I didn't see you...or how a U-turner got me...

[Fred]

Ooh yeah, I'm almost ashamed to admit it : I got wrecked last Thursday in Shanghai by a U-turner...
Why ashamed ? Because I should have known better really, even though I slowed down enough to avoid a biggie, but I still crashed into him. I should have known better...


The story (trying to be short) :
I was riding the YBR 250 on Hongqiao lu in Shanghai last Thursday afternoon, coming back from a nice little trip outside Shanghai. From those who don't know it, it's a 2 lanes road. I was on the left one, riding at approximatively 70 km/h. One car was going in the same direction, on the right lane, 100 meters in front of me.
The car suddenly slowed, so I did the same, even though there was no sign it might cut into my lane, but we know Chinese drivers...
When I was at 10 meters behind the car in the right lane (and me still in the left lane) and going around 40-45 km/h, the car suddenly started a U-turn (yeah, from the right lane...) without any prior signals, without blinkers, nothing... I jumped on the front brake and slowed down as much as possible to around 15 km/h but the car was too close from me and completely across my lane, no way to avoid it or swerve around it.
So I hit it between the left rear tire and the rear bumper, the bike went down on the right side.

And myself you may enquire ?
Well, to be honest, I'm pretty proud about what I did, if I had watch the scene from the sidewalk, I would have come to congratulate me...
So I braked as hard as I could, I remember thinking "Ooh shit, I'm gonna hit it" (in French, mind you...), I hit the car, the bike went down, and I found myself running, yes running on the road with the momentum...
Yeah, that's right I didn't even fall down, I ended up the crash by running on the road, the bike on its side behind me.

Slowly like in a movie, I turned around and walked towards the car driver. He parked his car on the side, and I just had time to (relatively politely I'd say) ask him if he knew how to drive, before he completely exploded in apologies and enquiries about my health.
I have to be honest : he was a wanker of a driver, but a charming guy outside the car. It's pissing me off actually, as it's very hard to stay upset when somebody is so nice, apologizing to no end and really enquiring about my health...

To cut the story short, he told me right away that he would assume his mistake, and did it without blinking when the motorcycle cop arrived. He took 100% of the blame, apologized again many times to everyone, the cop, myself, and his grand-mother...

His car was totally fine, my bike not so much... I broke the front mudguard, and most importantly the front forks are bent and need to be changed.

And because I'm thinking about you guys, some pics !
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My poor wounded steed, comforted by the police bike...

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The bent forks and the broken piece of mudguard on my tank bag...


Today the "expert" from the blind driver insurance came to my bike shop and agreed with the quotation of the shop mechanic who will change (and NOT repair):
- both front forks
- the fork T
- the handlebars
- the exhaust cover
- the mudguard
and I'm forgetting others things. Of course 100% of the costs is paid by the cage driver insurance.

All this means : I'm without bike, again, for at least one month I guess, time for them to get all the new parts, especially the front fork...


But 1 thing is for sure and this is also the main reason for me to write all this :
IF I WAS NOT 100% LEGAL, ALL THE TROUBLE (at least a very good part) WOULD HAVE BEEN FOR ME ! No matter who cut the other on the road, no matter who did what.
The cop who came to the accident scene was pretty surprised to see my registration, license, plates, insurance, everything 100% legal. He was pretty nice to me after seeing all this and the fact I could speak to him in Chinese.

Other than that and the fact that I avoided a biggie by slowing down before this twat started his U-turn, the morale of the story is :
I know now that I could have been a famous action movies star in Hollywood, doing my own motorcycle stunts, with hordes of female fans screaming my name, and live in a big villa up in Beverly Hills.

Damn....