to research your position better than the other guy!

[easyrider]

Shared liability is a big thing these days. The practice of lane splitting in America is very dangerous. Most everyone is not familiar with it and thusly precipitates all kinds of dangers. There is a law in California that they might use against you and I believe you have to pass the car by using another lane of travel and you are not allowed to exceed the speed of existing traffic speed. In one breath they allow you to lane split but in the next they take it away if you get involved in an accident. Not saying this will apply in your case but you never know. In Europe and Asia lane splitting is a widely accepted and understood practice where there are many more motor bikes . In US not the case and represents serious dangers.

[TheMaverick]

Shared liability is a big thing these days. The practice of lane splitting in America is very dangerous. Most everyone is not familiar with it and thusly precipitates all kinds of dangers. There is a law in California that they might use against you and I believe you have to pass the car by using another lane of travel and you are not allowed to exceed the speed of existing traffic speed. In one breath they allow you to lane split but in the next they take it away if you get involved in an accident. Not saying this will apply in your case but you never know. In Europe and Asia lane splitting is a widely accepted and understood practice where there are many more motor bikes . In US not the case and represents serious dangers.

I watched a video once - shot in California. Dude lane-split past around 200 cars (I counted them) in the duration of the video (20 to 30 minutes off memory). I have a theory that you can only do that so many times before your number comes up.

I'm even on high-alert taking the less popular shorter lane queue because it involves passing a string of stationary cars waiting in another lane - every so often one will decide to lurch between lanes with zero warning.

[Mel46]

First of all, I am sorry for your bad luck. It does happen, but maybe you got all of the bad juju done with for awhile now.
Now on to the accident. If the guy was making an illegal u-turn and crossed the double yellow line, that puts him at fault. I don't know how many times I have seen drivers do illegal u-turns close to the entrance into my subdivision...and for ever 2 that get away with it there is 1 that gets clobbered. Yet they don't learn. You may have to get advice from an attorney. Remember that in most cases the first consultation is free.

If the handlebar is bent then it is also possible that the front end is out of alignment now. Also, looking at the damage, the plastics will have to be completely removed in order to fix the bike properly.

As for the light you added, it might or might now help in your being more visible. Keep in mind that bikes are already invisible to most cage drivers because their brain has been trained to look for much larger objects. Also, some drivers don't even look when there are other cars. They just go and expect everyone to get out of their way. After you get your bike fixed you might consider some small strobe lights on the front. They don't have to be big, just visible.

[homie]

This is sad indeed. I'm taking delivery tomorrow of 'so called' OEM Honda PCX panels from partzilla. Shortly after I'll report if these are actually original equipment Honda panels. If they are in fact good plastics it looks like you would pay less than 100.00 to replace your own if you are able.

http://www.partzilla.com/parts/search/H ... parts.html

[Newsasquatch]

Thanks for all the advice everyone, I'll try to stop riding between/on the side of cars since it appears to be only a matter of time. @homie, thanks for the info, ill look into that when I find out whatsup with the insurance!

[TheMaverick]

In New Zealand, lane splitting and filtering is essentially covered by over-taking laws. The bit many seem to miss here is the part where the law also REQUIRES them to do it SAFELY; examples where someone scares the b'jesus out of a cager by roaring past and missing his wing mirror by 6 inches doesn't qualify as safe. I've had other motorcyclists undertake me on my left (we drive on the left here) as well as using flush medians (both illegal) - and in the face of on-coming traffic.

Good-luck to them is all I can say -- they're going to need it at some point.