Friday 14 August 2015

Every Picture Tells a Story #3 - Bent MZ, February 2006.

What we have here is a somewhat bent MZ ETZ301 Saxon. This was caused by a car crashing into it. Unfortunately I was riding it at the time.

I was on my way to work when a car drove into me on a roundabout near my home. It was a woman taking her kids to school and was, I assume distracted by them. The car hit the bike side-on just behind me in the area of the rear wheel. The bike and I were sent flying. I recall lying on the ground, not in any pain, but wiggling my fingers and toes to check if I'd become a quadriplegic. All seemed ok, with only a little pain in my right hand. Being winter I was wearing many layers of riding gear and was thus well padded. However had the impact been an instant sooner the car would have hit my left leg.

The cops turned up and were quite relaxed about things. They consoled the woman who was a bit upset. They also pushed the bike to the car park of a nearby inn. The AA took my bike home and I went to hospital.

The damage: 
the bike:   indicators, exhaust, swing arm and some cosmetics
me:          broken 5th metacarpal (the bone between your pinkie knuckle and the wrist) 
Fixing both was simple. I had a donor bike that provided all the bits and the bone healed in a few weeks.

I also had a good experience with the driver's insurance company. The accident happened on a Monday, the guy came round on Wednesday.

guy - "what is it?"
me - "an MZ"
guy - "what's it worth?"
me - "£400" (probably too truthful)

The guy phoned later and said they'd give me £350 and I could keep the bike. The cheque fell through my letterbox that Friday.



 
The bike under repair. It only took a few days - MZs are pretty simple to fix

Bent
  Me "in stookie"
  

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