A Crash Story: Tell me what I did wrong.

Tarckives Bikes
1

I hit a guy’s car today. I was riding between the lane and the parked cars, hit a bad patch of pavement, got a bit shaken up, looked down, looked up, realized the van in front of me had stopped, slammed on my brake, and hit the back. No big deal, I wasn’t that hurt, except my bar went into the guy’s light.

He asked me if I was okay, I said that I was.

I grabbed my bike and got ready to leave, and then noticed the light.

He told me I had to replace it.

I was late for work, had slept like 3 hours last night (not for lack of trying for 8), and was a bit shaken up. I asked what I had to do.

He quoted me a price- about $50- asked for ID, and since I wanted to avoid any insurance/police fuss (I don’t have a clean driving record and my bike was lacking in reflectors, lights, only had one brake, no bell- I expected to get into quite the conundrum, and at the least get fined for more than the cost of the light), I asked if I could just give him cash. He said I could, so I did.

And we parted ways. Looking back on the event, I probably messed up. Tarckbike, tell me how to not do so in the future!

Also my shoulder is starting to hurt where I hit the car. I wasn’t going very fast. Should I see a doctor?

2

Don’t bother going to the doctor. Wait that shit out a little.

3

that sucks… if isn’t really painful… i agree with bold.
as for what u did wrong… not much… shit happens to everyone.

4

I probably would have rode off immediately. Just do that next time.

5

one of my friends was riding an electric bike home from a party once and smashed into the back end of a suv… fucking up his face. huge scars.

6

idk 50 bucks isnt a huge amount of money and you probably saved yourself a ton of trouble who knows

7

I’d much rather pay 50 bucks than call the cops. Lights arent cheap and if it was a work van he could have those special beeping backup lights. You didnt do anything wrong, shit happens.

8

Thanks for the replies.

I was thinking ride away but I was really close to work and didn’t think I could have hid out.

I kinda walked away thinking I had to have screwed myself somehow, so hearing that I didn’t is nice.

9

i did that to a taxi once. then i realized it was a taxi, and therefore my enemy, and i rode off thinking “good job”.

10

ditto. tarck is about bolting.

11

[quote=“doofo”]you rear ended the guy and then paid to settle the damage without dealing with insurance bullshit

i dont see the problem[/quote]

I figured it might have been some elaborate “take advantage of cyclists” scam that I had played right into, or that I was gonna get fucked in the long term for it. Random anxiety, that tarckbike.com helps me with by making me feel silly for worrying about in the first place.

12

Sounds like you’ll be fine.

13

I’ll tell you what you did wrong. When the guy got out of the van you should have thrown your bike at him and yelled “Share the road, bitch!”

You need to stand up for the cycling community ‘n’ shit.

14

I did pretty much the exact same thing once and bent my fork. Slightly scratched the car, but they were super nice. I rode around for a week with my biek handling all shitty before I put 2 + 2 together…

15

agreed. id assume a taillight’d cost more than $50 too.

16

agreed. id assume a taillight’d cost more than $50 too.[/quote]

yeah, dude is probably going to tape over it and make a minor damages insurance claim haha.
pocket your 50 bucks and take his lady to dinner.

17

lol. looks like its a win win

18

deductible is probably more than the taillight costs. but more than $50

19

Did the same thing. See my “Face Plant” thread.

20

Yeah, $50 wasn’t shit.

From the sounds of it you’re making it seem like you’d get a fuck ton of fines from the po-po and STILL have to cough up cash to fix dude’s light. You got away clean.