Clobbered

[drumbo]

Just thought I'd share this sad tale of a naive newbie biker with you.

I'm a bit of a johnny come-lately really. Aged 38, I got my very first bike in January of this year, a little XR125. My biker mate had suggested a 2 week biking holiday in S. Ireland that summer with him and his girlfriend, and my plan involved getting my test in and getting a decent machine to do it on. So I got my Honda, my CBT, and after 6 months of L plate weekend excursions and some useful lessons from Stockport School of Motorcycling I went in for my big test, passed with flying colours and part exed my 125 for a Transalp, with a week to go till the trip!

The trip itself was unforgettable, the bike performed beautifully, the scenery fantastic, the roads a pleasure, I was a biking convert!
A couple of thousand miles and the west coast from top to bottom covered.

On returning to Manchester I jumped on the bike at every opportunity. A typical weekend i'd be out on the snake pass or the cat and fiddle road, or scouting round back lanes in cheshire, just enjoying the freedom.

Then it all went pear shaped, after I moved to Levenshulme.

The house I was renting was being sold out from under me by my get-rich-quick buy-to-let "landlord". A musician friend had a room going in his house in Levy, cheap rent and a secure back yard for the bike. However I'd already moved in when I discovered ( idiot! prat! ) that I couldn't fit the bike through the back yard door, and it would have to live in the ginnel between the houses, albeit with a locked gate at either end - to which every house had a key.....

I worked across town and decided I'd commute to work on the Honda. For a few weeks it went well - filtering past the queues slashed my journey time in half and I could enjoy a ride every day.

Then one day I was taught a nasty lesson by a muppet in a Corsa: that there are drivers to whom bikers are invisible and to whom the use of indicators is too much effort. Following said muppet down a dual carriageway, alarm bells failed to ring when he slowed approaching a junction, and moved into the left hand lane. "Why", I said to myself," he obviously intends to turn left. Shame he can't be arsed to use his indicators". And so I maintained my course past him. When i was a stone's throw away he suddenly put his foot down and swung a u-turn, right across my path. I had about a second to brake and then i was straight into him. Somehow I managed to turn the bike so I hit him at an angle and was spilled into the road. Dazed, bruised, my right wrist and knee having taken a good knock, I sat in the road as the driver, young, obese and agitated, got out of his car and stood around wringing his hands. When asked why he didn't indicate before doing his u-turn, he rather ridiculously insisted that he did indicate, and uttered the classic excuse : "I didn't see you". Despairing, I was mightily relieved when fortune provided a policewoman passing in her car, who turned out to be a biker, and who took over the job of giving the muppet a very hard time. The bike was picked up and parked, later to be taken to a local garage with multiple plastic injuries. I was given tea and sympathy in a nearby house and then ambulanced to the Manchester Royal Infirmary, where after 3 hours I was checked, informed nothing was broken and sent on my way.

The biker policewoman dropped by at one point, assured me she'd be doing the muppet for due care and attention, but also made the valid point that overtaking at a junction carries the risk of precisely this kind of accident. I could only agree.

So, wrist sprained, bike in need of a new fairing and windscreen, I started the tortuous process of an insurance claim, and arranged for the bike to be returned home to its less-than-secure spot in the ginnel. For two weeks I drove or push-biked to work and the bike awaited insurance checks and quotes for repairs, and the insurance company pursued claims for various damages from the muppet. I had finally arranged for the guy from Valve auto in trafford to come and have a look at the bike, when the hand of fate intervened yet again, yesterday, in the form of a large gang of chavs, presumably from nearby hell-estate Gorton, who, having espied the bike under its cover in the ginnel, had been caught by a neighbour in the act of getting through the gate and inspecting the damaged machine. He informed me that they had sloped off and that the bike was still there, so I locked the gate, crossed my fingers, made a note to get the bike moved somewhere safe as soon as, and went to work. I even arranged for a builder to come and quote me a wide metal gate on our back yard....

You can all guess what happened next.... I got home from work on another scuzzy black rainy Manchester night, went out into the back yard to peek over the gate, and, sure enough, the bike was nowhere to be seen, wheeled away by a pack of spotty, scrawny rat-faced tracksuited thieving chav scrotes to an unknown location.

So, as you can see, despite promising beginnings, a litany of naive mistakes has left me one year later, precisely back where i started. A few important lessons learnt of course, but in a rather painful manner. And I'm sure I'll be back on a bike before too long, but by then I'll have moved out of Levenshulme into a place with a garage for starters, and maybe a few more lessons wouldn't go amiss...

[Richard_Schmid]

I f*cking hate chavs. Unlucky mate.

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

Gutted mate, you should have camped out next to your bike with a bloody big bat waiting for the scum to return.
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My Flickr

[.....]

If I ever see a group of chavs like that trying to get my bike and knowing they'll be back again I have a plan. I'll drain the brake fluid out of the bike and fit a ultra quick action throttle and wait for them to come nick it.

Bye bye scum bag.

[Richard_Schmid]

[.....]

[Shamrock]

Bad luck mate.

I presume you had a chain on the bike?

[paulcdb]

[greatmoorred]

Bad news. I used to park mine outside my Flat in Hazel Grove and it got looked at a few times, but it was chained to a wall and had 2 disc locks and an alarm on it, so it never got nicked. Luckily i lived on the A6 too, so plenty of traffic around all the time.
Did you have your lessons with Nigel at ssm ?
He got me through my test. Nice guy.

[drumbo]

Yeah I had a chain on the wheel, but it wasn't chained *to* anything. I suppose I was asking for it really. It's one of them, I was planning on getting the yard door widened and a ground anchor and a huge chain blah blah, but I never got round to it and the accident kind of got in the way....

Still, next time I won't be so daft...

Nigel at SSM did my CBT and one of my training days... I'd recommend him to anyone.

Also I've got a brand new rear tyre that I never got a chance to put on the bike , a Bridgestone Goldwing 120/90 , I'll stick it in the for sale section.

[Stu_666]

Fucking scumbags. Did insurance cover you for theft and are you going to buy another bike eventually? Sounds like you enjoyed it up to that point.

[jackw72]

Do you know it was actually chavs? Could of been anyone a professional, an opportunist, an old man, 2 fat old men...

Mmmm I'm not so quick to sympathise with you now.

Definitely lessons to be learnt though

NEVER overtake at a Junction

Ground Anchors are nigh on necessary at home.

There we go
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08/11/2007 A2 Passed.
Suzuki GSXR 1000 K3
Rapid Training passed

[drumbo]

I'm fully comp, I'll get the payout, and as I say I'll get another bike once the security issues can be addressed.

Jackw72, you are right of course, the eight chavs who my neighbour saw tampering with the gate and looking at the bike that morning probably had nothing to do with it. No doubt they were on their way to church.

And a quick straw poll before I go... any other saints here who never passed a stationary car at a junction or left their bike without securing it to a ground anchor?

[stinkwheel]

I once left my bike not secured to the ground anchor, foolishly thinking "Nobody will steal abike with no engine in it."

I was proven to be very wrong.

Mind you, my other bike got stolen even though it WAS chained to a ground anchor.

My mates C90 was stolen from his back garden and lifted over no fewer than six garden walls.

So what am I saying? If they want it, they are going to steal it anyway. The only way you can stop them is if they don't know it's there.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[jackw72]

Sarcasm is not going to bring your bike back.
Or right your mistakes.

Admitting it was your fault and not the chavs will.

You have to do everything in your power nowadays to stop this stuff and stinkwheel is obviously correct saying they will have it if they want it.

No offence meant just making sure you are not victim of the same things!
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08/11/2007 A2 Passed.
Suzuki GSXR 1000 K3
Rapid Training passed

[kitty kat]

my very rusty,unused for 3 years, E reg GPZ500 got stolen from my back yard, it had no tank, cylinder head, seat or belly pan. Engine was seized, brakes were rusted to hell, basically it was worth nothing and would cost too much to get roadworthy again. Scum bags will take anything regardless. I now keep my Fazer in the hall, it is safer there. Mind you even that is not 100% safe, as it got nicked from my hall one night while I was in bed!! Luckily I was up at 3-30am for work and it had only just been nicked, so police found it being ridden just around the corner and I got it back unhurt.
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Enjoy everyday, tell those you love everyday you love them
Life is too short to fall out with people

[Kwaks]

[Fawbish]

[Stelmer]

Nasty.

My bike is a huge risk at the moment, despite a 15mm chain securley wrapped around the back half of the bike, an alarmed disklock and another disklock.

Gonna take the brake levers off, I need to check them anyway

[jackw72]

Looking back on my other posts now I feel I was probably being a little harsh yeah.

I can only apologise I've been having a bit of a hard time at the moment and I'm a bit snappy...

Sorry about that.


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08/11/2007 A2 Passed.
Suzuki GSXR 1000 K3
Rapid Training passed

[Fawbish]

Fair enough mate.

Mine was a bit shitty too. It just gets my back up a lot when theives are concerned, I just have the utmost raw hatred when it comes to bike theives especially. Under no circumstances could I forgive a bike thief. Unless...nope, I couldnt.

We work hard and do everything the honest way, and absolute f*ckin c*nts like those bastards think they can just waltz off with your most prized possession.

Some people may say "Yeah its only money" and yes material things can be replaced...but for christ sake they shouldnt have to be replaced. I really do pity my future children if I have any. Poor little sods have gotta grow up in this shitty world.
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"Oh....it looks like Average Joe's is forfeiting the match!" - "Yeah, its a risky strategy but lets see if it pays off for 'em Cotton."

[DEN MONKEY]

unlucky mate.

had a mate have his car broken into 2 nights ago and take his stereo, amps and subs. About 3 grands worth of gear in it. Not ot mention sunglasses etc .

Thing is on that night I was 2 streets from his place and spotted 3 guys hunched down behind a car.
So I pulled up and sat there watching them to make sure they could see me doing so.
They then wandered off but I went to the end of the street and allowed them to see me watching them still.
i considered calling the cops but thought they would have moved along.
Who knows if it was them or not but I guess as you learned it's better to go with your gut when something looks wrong and do something about it.
Maybe if I had called the cops it may have saved his gear being ripped off.

20/20 vision in hindsight. Just don't fall for it again.
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meh

[thegubner]

So you move to levenshulme, knowing what the area is like, and leave your bike in a ginnel at the back of some terraced houses in levenshulme and get it nicked.

Are you surprised?

Really?

Did you not think to buy a big chain and sling it over your wall padlocking it to something?

Would have been better than just leaving it out the back, those gates at either end of the ginnels may as well not be there, my mate has a key for god knows how many ginnels in stockport and manchester so he can go in and remove scrap metal.

[drumbo]

Guvnor. No, not surprised, just pissed off. What's with all these "I told you so" posts? Like I haven't figured it out already after getting knocked off my bike and getting it stolen 2 weeks later?

Anyway, the bike has turned up - get this - two doors down, hidden in someones back yard. They'd tried to break the lock with a hammer - no luck. They'd tried to hotwire it ( honda hiss system, no luck again ) so they just left it. Not pros at a wild guess.

A neighbour angle grinded the lock off in a scarily short time, and the bike is back in my yard wedged against the door.

So while its being fixed i have no excuse but to install at least five different security measures in the yard, and we'll see how we get on after that.

[greatmoorred]

Good news then.
Is the person whos garden it ended up in a suspect ?
i was enjoying the amount of loving and sympathy being dished out by all the " I told you so" types, though