A couple of weeks ago I was knocked off riding home from work by a driver who pulled out of a junction into me, without going into detail it was agreed by witnesses and the driver that it wasnt my fault. I suffered minor injuries to my shoulder and arm, though judging by the dent in my helmet it’s safe to say that it did it’s job. (please no helmet debates)

However my road bike was written off, as was my helmet, goretex jacket and jersey, adding up to arround £1100. I’m pursuing it through a cycling specific claims company who have been very helpful, guiding me thorugh the mass of paperwork and arranged for a hire bike.

When asked how long it takes for the claim though, they can’t (understandably) give me any sort of timescale on the claim other than 1-3+ months for the bike and 4+ for a personal injry/loss of earnings claim (I was of work for 3 days) claim.

So my question to anyone who’s been in a similar situation is how long did it take for the claim for equipment? While the hire bike is all well and good i’d rather my own, especially as it’s the time when days are getting shorter and the mountain bike gets resigned to weekends.

I know it’s a very, very vague question but i’d like to see some other peoples experiences

i hope this is worst case, Brother in law was hit by drunk driver, the final settlement took 7 years? he did lose a leg, and suffer back, neck and internal injuries. They did get interim payments at regular intervals throughout the process.

Just warning you, these things can get drawn out and i would chase, find out where the holdups are etc. I sometimes got the impression the legal teams were writing letters for the sake of it so they could increase their cut.

2.5 years here after being caught under a horse box when the driver turned left in-front of me into a one way road while I was at the hitch point.

take your time, record everything, make sure the bike gets a full run down from the LBS for costs ASAP.

7 months from start to finish for me.

hmm, ‘years’ is not the word i wanted to hear! cheers for the advice though.

The claims company said they’re making two seperate claims, one for the gear and one for everything else to reduce holdups for getting money for the bike.

I’m hoping it’s fairly straightforward, i’ve already taken it to a lbs and they’ve sent off a full report. I’m also currently using a hire bike, so that should give the insurance company an incentive to hurry up or they’ll have to pay more. However i’ve had no experience of dealing with solicitors and insurance companies before so i’m expecting the worst.