GSXR1000 TT Edition - one less left

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Someone on a TT edition GSXR Thou rear-ended a mate of mine in his car yesterday, near Paddock Wood (if anyone knows, it was on the really fast bit of road between the end of Seven Mile Lane and the Hop Farm). Story was, mate doing 50-odd in lane 1, van pulls out to overtake him without checking first, bike is coming up behind them both, the bike instinctively jinks left to avoid the van and piles into matey's car instead. The bike hit the van as well.

The biker bounced but got up, although he had suspect broken both arms, plus plenty of other injuries. Hell of a lot of damage all round. Mate's car was a 62-plate 3-Series, the biker hit the rear offside and head butted the C-pillar (hard by the look of it). The interior of the boot is severely crumpled; may well be a write off. The van had dents and scrapes. The bike - well, from photos I couldn't work out what it had been at first. Zero fairing left. The left fork leg was torn right out of the top yoke.

Just thought I'd report it in, anyone know the biker? He's going to ache a bit today, but hopefully OK long term.

[CAPP0]

HairyMaclary said:

Just read this again and realise your mate wasn't the biker. Stil hope all invoked are OK as it looked a nasty one given the state of the bike.

That sectoion of road is fast duel carriageway after miles of 50 and 40 to NSL. You are likely to have been behind some dawldling fkwit for some time before you arrive at the first roundabout. This is the best chance to overtake. Silly speeds are pretty easy to hit.

Edited to add a link to googlemaps but can't link with an kidle. This happened on a straight bit of road in near perfect conditions. I would guess at too much speed from the bike coming off the roundabout and the van not checking his mirrors. Potential no rear view mirror. Just a guess.

Edited by HairyMaclary on Tuesday 31st May 08:09

Thanks, yes, my mate was very much the innocent party. He said that the police expected the van and bike's insurers to have to argue it out.

As you say, and as 3DP says, that can be a very fast stretch of road. I imagine it happened exactly as you surmise, it's a great bit of road for a blast, it's not unlikely the bike was well into three figures although of course that's speculation.

I've seen lots of photos of the aftermath. As you said above, there was not one ounce of fairing left on the bike, I had to look closely and ask lots of questions before I worked out what it was. The car he hit is really quite badly damaged. As well as the visible damage on the outside, there's really serious creasing on the inside, as in, creased up hard into tight bends, so that plus the roof damage may be sending it on it's way. The bike has to be totalled, the way the fork was ripped out of the yoke, there's no way there won't be frame damage too.

Still, everyone walked away, that's the main thing.