How do I claim for a damaged bike following car encounter?

£98 for a solicitor to obtain insurance details?! Somebody is pulling the wool over your eyes good & proper!

You could've found these yourself via www.askmid.com and, after paying no more than a fiver, the details are displayed. This is assuming you have a vehicle reg number, which is seems that you do.

Once you have these details, you can call the insurer and report the incident as a third party.

I do often wonder how people survive in the great wide world.

EDIT - just seen that somebody posted about askmid prior to me.

Probably too late in the day now, but if you're a member with CTC you can get free cycling related legal advice and in the event of a counter claim you're also covered by 3rd party insurance of up to £10m.

https://www.ctc.org.uk/membership/member-benefits

Didn't see this the first time round... so replying for info purposes more than anything else.

http://www.askmid.com/

You can get his insurance details for £4.00. You can report the incident as a third party report to the vehicle's insurer, who will then contact the insured to attempt to verify the circumstances.

After a while, they concede liability in the event of the driver eventually admitting fault (or the insurer conceding fault whether the insured likes it or not - I've done this on occasion), dispute liability if the insured advises different circumstances, or [usually - the report from 'thefatcyclist' seem... odd, and not legally sustainable] concede if the insured just ignores his insurer and the third party's report is broadly consistent.

If you ride in traffic often, I recommend to get a stand alone policy for your bike from a bicycle insurance company like Velosurance. They cover any damage to the bike and don`t depreciate your bike like homeowners policy would. Also not all homeowners policies cover your bike outside your house. If you want to go via your homeowners , make sure they do.

Hi Wiznae, no probs regards my misunderstanding. The police refused any info once they had left the scene, and apprehended the driver the next day.I tried contacting the officer, but unable to give any details. That is why we had to apply for details via Police Scotland.

Sorry, thefat cyclist I was responding to the original post rather than yourself.

The reason I posted was to see if anyone had a cunning plan to get motorists' insurance details, such as exchanging business cards or something, but no one has commented!

One last point here; If you report a crash to the police ask who is assigned the enquiry. It is possible that the officer will give you the insurance details before completing the paperwork. (Injury crash or not). My experience is in Scotland, I appreciate that this may be different in England and Wales.

Wiznae, it is not a non injury crash, I was injured. It cost my solicitor £98 to obtain the insurance details like you say, and we had to wait 2 months.
However we probably picked the bones out of this from my point of view, and this is not my thread.

The problem for cyclists in these non-injury crashes is obtaining drivers insurance details; perhaps we should offer our contents insurance companies name or our British Cycling membership number to drivers and perhaps it would seem reasonable to drivers to provide insurance details at the time of the crash. Perhaps.

This driver appears to be trying to avoid losing his no claims bonus, however it is a reportable crash under section 170 of the RTA, so the police will obtain his insurance company details and then their stats department will charge a fee to you to provide that information. That fee can be recovered from the drivers insurance company.

The position taken by the insurance company that the policy is invalid is interesting. Why is this? Policy holders are required to report any crash they are involved in, even if they say it is for information only. Failure to report could invalidate the policy, but that would be after the crash, leaving them still open to a claim. Otherwise they could avoid paying out whenever they wanted to.

Errr your lawyer is the one to progress your claim against the other party. If they don't know or care then you are stuffed.

One thing I have found out, the insurance company of the driver are saying that despite communications to the driver, he has not responded, and until he says yes, they cannot enter into negotiations, and that we have to sign a paper which effectively says we are suing him via them. And as he has not communicated with them his policy is invalid.
My lawyer has responded stating that a guilty verdict in a law court should mean no consent is neccessary. Also the insurance policy was valid at the time of the accident, and all the pussy footing about is affecting my "suffering" caused by the crash.
She says they are just trying to wear us down.
Apparently as I have no insurance apart from bike covered by household contents, we have no recourse to ombudsman or british assocoation of insurers.

Its a reportable RTC and by law it has to be recorded within 24 hrs at a Police station. If the bloke isnt playing ball then, once recorded, the cops can give you his insurance details to pursue a claim via his insurance company.

If you've got BC membership (Ride or Race Silver or Gold) they will represent you but my first port of call would be the driver. Ask if he wants to sort it out without involing his insurer. he might be happy just to write you a cheque and forget about it. If he doesn't want to/can't afford to or claims he was not at fault just go direct to his insurer to persue a claim. Rear-end shunts are usually dealt with quickly as the liability is presumed to be with the shunter rather than the shuntee.

As others have advised though make sure you have identified any and all dammage as once you've settled a claim they won't take kindly to you suddenly realising your frame is broken. Also, avoid making any repairs until you've sorted it. If you've got another bike I'd be inclined to ride that until it's resolved.

The good news is that you're not hurt and the guy actually gave you his details. All too often drivers will refuse because 'you're only a bike' and they don't seem to realise that the law still requires them to give their details.

duplicate post deleted

Some months ago I was hit head on by a driver who had been drinking and completely cut a t junction and was fully on my side of road when he hit me as I was proceding to turn right. (can of Bud in the drinks receptical) . He also fled the scene.
I had to pay Scottish Pilice, to find out his insurance company, who refused to discuss the claim in any way until the court case, which took months, but they changed the claim from road accident to personal injury without reference to me. He eventually pled guilty to a plea bargain of dangerous driving reduced to reckless driving.
My solicitor is now fully in charge of the claim. I have road rash to arm and leg, and a continuing pain at top of my leg, otherwise I am ok thankfully, although mentally my joy of riding is degraded.
The rear mech and front mech were damaged as well as frame scratches, and gouge on saddle.
I took the bike to my LBS last week and they have discovered in addition that the carbon fibres are damaged and stretching in the off side chain stay. They have, stated that the bike is dangerous and should not be ridden and should be replaced by the insurance company.
God knows how long this will take to sort out.
I recommend you have your bike carefully checked.

Got hit by a BMW a few weeks back, luckily??? the dealer whose driver was driving it at the time has been very helpful. I do wish I could have been there for the conversation, sorry sir our driver has put a dent in the front of your 12 month old 5 series...

Anyway

I spoke to the CTC solicitors and they sent me all the forms for a small claims if need be. Because no injury not really much point going any other way. Police aren't interested and don't consider it an accident unless the driver does a hit and run, or someone ends up in hospital. or the road gets shut.

First contact the driver, he caused the damage he should pay. Then start on small claims if he gets funny. Do you have anything written down? any admission of guilt by the driver, although driving into someone tends to be looked at as guilty by stupidity as I understand it.

Get the frame checked out by a LBS - maybe even Condor as you're in London. IMHO your wheel is a write-off. I had far less damage than you describe to mine and Mavic replaced it (crash insurance). If you LBS is sensible they'll send it back to Mavic to verify this. If you took out their crash insurance (which is very good!) then provided it's still in date, you've got the receipt for the wheels, serial nos (by the valve stem), then they should replace it. If not I'd start chasing the driver for a replacement wheel, and they're not cheap! If you're with BC/CTC contact their legal dept for better advice.

I wouldn't trust the wheel or frame to a repair. If the wheel gets repaired then fails completely a couple of months later, you'll find it difficult to go back to the insurer or driver and prove that they should be paying for a new wheel/frame. I'd be looking for replacements.

That said, I'm not sure I'd be using Cosmics for a rush-hour city ride.

Dunno, but don't assume your frame is OK. You need someone to look at it in detail. I wouldn't trust a frame that had been smacked from behind, no matter whether it "looked ok" or not.

Beekie