I had hoped to put off this post until I had something to report… like some sort of amicable resolution — which is appearing to be more and more unlikely by the day. Due to recent developments this post is now warranted.

To clear up the confusion, I’m talking about my bike, and trying to obtain some sort of settlement that is due to me as per the contract I had through my insurance company at the time of my accident. It both their and the repairers responsibility to return the bike or pay me at a value equal to what it was before the accident (less excesses and overinsured value) so that I receive the full benefit of what I had been paying for. For those who have been reading my blog, you will already know this has not been done by any stretch of the imagination. If I hadn’t had insurance at the time, and had just sold the bike as scrap, the money I’d have saved would have bought me a new bike by now.

When I received the bike a few weeks ago it was in an unroadworthy condition yet again. Taking it on the roads was a non-option anyways, when I killed the battery just trying to get it started. This was after promises that the bike had just been serviced, repaired and everything had been fixed.

That was pretty much the last straw for me, and we immediately went back to the insurance company to obtain a favourable resolution. What the insurance company delivered were 2 options, either they get the repairers to pay me out at the current book value of the bike or they take the bike elsewhere and make the repairers pay for that as well. I elected to take the money.

The current book value according to MIB is R38 000. If I were to sell it I’d be lucky to get R30 000. It’s a no-brainer really. Unfortunately what this does mean is that I still lose; and a lot of money that is. In the 13 months since my accident I’ve had it fully insured and have had to pay in excess of R6500 in insurance premiums. On top of this, in December when I first thought everything was finally completed (what a joke that turned out to be), I spent R1600 on a complete service to get it back into running condition. I also paid R900 for the custom “spray job” (I thought I was paying for a high quality spray job, they ended up getting stickers printed — I could have done this myself for less than half the cost at a higher quality seeing as I had the high resolution original design). I also spent R400 on frame sliders. All of this on a bike I haven’t had the opportunity to use.

Now to make a few more things clear. In addition to the money I’ll lose either way, I had the bike overinsured at the time of the accident for R45 000. The actual value was R42 000. So had they originally scrapped it I would have been paid out R40 000 or so. I would also have saved all the money I listed above. That’s not a small amount of money for those of you doing the maths; and I haven’t even listed everything.

Ok, as I said, I elected to take the money. These options were presented to the repairers about 2 weeks ago and I still haven’t heard a single word from them. Not really surprising is it; especially when you consider that we’re now 13 and a half months along, and my bike still isn’t properly fixed.

So this meandering post has brought me to this. The guy handling the above — an independent insurance assessor contracted by MIB — has had a mild heart attack and has ended up in ICU. That’s really not cool and I hope he’s alright and doesn’t have any adverse complications.

But I can’t help but be selfish for a second, what does this mean for me?

And… I shall wait some more, while I continue to pay my insurance premiums.

In other news, the interest rates are going up again next month either 50 or 100 basis points. Not sure which ones, but hopefully not prime :/.

This post is proudly sponsored by the sterling service industry in South Africa.

Yes. It’s the new 2007 600rr.

It seems to have taking a lot of styling cues from the GSXR and R6, not that that is such a bad thing. It’s looking really nice, and I can’t wait to get one. All I need to do now is win the lotto and the red one shall be mine. Time to play Mikes lotto numbers.

More pics found here.

Hello

Because this picture gets posted every springday, here it is:

And happy birthday to my sister.

Well, why not?

I don’t know how much it will achieve, though it’s certainly better than all the people sitting on IRC and forums like MyADSL bitching amongst themselves and doing nothing. (Yes, I know, I’m guilty of this too.)

Is the average consumer knowledgeable enough to understand the anticompetitive market that Telkom promotes? Sure, everyone knows Telkoms prices are too high, along with everything else in this country? (Note the question mark) Not a day goes by when I don’t hear someone moaning about something that’s too expensive, be it petrol, food, clothes, electronics, cars, etc. But that’s not really the point — sadly this is all that people seem to be able to focus on and is probably what people will get from an advert such as this. How many people have you heard want to leave this country because they want cheap, fast internet?…

It was my sanity that I lost. A couple things:

• Bike is screwed — I’ll spare everyone the sordid details
• It’s Friday (yay?)
• The weather is bloody awesome — for riding
• My blog is 1 year old as of 3 days ago — thanks to Mike as I had completely forgotten about this
• Duncan finally fixed his blog — hah :)
• I can’t hear right now — I can’t concentrate as a result :(
• …and… this post brings up the count to 10 for this month — equalled only by August last year

I will generally try posting more often now, seeing as many people thought my blog had died so often.

Well I was having a discussion yesterday on what grounds the police may arrest you at a roadblock or a pullover; and I happened to run across the information below.

So if you don’t already know your rights here they are:

ROADSIDE ARREST ON OUTSTANDING FINES

The LAW SOCIETY OF SA has currently appointed a group of attorneys to deal with this flagrant transgression of the law; for further info on which attorney are taking on cases like these, please call Hester Bezuidenhout 012 338 5872 who will assist .

Know your rights

The traffic/metro police are doing random road block checks. They will also feed your registration into a computer that will show up if you have any outstanding fines. Know your rights.

If you get stopped for outstanding traffic fines – really important for all drivers: Make sure that everybody gets this message.

The Jhb Metro Police, Cape Town Metro Police and other traffic cops have recently developed the nasty habit of locking people up for unpaid fines. These road blocks are typically only happening in and around more affluent areas where their “hit rate” will be higher on traceable entities, with more “fixed” abodes when, as we all know, primary daily offenders in their mini busses literally get away with murder because the cops are too scared to root them out of the townships, or the justice system has no means of putting them over a barrel like the majority of “soft” citizens.

They can only arrest you if:

1. They have the original warrant for your arrest there with them. A copy isn’t good enough, saying it’s at the station isn’t good enough either. They have to show it to you there and then (if they have it, check plan “b”).

2. They have to prove that you received the summons in person. It either had to be delivered to you in person or you had to collect a registered letter from the post office (if they cannot prove you personally received the relevant summons, the warrant of arrest is not legal either).

3. If you do get stopped and they want to arrest you, demand to see the warrant and proof you received the summons (i.e. your own signature on the document when delivered to you).

4. If they don’t have it, the arrest is illegal. Refuse to go. If they still arrest you inform them there and then you will press charges against them for illegal arrest (record everything that is said to you, as well as the chronological procedure of events in detail). These details may well stand you in good stead for a strong case.

5. Technically, if your arrest is illegal, the taking possession of your car by the police and its driving thereof while you are in custody may also constitute theft.

6. When you are released, go to the SAPS immediately and lay a charge against the arresting law body and relevant official.

I’m not sure on the accuracy of this information, but it’s more or less in line with what other people have been saying. If you have a source for the constitution and laws of the road I’d appreciate it.

My bike will either be delivered this afternoon or tomorrow sometime.

I’ll either be elated or dissapointed when I do receive it. At this point in time — based on past experience — I believe the two are mutually exclusive when dealing with these people.

However, from what I understand most of the problems have been fixed. Last week I mentioned I a mate had seen my bike going around. Apparently it went off to Honda centre where everything was sorted out… apparently. This includes fixing the radiator and calibrating the temperature sensor, as well as a full “tune-up” and service. I really hope this fixed the starting problem I was having, as I never did discover the cause of that problem.

I’ll wait and see now, hopefully I’ll be able to write a positive post tomorrow. If not, a negative one is definately in the works.

The other day I sent an email to some random asking a few questions. As usual, the answer I get back sort of answered the one question and completely ignored the others.

This happens to me quite a lot. It’s annoying.

Is it so hard to read the whole email and answer every question? In point form if you must. I hate trying to communicate with people who have an attention span shorter than a potato.

… I don’t know what it is, but I lost it. When I figure out what it is that I’ve lost I’ll be able to start looking for it. I’ll be sure to mention it when I find it.

Incidentally Mike is no longer posting from the future. The sneaky bastard changed his post date before he gave me the lotto numbers.