He then dropped it – he slipped on soapy water mixed with general road filth left all over the floor.

I went mad. My pristine 901 had scratches on the low tanks and a busted brake lever. The OE handguard was broken. The bike was unrideable. It turns out the car wash was operating without insurance, or at least any insurance they would tell me about, so I reported the claim to my insurer who told me that as the bike was in the vehicle cleaner’s hands, and I had given it to them, my fully comp policy would not pay up.

This was after they had tried to give me a ‘courtesy’ bike which was rapidly withdrawn. I am at my wit’s end and facing a summer without a bike.

What should I do?

Answer

You should calm down, buy yourself a brake lever and fit it, and invest in some Barkbusters.

Your email had some screenshots of WhatsApp conversations with the guy who seems to run the car wash. He said he would pay for the brake lever and handguard and their fitting at your local KTM dealership. These are stock items that all dealers carry or can get in 24 hours. There are dozens available now online. They are expensive for a brake lever, I’ll grant you, but I found dozens.

From your photos, it looks like the handguards are plastic, but you want them to pay for some proper handguards. They broke the plastic ones: you can’t get a free upgrade.

It seems to me you listened to an accident management company that wanted you to take one of their bikes on hire (it wouldn’t have been anything as nice as your Norden), but once they realised there was no claim they said “no hire bike” after they had built up this claim in your head to be worth a lot of money. It would be, as your bike would have disappeared for weeks and they’d have been charging you hire for a bike, storage for yours, engineer’s reports and so on. You’d not have seen any of that money – there was money to be had by the accident management company.

I also doubt a three-year-old Norden used for mud plugging (I also see your tyres are on the knobbly end of the spectrum) would be pristine. If there is damage over and above the brake lever and handguards, it is up to you to prove it was linked to the drop. I can see it has double-take folding mirrors. Everything about your bike tells me it’s been used at the rougher end of greenlaning.

If you really want to sue, you do have a case in law. The car wash has a duty to use reasonable skill and care; dropping a bike is a breach of that. Your remedy is the cost of putting the damage right. So, one brake lever and one OE handguard, both fitted – which the guy who runs the car wash has already said he’d pay you.

Why you’re at your wit’s end escapes me. Your bike is not out of action for the summer. It needs a brake lever. I bet if you’d dropped it on a lane, you’d have fixed it and learned the hard way that proper handguards are a good idea.

If you sued, you’d be suing persons unknown operating as a car wash, with no names, no registered company and no permanent address, who had already offered you a proper remedy in law. You could sue, but it would be a lot easier to take up the offer of repairs and, frankly, dial down the reaction.

Andrew Dalton

RiDE– July 2025