Stupid Stunt

I was at an informal bike meet when we noticed a guy on a Honda Africa Twin hoisting wheelies. I didn't pay him particular attention until he lost it and threw his bike into my bike, which in turn knocked my mate's bike down causing £2,000 damage to my bike and £3,500 to my mate's. We got the guy's details, but it transpires that he was uninsured. This didn't take place on the road, it took place in a quiet industrial estate, where a number of bikers meet up for knee down practice on the roundabouts. What do I do?

Keith Edwards

Answer

First of all, you need to be insured yourself. You can make a claim against the Motor Insurers Bureau for the damage to your bike. You will have to pay a £150.00 excess and you will need to cooperate with the Motor Insurers Bureau. If you go on to our website, you will find links there directly to the Motor Insurers Bureau website or you can go straight to their website which is www.mib.org.uk. You can download the forms and forward them on. The MIB will insist on you showing them your certificate of insurance and they also have a complete database of all of the insured vehicles on the road. If you are not on that database, if you do not have insurance the MIB will not pay you out. You also need to report the rider to the police for riding whilst uninsured and you need to take an incident number from the police. It's worth getting details of witnesses, because the MIB do investigate these matters. Finally, the MIB are not the quickest organisation in the world, but they are pretty badly overstretched, because there are so many uninsured vehicles around.

Andrew Dalton

Fast Bikes Issue Number September 2005