Pete rear ended a car...

[soberpete]

...after returning from a 340km round trip to Mengyin. A very exciting ride but a disappointing ending.

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I didn't do the Chinese thing - leaving my bike as it landed until the police arrive - but i did take a few snaps before moving it out of the road.

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I'd left the wife's place at 07:20 and arrived outside my house at 09:30 but I was peckish and decided to go to Mcdonalds for a McMuffin first. The McMuffin was lovely and I was feeling euphoric after having such a good long ride. That feeling, combined with the deadly feeling of safety from almost arriving home combined caused me to relax, enough so that I let my guard down and failed to notice the woman in-front of me abruptly hit her brakes. I slammed mine on - too late -, went over on my left-side and then ground my way along the road for a meter or two before slamming into the car's rear fender.

It was my fault, I guess, for not leaving a big enough gap, riding too fast, not paying enough attention and for being foreign. Still, after the police had arrived and everyone was waiting for a ultimatum to be issued we just agreed to go our seperate ways. I rode 1km down the road to the Yamaha repair shop with handle bars almost wrapped around my fuel-tank and she drove off with a little dent in the back of her vehicle.

Although I felt confident with my new licence in my pocket, nobody even asked to see it! I knew my insurance had recently expired and was wondering what would become of that. I think I overheard her telling her friend that her insurance had expired too, but she didn't think that I understood that. I thought it was best to ride away while I still could and just pay for my own damages. Had the police discovered that we were both uninsured then the same thing would have happened anyway + a possible punishment for us both for not renewing them in-time.

I'll need:
- a new set of gauges: there is nothing left of my old one now.
- a new handlebar: it's bend back more than a chopper's handlebar now.
- a new set of forks: they're visibly bent and I could feel the vibrations riding at 30kph back to the repair shop
- a new attitude toward riding: I've made this kind of mistake before but with lesser consequences. I need to shape up.

[ZMC888]

Just a bit of broken plastic and bent metal. If you are OK and you know why you crashed and how to prevent or reduce the chances of this happening again, there really is nothing to worry about.

[soberpete]

I guess Fred and I are running level on the collision meter right now.

[Fred]

Hey Pete, glad to see that you're ok, that's the most important !
Connected just today to the forum for another matter and saw your thread. I hope the repairs will be ok and that the parts will not be too long to arrive !

I still hope to see you on your bike in a few weeks in Shandong ! ;-)

[soberpete]

You bet I'll be ready!
I'm going to order my parts from Taobao (faster and cheaper).
I'll be keeping a close eye on your ride report.

All the best!

[Fred]

Very good mate, I'll try to keep the YBR250 running until Shandong, but man it's not easy, she's taking a beating on the Chinese roads !

Good luck for you, and most important : be safe !