Request for advice following collision

[PedallingNowhereSlowly]

Picked the bike up today.

The good news first:
In a month of not riding it, I forgot how civilised it was and how it is the perfect slow bike. Very much enjoyed the ride home from Evans.
The rear wheel is well trued. And OEM mudguard, stay and frame bracket doodab have been fitted. The mechanic also noticed the gear cable had just started to fray at the point the doohicky that slots into the doodabber to select the gear is bolted on, so replaced that for good measure. Only it wasn't correctly adjusted and the barrel adjuster was fully wound out, so I quickly corrected that when I got home.

The bad news:
The impact must have seized one of the mudguard stay bolts in the drive side dropout. A new hole has been drilled, partially through the bolt and partially through the dropout and the stay has been secured with a lock nut and bolt. Some of the old bolt is protruding on the left and the right of the dropout, which means the head of the new bolt and the new nut both sit slightly proud.

The frame was unblemished too when it went in, and there are a couple of small hairline scratches about midway down the seat tube which were not there before (I washed the bike before taking it in).

I guess the mudguard stay repair is perfectly functional, even if it looks a bit MacGyvered and I guess it's a bike shop and not a machine shop.
Still, happy to have the bike back and let that be the end of it. And other than the £35 inspection fee, I've not paid a penny for the repairs.

 

[Bad Company]

Ask for her insurance details and make a claim on her insurance. That way she has to declare on the next few renewals that she was involved in a collision. Her premium will go up and it may prompt her to drive more carefully.

If she’s made a genuine mistake and willing to pay for it that should be enough.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

If she’s made a genuine mistake and willing to pay for it that should be enough.

Excuse me?

Not reporting a collision to to her insurers is breaking the terms of that insurance and actually invalidates it if later discovered.

The general consensus that enforcing motorists responsibilities is a bad thing is remarkable.

If motorists believed they would be held to account for their illegality they wouldn't break the law so casually.

 

[Schneil]

The time taken to pursue an insurance claim for the damage simply wasn't worth it to me. Basically it would only have been one Fulcrum rear wheel which I would not have be able to source so would have to find a similar repla

I was involved in a left hook collision with a driver last year. She was initially helpful, but ghosted me when she found out my bike was damaged and I needed her to pay for repairs.

My 105 shifter was completely goosed. I got her insurance details from the MIB, gave her insurance a call and informed them I'd be making a claim.

I sent the claim handler a link to my helmet camera video. They accepted full liability and paid for a pair of new shifters to be fitted.

It wasn't much hassle. It was much easier than pursuing the driver.

 

[PedallingNowhereSlowly]

I've done a 100 km on the bike post-collision and the Alfine 8 speed internally geared hub appears to have developed a bit of a fault.

In 4th and 8th gear there's definitely something crunching in a non-reassuring way. I suspect both these gears have a stage in common. I don't get it into 8th often, so I only confirmed the other day that it was also affected.

The cable adjustment is spot on, as per the indicators on the hub . The bike has approaching 1800 km on it now. I serviced the hub at 1000 km and it shouldn't be due again until 3000 km. And the other gears are completely silent.

As far as I see it there are three possibilities:

1. I have damaged the hub myself
2. The collision damaged the hub
3. The hub has had a defect since manufacture, which has only just manifested

I did notice an issue riding the bike back from the shop, and as I'd said they had replaced the shift cable. It was out of adjustment, so I put the noise down to that. I resolved that and all was well for a couple of short rides - at least so I thought.

I also know, as of ten years ago I was not your average person on a bike and since I bought this bike I've regained a lot of that form. I set a 50km PR averaging 30km/h the other day over a lumpy route on my slowest fast bike, which sports touring tyres, weighs in at about 18kg and has nothing aero about it.

I've even claimed a good number of PRs on the District. I never stand on the Pedals (that's verbotten with these hubs) but I know I probably put too much power down periodically.

I'm just going to try and avoid using the problem gears on the bike for now. When I find some time, I'll strip the hub down and see if I can see any obvious signs of damage. I suspect the hub shell is fine, so may just replace the internals once they have some more wear on them.

On Edit: A replacement internal hub assembley is available for ~£150. Should I buy one and keep it on the shelf in anticipation of this issue getting worse?

 

[Vantage]

If you have the room and it doesn't hurt your piggy bank, why not.
It never hurts to have backups and that way you can do a replacement there and then instead of waiting days for a part to come through the post...assuming they have it in stock at the time.