The bike, after hitting a car, sliding on the ground on the left side and then getting wedged underneath a 4×4 took quite a bit of damage (as can be seen in the pictures below). To be more precise, the original repair quote was for R39k, after the insurance assessor came out and negotiated with the repair shop, the revised repair quote is now for R29k. This includes a reduction in labour charges, some cheaper aftermarket parts (mirrors & indicators) and a fibreglass fairing rather than original OEM plastics.

The damage to the bike includes: bent forks, broken radiator, broken left mirror, 3 of 4 indicators broken, rashed alternator cover, every bit of plastic on the bike either is broken, badly rashed or has a chunk taken out of it, front brake lever is gone, left clipon got scraped (I hope it’s not bent), tank has a dent, front fairing stay is mangled, front wheel may be damaged, bent triple tree, damaged swingarm, bent shift lever, and possible damage to the frame. So ye, a fair amount of repairs to be done along with a completely new sprayjob.

My bike (97 Honda CBR 600 F3) on the day I got it.

Below are pictures taken after the crash, bearing in mind that the bike landed on the left. The bike was fairly close to the wall and I was too sore at the time to move the bike to get any decent pictures of the left side. I have no idea how my headlight and windshield survived, the windshield is usually one of the first things to go.

As for my gear, it really doesn’t look that bad. I was wearing all the gear that I have: a leather jacket, leather gloves, boots and helmet, as well as jeans. I would never consider riding with anything less. My helmet has a bunch of scraping on the shell, doens’t look like it took any major impact, I’m not taking a chance it could be compromised on the inside so it’s being replaced with an upgrade. My gloves didn’t take any damage, slight scraping on the knuckles where my left hand hit the ground; these will be upgraded too with race grade gloves so I can have some nice carbon fibre knuckles and kevlar protection. The jacket took quite a bit of rash on the back and shoulders and left arm, I’m pretty glad I was wearing it otherwise I would probably still be nursing some serious wounds on my back and arms. The jacket will need to be repaired, some of the stitches got ripped off, also I’m going to invest in a full racing leather 2-piece suit in short order. My boots came out with some minor scrapes that will quickly be lost amongst the other scratches that I will pick up on my first track day. Lastly I was rather surprised at the state my jeans were in, you would hardly notice that they’ve even been through a crash, sliding on the ground, theres a bit of scuffing and scrapes but no holes or anything, rather surprising considering the damage done to me.

Which brings me on to the last section of this post, personal injury. I came out relatively unscathed and extremely lucky. Had I slid with the bike, I probably would have broken my leg in a couple of places as it got wedged underneath the 4×4. Had there been oncoming traffic… well who knows what may have happened. Instead I came out with two bruised and swolen fingers on my left hand which must have hit the ground really hard, I initially thought they were broken because they sure looked that way considering how much swelling there was, those fears were quickly abated when I realised I could move them with relative ease and little pain. My left hip got some pretty mean rash from the seam of my jeans as well as bruising from the impact. My left elbow is still quite sore from the bruising I received. To the worst of the wounds, I split my knee open, the road must have gripped my jeans which in turn gripped my skin and then pulled it right off my kneecap.

Well thats it for the damage, all thats left now is to detail the recovery :).