After climbing out of the ditch I found the front brake had locked on solid. Since then the dealer and manufacturer basically told me to sod off, the accident wasn’t their fault and the problem with the brakes is because I fitted aftermarket levers.
Am I stuffed or do I have a claim? I now have a totalled bike, a broken arm and been off work for six weeks.
Answer
I hate it when manufacturers/companies don’t take responsibility for their muck up! If you spanner something up, apologise and fix it. In essence, you are not stuffed and the dealer/manufacturer is full of the proverbial. We had a rash of cases just like this about 18 months ago.
What should have happened is when they sorted the master cylinder they should have put a standard brake lever back on, not refitted your aftermarket one. After all, this aftermarket lever was designed to work with the original master cylinder.
As for proving your case, evidence is going to be the key. Therefore, do not let the bike get scrapped/fixed etc. as you will need an expert engineer to look at the brake lever and master cylinder so you can prove what they did to the bike caused the accident.
Andrew ‘Chef’ Prendergast
Motorcycle Monthly March 2016
