auroch

yeah last month I got hit by a car. worse thing about it is I got smacked by an acura while I was waiting at a red light. trust me that's unusual. anyways the insurance co. wants pics so I thought I'd share. Probably repairable, but I think state farm's gonna call it totaled. hmm. new bike?? if not I may have to look up some attorneys...

apparently suzanne didn't see the reflective tape. chicago police told me its against the law to ride without an orange vest. maybe I should've worn a road flare in my helmet too.

oh and since insurance co. suck (did I mention this was last month?). I'm gonna milk 'em dry.

jeff

Zub Zub

OUCH that has to hurt!!!!!
Hope you get the money you need to pay for it.
Marie

OneTinSloth

that might be fixable, but it also looks like the frame got rather tweaked...

i hope they come through soon.

my friend got doored, and i had another friend give her a very generous estimate of $350 for an old beater raleigh...she got $300 from the lady's insurance.

Dave Stohler

I wouldn't put much faith in that-everybody in chicago knows that the cops there are idiots. I used to visit a friend who lived up in Jefferson Park often about 10 years ago. One day, we were riding in his pickup along Lakeshore Dr. A cop pulled him over, and told him that he couldn't drive there, because 'commercial vehicles aren't allowed'!! Jeez, it wasn't even a 1/2 ton pickup, either!

SamDaBikinMan

The price of a new bike pales in comparison to any even minor repairs to an automobile. The Ins should be thankful for that and get you a new one.

Arsbars

That headtube is F'D the price of the bike, thou more than a huffy isn't going to be like a Colnago. They should be glad you weren't on an italian 3k frame with full Record

shishi

When I live in Chicago, 1 1/2 years ago a cop blew through a stop sign and totaled the back of my bike.

absntr

Dave,
The cop was probably just messing with you guys but the actual law for Lakeshore Drive is that no matter what car you have whether it's a huge truck or small car if it has commercial licence plates it's not allowed on LSD. It was pretty funny because I once took a huge U-Haul out on LSD but because it didn't have commerical plates it was apparently quite okay.

skitbraviking

Sorry to hear about your crash. What happened to you?

As a Chicagoan, I have to wonder if the cop was serious about the vest. Do you think he was?

Dave Stohler

Oh, my friend was always having problems with the Chicago PD, ever since he sued them. Seems a cop, responding to a "silent" approach call, came barreling into a blind intersection, against the light, and ran the cruiser into my friend's car. While the ambulance was taking him to the hospital, the cop wrote him a ticket for "failure to yield". He sued, won about $50k, and got pulled over about once a month for the next 3 years. He now lives in California...

pjbaz

Good luck getting a QUICK settlement from the ins. co.

I was hit on my vintage Bianchi on 9/15/03 and they are still dicking around with the $. They made an offer...but too low for the repairs, etc. They offered $800 eve though I need $1,500 to replace it. Now, the ins. guy refuses to return my attorney's calls.

Funny thing is, I'm not looking for a million, just the cost of my days off from work, my Bianchi, my (still) purple knee, etc.

PJ

djbowen1

When i was 15 i was hit by a car on my Auburn BMX bike, they were a top of the line bmx bike at the time. The woman didn't look before making a right turn and i was approaching against traffic and she whacked me, I sent the insurance company a bill and they sent me a check for $1500 and change and that was after losing 10% for being against traffic, hell i was 15 and got 1500 bucks for a bike that was worth it but my sponsors paid for it and a new one, anyway a year later my bike got hit at a dairy barn drive thru and they paid me about 700 in damages for a bent wheel. The first was statefarm and was easy the second was allstate and they busted some balls but both paid out. There is no book value or anything for bikes so whatever you can get an estimate to say the value is, is what they usually pay.

pitboss

Hey SBV
The messers in the Loop area sometimes wear vests; I see about a dozen a day sporting them. CPD is big on bicycling safety, but not big on cyclists. I had a traffic cop tell me that the next time he saw me without a helmet, he was going to call a cruiser to give me a fine - this has been the only problem I have had. There is a fragile balance between cyclists and Chicago's finest.
Think "Quota"

skitbraviking

ah, yes... quotas. Say no more.

OneTinSloth

djbowen:

mmm...auburns...they got bought out by GT, which subsequently got bought out by pacific. but yeah, i wanted an auburn so bad when i was younger...now i have a terrible one frame.

auroch

what happened was: I was waiting at the 4way intersection of North & Sheffield Ave. I was on North Ave (facing east) waiting to turn left in the turn lane when the I got the green light. I was about to get going when I saw a car racing through their red light on sheffield (northbound). So I waited. They turned left onto North Ave and instead of just running the light and making the turn the car decided to blow it completely and hit me head on. Her car ended up completely in the turn lane on the Wrong side of the double yellow lane marker. I ended up on the hood of her car. My bike was two car lengths behind me (west).

1. The driver claims I was in the middle of the intersection. Only problem is newtonian physics disagrees. check out where me and my bike ended up.

2. Yes the cops were serious about the vest thing. Some messenger co. require a vest, but the law doesn't.

3. The driver admitted fault to me and the cops, but now changed her mind

4. So I know I'm gonna get screwed when the appraise my bike. Any tips?? I just want what I had before.

5. Things busted up: Bike, Helmet, Shoes (yes she knocked me out of my shoe), pants, and jacket.

6. CPD is backlogged on police reports and it still isn't processed a month later.

7. All the red tape really pisses me off. And I figure if the insurance co. doesn't come up with a good offer. I'm hiring a lawyer. why should I pay a cent when I did absolutely nothing wrong.

thanks for rant space everyone

alexs

So is that whole <city>'s finest thing where you live as much of a joke as it is in Jet City? Cuz the cops here are about as useful as your average heroin addict. Corrupt, stealing money from the city, outright racist, caught on camera assaulting civilians, dealing drugs and busting competitors, stuff like that. We need some untouchables cuz we got a damn corrupt police dept in this city... think y'all could spare Elliot Ness for a week or two?

OneTinSloth

stickerguy, have you taken the bike to a shop to have it appraised? ideally, you should take it to a shop where you know someone so they'll appraise it for the maximum amount possible (within reason). then send the reciept to the insurance company along with photos and such.

slopvehicle

I got hit in a crosswalk a couple of years ago by a guy pulling one of those "intermediate" stop things.

I had to drop my bike and chase the ****er down...the front wheel got run over and taco'd. Luckily, it was my winter bike w/ a $40 Weinmann front rim.

Anyhow, I caught up with the guy, who was totally obvlivious to the fact that I'd been hit-- he thought I'd just fallen over. Yeah.

So we excahnged information. He said he didn't have his insurance card with him. At this point, he'd apologized and seemed like a nice guy. So I settled with his phone number and we agreed to call later that night.

The ******* gave me a bogus number.

SO, if I ever see his car again-- a tan early 60s Impala hardtop, driven by a bearded black guy in his 50s-- I'm gonna take my $40 back. Keys, meet paint.

Rev.Chuck

Slopvehicle, you should never vandilize a car for retribution, don't key it, that is nothing. If you were to take an old fork leg or chain stay(or just an old steel bar) and cut it at a sharp angle, then file the edge sharp. Punch it through the side of the tire. This is the kind of damage that hits the wallet. You can also take a length of heavy guage wire and attach it to a sparkplug that has had the metal threaded part broken off, leaving only the ceramic section. Whip this into a windshield and it will spider from the point of impact. Of course I only post this as what not to do. I would never reccomend any one do this. Don't knock out the headlights either as it is really easy to do with just a rock and would put the cops on the guy if driven at night.

I had a Chicago cop pull me, just so he didn't have to CHANGE LANES.

slopvehicle

Rev.Chuck-- probably not gonna end up doing anything like that...

panasoanic

stickerguy,

Read this thread on google groups. Basically, if you don't want to get shafted, get an attorney as soon as possible. The insurance appraiser WILL lowball on your bike and the only way to really mean business is to hire a lawyer. I usually dislike litigation but I wouldn't feel any remorse if my **** got ****ed up. Especially since that ***** will not own up to what she did. No one is willing to take responsibillity anymore -- it is sad that we have to use lawyers to make up for people's lack of accountability.

I sincerely hope that everything works out.

auroch

thanks for the advice everyone. esp. panasonic. you've got me pretty freaked out. I briefly spoke two-degrees of separation with a lawyer and he suggested I get one quote from the insurance co. If they low-ball, I'm to mention my litigation attorny and if I'm still not happy then he's on the case.

good news is that I took my bike to get estimates and considering its totaled (and needs to be surrendered) I got some good quotes.

Anyways just an update. I'm thinkin' of just buying a new bike despite everything. Its been too long not riding fixed and a chrome pista would be pretty cool

SD Fixed

Unless they have the tire warrenty.

Rev.Chuck

There are fewer and fewer good pranks. My classic favorite is enameling a pingpong ball and dropping it in the tank. But since unleaded restrictors there are fewer and fewer cars you can fit the ball in. Blocking up the drive wheels so they are just off the ground is a good one(and does no permanent damage)