ST Trip ended unfortunately not as planned (long)

["Clarijs, Markus" <m.clarijs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Folks,

I planned a couple of days off last week. It's what you in the U.S. call
Indian Summer here in Holland, so I thought alle ingredients for a long trip
on the bike were present. And I went...

A day-trip to the south crossing Belgian and German borders followed by a
day-trip to the north.
Finally on Saturday October 13 I went to Assen. Sunny wheather, clear sky,
app. 23 deg Centigrade.

FYI Assen is the place where the annual TT races of The Netherlands take
place. And a couple of weeks ago the SBK races were there as well.

I started on 10:00 on saturday from Rotterdam, arriving in Assen about
12:00. From there I took the roads that are colloured white my map. I have a
route there which is quite nice for a day-trip and follows most of the
'Hunebedden' (ancient, prehistoric gravehills made of big stones). It is a
rural area with divers sites, varying from acres with corn to woods, small
rivers and lakes. I made a couple of pictures, wanted to submit to the
ST-list for the photo-contest.
I followed the route about 50km north, then making a turn to the south about
100km. finally I went north again to my starting point. The route is like a
big oval on the map.

No hurry, just easy-does-it touring, averiging about 50 km/h and 22km/l
(i.e. 50mpg).

It was 4pm by the time I was entering the citylimits of Assen again. Some
200 km on my tripmeter
Where the secondary road connects to the highway I had to stop for a stop
sign and crossing traffic.
Bang!
1 second later I was sitting on my butt on the middle of the intersection,
bike on the right panel, with my left foot just under the
pillion....panniers somewhere rolling on the road several metres away....
wondering what happened to me...
At least I the oncomming traffic managed not to hit me, but they didnot stop
either to check how I was doing. I could move my limps, back hurts, wrists
hurts, but still alive.
A man in a Toyoto Afartsis Estate was in a hurry, bringing his son to the
swimmingpool and thought I would probably enter the intersection just before
the oncoming traffic anyway....
First thing he said when getting out of his car was "I think we're not going
to make it in time for the swimming pool".  I sure can tell you that my
adrenalin-level was rising again to unexpected heights.

So a perfectly nice day ended instantly at that moment. Filling in forms..
getting the police to the site of the accident, because the guy had no
insurancepapers or driverslicense with him.

It is good to know that there are still bikers who stop and are willing to
help you in these situations. And their help probably kept me from doing
something terrible to the person who ran into me.

The people on the tow-away truck were nice to. In theire garage I took a
good look at the damage:
- -the panniers took the first beating and were lauched upwards, leaving the
brackets and panniers broken.
- -the exhaust took the second one and is now a underseat exhaust.
- -the tupperware pieces supporting the seat were bent downwards and cracked
- -left mirror slightly damaged
- -right mirror severely scrathed
- -fairing right-side, up, middle and down scrathed and broken
- -brake lever broken etc etc etc

You have seen pictures of these kinds of accidents on this site/list before,
so I suppose you all can imagine how it looked like.

I glad I came out of this with only a hurting spine and wrists. It could
have been much worse. But I think  my protective gear did it's job and
certainly was worth wearing.

Fortunately there is no question about who was wrong here. The guy at least
admitted to me and the police that it was his mistake. But I have to go
through all the hassle with the ensurance company, not knowing when I am
able to be on the road again.

I hope I haven't ruined your day with this story, but I wanted to ask you
all the following question:
Can a bike with this kind of damage be fixed as it was before?
What does it do with my warranty, I mean that if something appears to be
broken in a couple of months which would normally be covered by the
warranty, can I claim that warranty? (I bought this 2000 Sprint ST in July
last year and only have 16000 km on it)?

I would be very pleased to hear your opinions and experiences. TIA

Hope you all enjoy your day.


Markus
2000 (not so red anymore) ST soon to be towed homewards


     *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
      The ST/RS Mailing list is sponsored by Jack Lilley Ltd.
          http://www.TriumphNet.com/st/lilley for more info
   http://www.TriumphNet.com/st for ST, RS and Mailing List info

=-=-=-= Next Message =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=