Tag Archives: R&G

White Van Man 1 : Triumph Sprint 0 (Updated 13-Aug-2010)

I guess that 35 years without a bike accident had to end at some time…

(not counting dropping it on my drive last year…)

15:20 Wednesday 21st July) I had just finished a hot and exhausting day’s work moving my son from Greenwich to a new flat in Nunhead. Back on the bike and an appointment in Tunbridge Wells so heading for the A2/M25.

In Lewisham and New Cross, bikes are allowed in the bus lanes, so there I was skipping past the heavy traffic down the bus lane. At the lights was a white van (why was he in the bus lane?). I pulled up behind him (as you do), only to see his reversing lights come on

3 seconds is not enough time to haul a Sprint 6 feet backwards…

With an almighty crunch, the front of my bike disappeared beneath his rear bumper, far enough such that the headlight fairing was jammed up against his rear doors.

I jumped off and had a good curse.

First inspection would indicate bent forks, smashed plastics, possibly bent wheel.

The front wheel was so far beneath the back of his van that the nose fairing was jammed up against the rear doors (also suspect bent upper fairing frame…)

When he pulled away, the bike (which was jammed upright), fell over to the left and scratched the mirror, crash bung, top box and bent the gear lever. Note that my new l/h fairing panel was undamaged!

R&Gs took the pain for the left hand fairing panel.

Gear lever is well bent

And it landed on the Givi box.
Recovered home by Carole Nash (great service)

Question:
If he denies it, who would you believe?
“He reversed into me”
“He was going too fast and rode into the back of me” ?
There were no witnesses – by the time I’d jumped off and cursed, the lights had changed and they’d all buggered off.

I had been home barely long enough to explain the SWMBO, when I received a call from his insurers (Aviva):
“Our insured has admitted liability and we’d like to clear this up as soon as possible. Can you get your bike collected asap and we’ll sent our assessor round to discuss the quote. You don’t have to involve your insurance company. It is quicker and cheaper for us to deal direct”

Update 22-July-10

Things are moving fast: bike collected by Bulldog Triumph and carted off to their workshop for an “initial assessment”:

“Looks like a write-off Steve…”

Update 23-July-10

Suzuki Bandit 1250 arrives in the morning. It was that or £15 per day for loss of use.

Went round to Bulldog: “Looks like a write-off Steve…”

Update 25-July-10

Bandit was late due to delivery driver calling in sick on Saturday morning (can’t get the staff can you?)

Here it is:

First impressions:

  • Dull
  • Quiet
  • Digital speedo
  • Dull
  • Quite torquey
  • Needs a gear indicator (I kept losing count…)
  • Dull

Reminds me of a Bandit 600 that I rode years ago – it may be more modern and have a bigger engine but still about as exciting as watching the F1 from Hochenheim this afternoon.

Update 11-Aug-10

Still got the Bandit.

Insurance company have written off my Sprint and so I’m on the lookout for a replacement.

Update 13-Aug-10

No cheque yet but have already received the demand for the V5C etc…

Still got the Bandit.

Spotted a Stealth Black Sprint.    Hmmm…

R&G Crash Bungs Fitted at Last.

This has taken a while, but there was no way that I could undo the two engine mounting bolts to fit the crash protectors. The obvious answer was to ask my dealer to do it whilst the bike was being serviced. With the fairings off and an experienced tech, it was the work of a few minutes.

Now I feel that I have finally laid my little driveway “incident” to rest.

R&G Crash Bungs (Updated 07-Apr-10)

Bought some of these to fit to my Sprint (see “Oops… post here)

On the 955 Sprint, the engine mounting bolts align perfectly with the cut-out in the fairing, so no cutting required and no fancy expensive ironwork behind the fragile plastic bits!

The fitting has taken a lot longer than I thought; there was no way that I could undo the two engine mounting bolts to fit the crash protectors. The obvious answer was to ask my dealer to do it whilst the bike was being serviced. With the fairings off and an experienced tech, it was the work of a few minutes.

Now I feel that I have finally laid my little driveway “incident” to rest.

Dropped Sprint Finally Fixed

I have written before about the day that I dropped my Triumph Sprint and described how I had picked up a replacement fairing panel.

All it needed was cleaning, preparing, painting and “logo-ing”. I estimated £100 for the paint and £25 for the decal.

Here’s the finished article:

Not altogether a happy ending as the (financial) damage was worse that I had estimated (and to be fair, worse than my dealer had imagined as well). Don’t get me wrong – it’s a great job and I would have gladly plugged the paintshop on here, but at £150 + VAT (£176.25) it’s not a million miles away from the price of a brand new part from Triumph.

Total cost:
Panel: £13.50
Decal: £26.97
Paint: £176.25

Total: £216.72

[does anyone know how to insert justify tabs into html docs like this?]

All that’s required now is to cut the hole for the heated grip switch and fit the fairing panel.

More photos to follow.

[I have appended this post to the end of the original “Oops” post in order to maintain a complete story]

Oops! Dropped my Sprint – Updated 2-Feb-10

October 23rd 2009

Well, had to happen sooner or later…

I reversed my bike out of the garage (as normal) but for some reason (that escapes me, but which I now regret), I flicked the sidestand up. Leaned the bike over onto the (non-existent) sidestand and over she went.

The most embarrassing thing about it is that there was no way that I could pick the bl**dy thing up on my own – I had to draft in a very understanding neighbour and between the two of us, we hauled it back upright.

Now the damage.

The previous owner was a bit of an engineer and made his own crash bungs. Unfortunately, he had fixed them to the fairing rather than to the frame, so all they did was bend the bracket and physically break the fairing.
Fairing Damage October 2009
More Fairing Dama October 2009ge
Also snapped the gear linkage but this was a (relatively) simple fix – a new threaded rod from my local dealer (£8) – I suspect that the fairing damage will be a little more expensive than that!

Update 26-Oct-09
Took off the offending crash bung today and found that the underlying bracket (the one that holds the aux power socket) had just folded up. The bung had neatly punched a hole in the fairing:

Hole
Bent Bracket

Update 12-Nov-09: “How Much???”

Cost of a left hand fairing panel £250+VAT, plus £25 for the decal…

So off to eBay and found this:

Didn't know they came in this colour...

Part Number (stamped inside) 2301746, which according to my dealer and a quick Google search, doesn’t exist. I know that Triumph make all the panels and paint them on-site at Hinckley (I watched them during a factory tour) and this one must have escaped the process. It is plain ABS in the original colour. £5.50 + £8.00 postage. That’s more like it. I estimate about £100 to get it smoothed and painted in Tornado Red, plus £25 for the decal.

Update January 21st 2010

Prepped, painted and “decal-ed” (at last):

Not altogether a happy ending as the (financial) damage was worse that I had estimated (and to be fair, worse than my dealer had imagined as well). Don’t get me wrong – it’s a great job and I would have gladly plugged the paintshop on here, but at £150 + VAT (£176.25) it’s not a million miles away from the price of a brand new part from Triumph.

Total cost:
Panel: £13.50
Decal: £26.97
Paint: £176.25

Total: £216.72

[does anyone know how to insert justify tabs into html docs like this?]

All that’s required now is to cut the hole for the heated grip switch and fit the fairing panel.

Update 29th January 2010

Bought some of these to fit to my Sprint.

On the 955 Sprint, the engine mounting bolts align perfectly with the cut-out in the fairing, so no cutting required and no fancy expensive ironwork behind the fragile plastic bits!

Update 2nd February 2010

Now that I have the new panel, I have to refit the switch for my heated grips. This is the third Sprint ST955 that I’ve fitted with heated grips so thought it was about time that I shared the method…

Firstly, make sure that you are somewhere warm. It was -1ºC in my garage yesterday and there’s nothing quite like cold fingers for screwing up and scratching the nice new (expensive) paintwork!

Here we are in the kitchen…

I have fixed the template (which comes with the kit) to the panel with masking tape. Use lots of this as it is the perfect protection against a wayward drill or rats-tail file!

Small drill and a steady hand…

Remove the template. I hope you made a copy of it because it is strictly a single-use item!

Mask off the cut-out with yet more masking tape and apply rats-tail file (carefully)

Use a small flat file to cut out the shape of the switch.

Clean kitchen.

Polish panel.

Fit to bike.

Job done.

R&G’s are next…