I have an excuse, and unfortunately a good one. Back in January, as mentioned, I bough a new, very slightly used, bike, a Kasinski Mirage 250. Within less than two weeks, before even having had time to transfer the documentation, a monkeyspanker drove into it. I was at an intersection, just starting to cross it after my light turned green. The previously mentioned monkeyspanker ran a red light and crashed into the side of my bike. My wife on the back seat was thrown clear. My leg was pinned under the bike.
Bike damage: the impact was rather low-speed, but still, the bike was thrown downwards in a way it's not meant to. Broken footpeg, dented tank, broken front fender, bent handlebars, scratched mirrors, broken side cover, broken tachometer, cracked panel.
Physical damage: my jacket and jeans took the damage, helmet didn't touch the ground until after the collision. My leg was bruised to hell and I was limping for weeks. (I have one of the best health insurances in the country, but it was only the 4th clinic I visited that could give me a simple consult to tell me if something was broken or not. Fortunately, no. Strong bones are a family trait) My wife scratched her foot a bit (gap between sneaker and pant leg) but was otherwise OK.
Well, it would seem fairly obvious that it's the other guy's fault, right? He didn't see it that way. The police suggested we make a settlement at the scene so we wouldn't have to file a report. I offered to settle for the cost of repairs to the bike. Monkeyspanker refused, insisting his light was green. (Absolutely impossible. He's either lying or had been looking at the wrong light) So I made a police report, and he started yapping about how in his country (this one - I'm an obvious foreigner) the legal system never ever works, so if I insist on wasting my time, he's going to get his lawyers on me and get the case appealed into oblivion while suing the city for having misleading traffic lights.
You'd think a charmer like that would get his way, right? Well, another one of my family's hereditary traits is mule-like stubbornness. So I sued the monkeyspanker in small claims court. That got his attention - no matter what you feel about the legal system here, completely ignoring it has consequences.
So he obviously got legal advice. Since he lives in another city (São Paulo), once this came to court, he'd have to come here on a working day to show up in court, or try to risk doing it through a proxy, both of which cost fair bits of money. Plus the money for the lawyers, that are expensive as hell. So he showed up on my Facebook account, all apologetic and accomodating all of a sudden. So we negotiate a deal, where he pays for most of my repairs but saves some face, in a pre-trial settlement. He still can't get out of paying a lawyer to close the case on the trial date.
So in short: he ended up paying much, much more than the initial settlement in lawyer costs and repairs. I still got paid for most of my repairs, though less than I could have got in a winning case IF he had actually paid up (all sorts of ways to dodge that in Brazil, sadly). I just wanted him to lose a good bit of money, as I figure that's the only way to get a monkeyspanker to pay more attention in traffic, and in that sense I consider this a big success :-)
But this process took months, not to mention the repairs (only totally complete two weeks ago). Hence my not posting.
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| My new bike, after repairs, washing, and waxing |
Well, the bike is good as new again. The Kasinski dealerships here really suck. After the collision they had my bike for several days just to assess the damage, and even after their due date hadn't even looked at the thing. So I took it to an independent mechanic down the street specialising in cruisers, which also happens to host all sorts of motorcycle club events and benefits, and they fixed what they could. Their welder (a third party) is a magician - he saved the tank and front fender, they look totally new. All they couldn't fix was the panel and tachometer, though they made it serviceable so it passed inspection for transferring documentation.
Next step was getting a new tachometer. Nope, you can't buy them separately - no way, no how. Even though they're just attached by a screw or two to the panel, you only get them with a new panel. Forums are full of people complaining about this issue. A new panel from the factory here in Brazil costs R$1,963 (one real is roughly 50 cents US), more than I spent on fixing everything else put together.
So I found an online dealer, www.hyosungsource.com, which I highly recommend. New panel there: R$570.13, plus R$165.16 shipping. I threw in a new side panel, a side attachment for my sissy bar (which had broken from previous rust and vibration, not the collision), and some other parts I know I'll need like spark plugs. ALL THAT TOGETHER, with shipping from the far side of the planet AND that third party's profit margins beyond what the factory gets AND the extortionate Brazilian import duties, cost far less than just the panel bought and built domestically in Brazil - I ended up paying half the price of the Brazilian panel, roughly a third of the price of all the parts purchased domestically. I'll recover some of the cost by selling my (functional) old speedometer to another guy who refuses to buy a whole new panel because of a separate element.
Which is a lengthy way to say that the Brazilian economy is screwed, certainly in terms of industry.
I also saved money on repairs by fixing the last things myself :-) My correspondence course in motorcycle repair (a gift from my lovely wife, provided by Instituto Universal Brasileiro) is paying off already.
Other lessons learned:
- Always assume that everyone else in traffic is a blind homicidal idiot;
- Kasinski, while they sell decent bikes, are awful in terms of post-sales support;
- Once again it's proved that, in any matter, there's a Korean who can do it better;
- Paypal sucks. (my payment to Hyosungsource was delayed for weeks by them)
Happy driving, all! Take care in traffic out there.
