CoMotionRider

If you’re on a club ride and a person behind you in a pace line hits your rear wheel and causes and accident or damage to your bike, do they pay for the damage or do you cover your own bike? Just wondering since it happened to me last night. No one was hurt but broke a spoke on my bike and the rim is bent. Don't know if the rim can be straightened. Good thing was no one went down.

hyhuu

Seriously?

grwoolf

That's a valid question. Generally, each rider pays their own repairs, regardless of fault. It's just part of the risk of riding (or racing).

topflightpro

You assume all risk and responsibility when riding in a group. That's just the way it is.

If they guy who caused the accident wants to offer to pay for the damage, that is up to him. If it were me, I probably wouldn't accept. But otherwise, you are on the hook for repairing your bike.

Still, I'm not sure how that much damage could have been caused to your bike if no one went down.

datlas 

Agree.

If the dude did something stupid like jam on his brakes or stand-up suddenly then maybe, if he has a guilty conscience, he may offer to help.

But really you assume full risk.

That's why you should "pick your wheels" carefully in a group ride....and try not to overlap wheels if possible!

bostongarden

It is hard to imagine that this could bend your rim unless other wheel was coming at you from a 90-degree angle with a head of steam. It is conceivable that your rim was already bent or quite weak before the impact.

CoMotionRider

Thanks, I did not know what the protocol was when something like this happens so I was wondering. I don't mind paying for the damage to my bike I am just glad no one went down or got hurt.
As far as how it happened, people in front slowed and swerved for a hole in the road and the rider behind me got into me and and a piece of their axle was on my spoke. It picked up the rear of my mike and the front of theirs. Everyone behind said they don't know how noone went down.. I guess my rim was bent when their axle got into my spokes, I don't know cause all I did was felt it and then tried to contol my bike.

Picchio Special

What we also don't know is whether it was truly the fault of the guy behind. Yes, avoiding wheel overlap like that is in large measure the responsiblity of the rider behind. But it's also incumbent upon the rider in front to be as smooth as possible and give the other person a "good wheel" to follow. In other words, be smooth with braking, careful not to eject the bike out from under you when standing, maintain your line, etc. In other words, incidents like this one are not necessarily one persons fault.
Edit - was writing while the OP was posting his response. Sometimes, it's no one's fault. Sometimes, stuff happens. In this case, where there was an apparent accordion effect, I'd have a hard time assigning responsibility to the person who hit your wheel, even though it may have been avoidable. Not everyone is a Cavendish-level bike handler.

ColorChange

In our society that has become completely devoid of character, good luck getting the jerk who caused the crash to pay for your stuff. Should he? Absolutely if he caused it. Will he? Good luck. As others have said, it really can't be expected so be careful who you ride with and what wheels you follow.

datlas 

LowCel 

Are you sure your rim is bent? It could just be out of true due to the spoke being broken.

pdedes

This!

grwoolf

That's one of my favorite pics. He's still in great form, looks like he's trying to ride it out. If that wheel would just snap back into shape...

jebbesen

this happened to a friend of mine here at work. Claims he was going 20+ mph and his front tire hit the back tire of the guy riding in front of him. My friend went over his handlebars, shattered his wrist and broke his hip.

Went from doing centuries to not riding again.

MrTuner1970

Dude, just be glad it was as minor as that. No bodily injury is a good thing.

On 2/25/12 I had a wreck with another rider. My medical bills are about $1200 so far, with perhaps another bill(s) showing up--they seem to magically reproduce once you see 2 doctors and get X-rays. We still don't know quite how it happened. We were side by side...I drifted a little towards him; he drifted a little towards me. The next thing we knew is that both of us were on the ground wondering what just happened. There was no warning, and neither of us saw it coming. He was banged up, and my shoulder was separated.

Someone behind us said both of us were at fault since we were both drifting. Which relieved me since I first thought it was entirely my fault. Even if it was all the other guy's fault, it's just the risk of riding. I wouldn't expect him to pay even if he had totally caused it.

RJM

I would think that by getting into a group where you ride so close to each other you have accepted the risks of possibly crashing or something else happening due to the fact you are riding so close to each other.

carpediemracing 

https://bethelspringseries.com/2012-clinic-primary
(I'd recommend all the clinic reading for anyone who wants to do a group ride or a race)

"NEVER swerve for a pothole or manhole unless there is no one behind you. You need to learn how to bunny hop (will go over that later) and keep your eyes more forward."

But, to answer your question, you assume a certain risk when you join a non-regulated activity like a group ride. You also assume a certain risk when doing a regulated activity, like driving a car, and due to the regulations that's why in some situations the person at fault has to pay for your car damages. But in a non-regulated activity, whether it be going for a run with others, a ride with others, even skiing on a slope (unless there's a problem with the lift for example), you're on your own. There's this concept of "You understand things can happen and will happen".

I'm not a lawyer but when someone broke a regulation in a regulated event (and caused me to get hurt), a lot of people asked if I would sue. The "assumed risk" factor is still so significant that it wouldn't make sense for anyone to sue someone in, say, a bike race, even if the damage is in the thousands of dollars and months of lost time.

So even if I was in a wheelchair for a week, even if I missed work for two months (I have an hourly job), even if I had many thousands of dollars of medical bills, there'd be little point in suing the rider that intentionally swung across the road, taking pretty much everyone out behind him. Another rider (ironically scheduled to fly out to law school the next day) broke 5 ribs, and a bunch of riders broke equipment. After the crash he posed for a picture with a teammate (that also crashed) with me in the background, on the ground, unable to get up. He hasn't asked about me once since it happened in 2009.

So, to answer the question, no, no one has any obligation to pay for someone else's broken anything in a group ride. Say the swerver didn't swerve and hit the pothole, and everyone behind hit the pothole. Maybe someone has a flat tire because they didn't check their tire pressure before that ride (because everyone knows that you should always check your tire pressure before every ride, right?). Should the person that didn't swerve and didn't cause a crash, pay for someone else's lack of maintenance?

X-LinkedRider

We have "ride at your own risk and responsibility waivers" on our group rides. If it's a smaller group ride with a couple of friends, just yell at em for being a jackass and give them a hug for finding a reason to buy new wheels and for the simple reason that nobody got hurt. So, what are you planning to buy?

renton

He was just wondering because he didn't know.

CoMotionRider

I was always planning on paying for the repairs to my bike but the large club I ride in has never said what the policy is and I did not know what people did. I was thinking to myself if I had run into someone I would feel responsible for damage to their bike. That is why I a asked the question. We where in the middle of a paceline when they started severing for a hole and noone called it out so I am not blaming the person.
The bike shop says it does not look good for the rim, may be to far out to get back true, so time to maybe look for a new rear rim.

rogerstg

Speaking for yourself?

As far as I see it, this thread alone is full of fine moral character with people trying to understand what may be their responsibility in a situation. Heck, its possible that the person that rode into the wheel did so because the OP swerved unexpectedly. Still not really the OP's fault and certainly not a fault of the guy that hit him. It's all part of the activity.

kv501

This is exactly why I ride alone 90% of the time.

mkadam68

+1 Although if I know I have the space, I might still do it.

caloso

This is why we yell.

datlas 

You think maybe HIS rim is bent?!?