Crashed on the way home from work tonight

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Okay so i am sat at the front of the lights at a major crossroad at red.
The opposite turning right traffic is going through on the filter, a few cars go through & there is an arctic coming up the hill towards the junction. My light turns green so his filter has gone.
I set off across the lights but the truck keeps going making my gap smaller & smaller.
I managed to swerve through the gap so i did not hit the truck head on but glanced his right corner with my head, shoulder, elbow & upper thigh.I managed to syay on the bike even though the back wheel lifted & got thrown to the left.
As luck would have it a police van with 4 very nice & biker friendly cops were a few cars back at the other side of the lights & stopped me from dragging the truck driver out of the cab.
Insurance details swapped & statements taken i rode home thinking that was a bit too close.
A couple of hours on & i ache pretty bad but everything is still attatched.

The bike is not bad really. Micron can is scratched & a bit bent & also there is a dent in the swingarm where the exhaust has hit it.

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My swingarm hasn't looked that good in years.

Glad your ok, at least you don't need any major fixing or welding!

Starting to get a little annoyed now, the exhaust finally arrived at the dealer on thursday so picked it up after work. Yesterday afternoon started to fit it, side fairing & old exhaust off & attempt to fit the new link pipe. Bloody marvelous the link pipe is only the exact same diameter as the manifold outlet. Called quill exhausts who admitted that the data on there system is incorrect & they have made the link pipe incorrectly. New one will be manufactured & posted out to me. Hope it is not another few weeks as i want it on for s&t. The quill carbon can is a real piece of art & cannot wait to get it on.

Paul.

Fingers crossed for S&T Paul. Srarting to get used to my new FJ as well Tes

That's rotten luck Paul. Hope they sort it and get it to you in time.

Nowt wrong with a good letter of complaint and see what happens.

Cheers
Rosco

Have only just read this post now, and a belated "bad luck but could have been worse" from me.

I had a bit of a scare last week when filtering through traffic on way home from work.I saw a car on right hand side and glanced at it when level with back wheel, and then the idiot turned right into me to try and change lanes.I swerved left to avoid him and I swear when I looked down at my right hand I could not see the road below me for the white of his front wing. I waited for the inevitable bump on MY back wheel but fortunately it never came.

I was only doing 20 - 25mph, but it could have been a sore one

Good save Davie.

I had a couple of cars on the wrong side of the road incidents on my way to and from Aviemore yesterday.

I also was at partially at fault in the pissing rain on the A9 yesterday.

A big 4x4 pulled out at a junction ahead of me (on my left) and fairly quickly indicated and pulled pulled across to the right hand lane although the car I thought he was preparing to overtake was fairly well off in the distance. What I hadn't noticed or realised was that he was actually going to take the exit to the right (off a 70mph dual carriageway) with a very short deceleration lane.

They then started to brake (which I couldn't understand)

He or she obviously noticed me approaching them (and making good ground on them).

I was braking fairly hard and must admit I was fairly close to them (but could still brake harder)

They then came off the brakes and pulled over.

Then I saw the junction they were obviously (but not to me) indicating for. I felt like a right plonker and raised my left hand apologetically.

Thankfully the next junction was only a mile further along (so I felt bad but not too bad)

I'd like to think I wouldn't have hit them even if they had gone for the exit but we'll never know.

It was nice that they noticed me and pulled over - it would have been nicer if they had spotted me before indicating and pulling out causing me to have to brake. Regardless if there had been a collision it probably would have gone down as my fault at worst or 50/50 at best.

Sobering thought though - I probably wouldn't have come out of it smelling of roses.

Rosco

Bloody dangerous things these motorcycles.

Aye. But they are great fun too!

Bet it was a bloody tourist.

The A9 doesn't have the accolade of being Scotland's most dangerous road for nothing.

The big problems are complacency and frustration imho.
You can become complacent due to the fact you're out in the middle of nowhere and forget that there's actually more traffic about than you think and the frustration is born out of the fact that you'll always come up behind lorries limited to 50mph (or less if they're slogging up a hill).

Those that use it regularly are usually pretty switched on, but the danger is it's one of the main tourist routes. So on any given day during the season there's a good chance you'll come across someone making a total balls up of an overtaking manoeuvre.
(The last really bad one I had was a father overtaking on a blind curve with the whole family in the car. I just caught sight of them in between two lorries and barely managed to avoid them by driving through a big layby. The last view I had of them was like that scene out of Planes, Trains and Automobiles where Steve Martin and John Candy found themselves driving on the wrong side of the road between two trucks).

The waste of money that has turned out to be the Edinburgh Tram System would have been better spent dualling the A9 I reckon.

There are some strange anomolies regarding speed restrictions in the UK of which not everyone is conversant. For instance, although vans under 3,5 tonnes can travel at the motorway limit of 70mph the same vehicle is limited to 60mph on a dual carriagway. Similarly HGVs are restricted to 56mph on motorways and dual carriages, but on single lane carriages i.e. the A9 they are restricted to 40mph. In England the police close a blind eye to this as to enforse it would cause the kind of traffic snarl ups seen on the A9 and in particular the A75. Just why the Scotish police do enforce it the way that they do is anyones guess. I suppose they would probably say, thats the law and untill its changed we will uphold it. I do know that various pressure groups are trying to get things changed, but to my knowledge nothing has happened yet. Furball might have more info on this.

My biggest bugbear is the cretins who don't follow the two second rule on it.
So when you are passing, you have to take them two or three at a time then force your way back in (because they haven't left space to the vehicle in front (at which point they get all biscuit arsed) until your next passing opportunity.

The message is simple, leave a bloody gap for those of who aren't happy to plod along at 40 behind a Post Office lorry.

Second biggest is those who are trying to get past and have no clue how to go about it.
What they'll do is sit right up the tail of a lorry and take wee peeks out to see if the road is clear. When it is clear they pull out and have to get moving from the same speed as the lorry.

If you leave a good distance to the back of it you can see far more of the road on both sides and start accelerating early to take advantage of the gap. That way you could be doing 60+ by the time you pull out and you are past far more quickly and safely than going from a standing start.
...also, I've seen one nasty accident as a result of two people doing that 'peeking out' thing at the same time in opposite directions where they slammed into each other.

Driving annoys me.....

No, scratch that, driving doesn't annoy me.
...it's having to share the road with other drivers that annoys me.

New link pipe arrived & i have picked it up. Gonna have a go at fitting it tomorrow afternoon, fingers crossed that they have made it correct this time.

Paul.

Hope so Paul, what a nightmare

Sure is steve this has been going on ages & i still have not got my £350 xs back yet which is annoying.
How are you mate?

Paul.

A bit like your can and connector pipe I'm afraid, more parts (sling) and at lot of time required :( .
Was given a painkiller timetable by my Private Healthcare provider, that working well - so a lot of the time I feel OK

Hope you mend quickly & completely steve.

Paul.

Well at last i have the new exhaust on & it looks fantastic but it is very quiet compared to the micron which i loved the sound of.
Will have to see if i can get used to it or i may sell it & put the micron back on after fettling it up a bit.

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Like the new exhaust, looks really good.

Very nice Paul.
It is a shame that the bike is so dirty.

Lol ross it is a bit dirty up close mate.

Paul.