Lay down bike to avoid crash!

Hello,
Well, I thought this will never happened but it did, lay the bike down to avoid a head on collision in a roundabout. In the process I broke my left clavicle in 3 places and broke left tibia and fibula. I had a helmet, jacket(shoulder and elbow pads) and walking boots on. I'm doing quite well after such ordeal. As far as the bike, In my opinion it suffered very little damage as follow: left fairing is scratch, front fairing on left side is a bit broken, handlebar, footpegs and clutch lever are scratch pretty good but still in good working condition. A friend of mine drove the bike back home after the crash so i can assume that the bike is mechanically in good shape(I was going between 25-30MPH before hitting the breaks and sliding on my left side).
Anyways, my question is should I keep the bike or should I sell it? My insurance company needs an answer and it seems that if I keep the motorcycle I get less money instead of selling it? Any thoughts well be helpful(Im leaning towards keeping it, it's a VFR800! there is nothing like it)

Zero
(I can post pictures later )

 

Any crash will give you doubts about riding again, but get back on the horse! You can always sell it later on, if you are like me, you bought the bike for the pleasure of owning and riding it, not as an investment.

 

This is more a question to your state insurance commissioner. Here. you will get sympathy and opinions. The question is can your insurer hold back or charge you more money? One of the regulars here is in insurance and my have an answer to your dilemma.

 

It might be a little hard to ride with a busted collar bone and two leg breaks. Those casts are a bitch.

 

The reason you get less if you keep a vehicle is because you're basically "buying it back" from your insurance company. When they total it out they will give you an amount then they recoup @ $700 salvage fee on the vehicle, so in this case they are deducting the salvage fee from your settlement.

THAT SAID....not to be a dick, but doesn't make sense to "lay a bike down" to avoid an accident. You can stop on rubber MANY TIMES shorter than sliding on plastic & metal. Now, if your braked hard & lost control resulting in the bike going down, that makes sense. I've heard people say many times that they "laid a bike down to avoid xyz", but just isn't true. Maintaining control & staying on the rubber is always the better option....

 

Badbilly, that's one of my fears, but I know they will heal just fine.
I know I want to ride again, but is it ok to ride on the VFR again after that kind of accident? Is there a something broken or crack on it that I'm not seeing and should be check or replaced? Is it worth keeping a bike after an accident?

Zero17

 

TNRabbit, you are right, sorry for the poor use of words, I was on the middle of the roundabout which it meant I was leaning the bike a little bit to my left but as I knew that the other vehicle was not going to stop, I eased the throttle, pressed the horn button, then try to bring the bike up then applied the breaks. I'm assuming since the bike was not perpendicular to the floor, the bike got away from me and I crashed on my left side of my body.

 

Glad you're (relatively) okay!

 

Glad you're going to be OK Z17.

I'll also state that TNRabbit is absolutely correct. Laying the bike down is an accident in and of itself. There is no such thing as "laying the bike down to avoid an accident". Therefor, I respectfully recommend that you never use that term when talking with your insurance rep, the other driver's rep, the authorities, or your fellow motorcyclists.

Meanwhile, please make positively sure that you heal completely (as per the doc's orders) before you get back to riding. Bad stuff can, and does, happen to those who don't follow their doctor's advice. I don't think you need to ask how I know this...

Btw, the "head on in a roundabout" event suggests that the other driver somehow entered the RB while going in the wrong direction.

 

I laid my bike down (TEE HEE) in an intersection covered in Gravel on my very first on road experience
I didn't go as hard as you but the bike hit the ground and spun as did I
We picked the bike up and I rode away (SCARED SHITLESS) but away I went
the bike was scratched and dinged but rode perfectly
Glad your here to talk about it and follow the doctors orders!!!!

 

abs might have saved you and a damper too. Never slide when you can brake!

 

Bones and scrapes heal. BUT YOU SCRAPED UP A VFR. YOU BASTARD! Just kidding of course. Glad you were able to leave this collision as you did and not far worse. That is always a possibility. Must have been a rather larger round-a-bout. 35MPH in a round-a-bout here in my town is bordering on dangerous driving. I hate those fuggen things. They should leave them over in Europe where people know how to use them.

I agree with TNRabbit and FMB42. Around here on this site, who cares. Say what you will. But when you are dealing with insurance companies, lawyers or authorities, be careful in the words you use. Trust me. I have seen seemingly simple day to day use of words twisted around to mean absolutely opposite of what you meant in a court setting. Can be disastrous.

 

:smash::couch2:What happened to sliders, might have help on all the damage as well as protect your leg. Randy is right How dare you ruin a 800vfr- I think its the best model 2006 up. I don't count the 2014 version of the DUD vfr 1200 or the improved 800

 

Zero17,
Glad you survived. All accidents are bad, but what is really bad is not learning from your experience.
Have you ever taken a Motorcycle Safety Foundation class? If you only took the beginner class you
might consider the Experienced Rider Course. As several folks here have said, "laying down a bike IS an accident."
In 24 years as a Chief Instructor I've taught over 9,000 beginners and have witnessed panic-braking many times.
The key is to use your vision aggressively and try to determine threats as early as possible, in order to avoid an accident.
So, bottom line . . . get more training. I'm 80 now, and I am still learning.

 

Hard to say as to if you should keep it or let it go not seeing it. Sometimes damage can be hidden. Safe bet would be to let it go and start over. On the other hand if your mechanically inclined it may be a easy fix. Glad your still kicking.

 

Did the engine die when it fell on it's side or continue to run? When it fall on it's side the oil sump can become uncovered and oil pressure drops to zero. That can damage the bearings on the engine. Maybe not a lot, but some. A few more drops with a running engine can lead to rods knocking later on which means a new engine will be needed.

Now if the engine died when it fell over, it's probably fine.

You'll need to figure the cost involved in replacing the handlebar, footpegs and clutch lever, plus the cost to repair and repaint the 2 fairing pieces. The framework under the fairing pieces might have been bent, but can usually be straightened and bent back to factory. Did the mirror survive? Anyway, compare the cost to have all that done to the cost of a replacement bike.

Some folks don't care about fixing all the damage to make it like new and will buy the bike back and pocket the money. Live with the scratches and only replace what's not repairable.

I'm glad your okay.

(I had a similar situation. My previous bike had weak front brakes and I was used to applying them pretty hard. 2 weeks into owning the VFR, a car made an unannounced left turn in front of me and I reacted with too much front brake and went down at about 30mph. I barely missed the car somehow and they took off. I was scrapped up, but able to ride it back home.

As much as I like my VFR, I really want an ABS bike. Maybe add a crude 80's ABS system from a BMW to my 86? Hmmmm.)

 

I wonder if that might have been SOW in his hot Plymouth?

 

Heal up first then think about riding. Hard to get those leathers on over casts anyway. The bike may very well be bent or cracked or something else. This should be checked out by a certified Honda tech, not over the net or by pix .

By laying it down to avoid a head on collision you may have broken some bones and damaged your bike to the point of FUBAR. Better than a head on with a cage anytime IMO. Recalling exactly what happened is something that most of us can't do and all the "you shouldn't do" BS is just that and a shitload of second guessing and theory. In another scenario where there is some time to think and react, laying the bike down and letting the bike go to take the impact is not really so dumb after all.

Ain't a swinging dick here that was there, saw anything happen or even knows anything about your riding skills, reaction times ect., or probably never had to face a head on with a bigass cager who was likely or not fucked up on booze or in just as big a panic mode as yourself.

My opinion is that you may have locked up the rear wheel skidded tried to steer out of the skid and lowsided. All of this in very small fractions of a second.

Glad you are healing and still kicking.

On your insurance, same deal.. Your insurer is not your friend. It is a corporation and the bottom line is pesos...Insurance laws are set by the individual states. IOW,what is done or not done in one state may be significantly different or even non-existant in another. All this can be checked out on your states insurance commission website. This includes the precise description of what a "total" is..

All this guessing shit is not a good thing and kind of like the old party lines where every one on the line had some opinion from something they read aboot in the Farmers Almanac or the Ladies Home Journal.. or even Oprah, Godess of all that is right with the unverse.

 

I think billys reply says it all and is pretty much spot on.

 

The dude almost buys the farm, breaks his leg in two places and his collarbone and is supposed to remember shit like was the bike still running?