In preparation for a big lifestyle change coming our way, i'd sent my old classic car (1968 Triumph 2000 mk1 auto) to Devon (from London) to sit in a family friend's garage for a bit. Around the same time, I sent my bike (1998 Honda Blackbird) to the same county and same village, only this time my mother's garage.
Both of them are absolutely mint, shed loads of history receipts, real boys toys.
My mother's 80 year old neighbour, unfortunately, did the automatic challenge, backwards at high speed in his Citroen Picasso, bounced off my mother's house (having punched a hole in the downstairs cloakroom and knocked the cistern and sink off the wall) before going up the driveway, through the locked garage door and wiping out everything in the garage, inc my bike, another bike, lawnmowers and similar, before becoming stuck and having to be freed by the fire brigade.
You can imagine the havoc caused...but...this is where the luck comes in. Apart from the fact the neighbour was o.k. the bike damage, although substantial, was all lights/ panels etc in other words things that bolt on and although hit fairly hard, the car went down the side of it, so it remained upright. After a battle with an insurance company's assessor about writing it off....they are going to repair it, with no mention of write off.
If i'd placed the vehicles the other way around, the Triumph would have been well and truly squashed, so would have been no more ....and i've owned that for over 20 years.
So all and all in the circs...a right result.
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