Rather than tell everyone individually, this is probably the best forum to share my day. The day starts off normally; I have a great ride to work, morning meeting, get some work done, and then it is time to head to a going-away lunch. I hop on the bike, head out on to Route 7 and find myself following a coworker in his MR2 Spyder. We’re nearly there when someone two cars in front of him pulls some boneheaded maneuver that almost resulted in a four car collision. I didn’t see what it did, I just saw people swerving and slamming their brakes. [b]A bike does not stop as fast as a car[/b] so my best chance is to avoid everything altogether. Short story is, I can’t avoid and end up sliding in to the back corner of my boss’ boss’ car. Grand! I jump up, pick the bike up with the help of my coworker and boss’ boss and two witnesses stop to tell their story. Unfortunately, the person who caused the whole debacle fled the scene.

So person one to share their story is an off duty police officer. He was behind me and said he was lucky to have avoided me and that I’m lucky I’m able to even function after what had happened. Apparently it looked pretty bad, but thanks to my gear I’m about 90% functioning. It was my understanding that whenever someone rear ends another it is their fault (mine), but since there were extenuating circumstances and I was riding 100% legally, I was not at fault at all; a good thing since I can’t really afford to pay my insurance deductible and repair my bike (collision doesn’t make much sense on motorcycles since 90% of the time it’s your own fault [deductible + insurance raise is ugly] and they can usually be repaired cheap).

Person two to share their story was the lady in front of my boss and behind the person who did whatever they tried to do. I still don’t know exactly what was going on in front of her, but it was illegal and very stupid. She stuck around to tell her story to the VSP when he arrived.

So the VSP arrives, takes insurance information, calls the accident “no fault” and calls me a tow rig. I sat for around an hour on the side of Route 7 with everyone asking me “Are you ok?” until I called up Gerald. He was out of work at the time and was willing to pick me and the bike up since I had given up on the tow guy. He arrives about another hour later, I treat him to some Burger King, we load the bike up, and head home. I think I’m also gonna make him some Chicken Parmagian tonight too.

Once home I begin tearing down the bike. Mechanically, it is fine. Cosmetically, pretty much everything on the front is trashed. I’m guessing I’ll be out around $1500 by the time all is said and done, but on the plus side I’ll have a fancy looking bike, which this wasn’t when I bought it. JFJJFGDGJ I really wish that person had stopped so I wouldn’t be out a penny.

As far as my riding career goes? I don’t know. I’m half tempted to sell the bike and get something more common so repairs are a fraction of the cost and I am half tempted to just get out of bikes altogether. I’m also considering selling the bike as it is since it mechanically perfect and someone might just happen to be sitting on those spare parts already. I’ll have to ponder it over the next few days. What I’m really having trouble with is situations such as today; having to account for the idiocy of other drivers. Based on another accident that occured at that same intersection as I was waiting for Gerald, that is a bad idea.

As far as non-bike losses go, I have a nice scrape on my elbow, a decent chunk out of my knee, and serious bruise above my knee, my back is scraped up, my Mavi jeans have “fashion holes” and I need a new helmet as it hit something, but I’m not quite sure what.