IS A MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT IN ANOTHER COUNTRY COVERED?

Question: Is a Motorycle Accident in Another Country Covered by Triptime Insurance?

Answer: YES.

A close call on a motorcycle trip through South America had Triptime Adventure writer, Timothy Darrin, relieved he was covered.

“We left our little B&B in Puyuhuapi outside Trevelin with usual timing at 9:00 am and rode for thirty kilometers to a ferry that was a detour around a road destroyed by a mega landslide. On the twenty-minute ferry ride I had enough time to set up my GoPro helmet mounted camera, which I find completely divides my attention.  Now things start to get interesting. When disembarking the ferry there is always that last minute commotion of putting on gloves and helmet along with finding the ignition key. In this case, we were in a hurry because we planned to get off the ferry in front of the four-wheel vehicles to avoid delay and I didn’t have time to put my gloves on.

Heading up the ramp to the road, I’m third in line with Corsican in front of me.  For some reason, and a good one in the end, the Parisian in front of him stops right in the middle of the road when I’m thinking were good to go.  Gerome the Parisian and the Corsican stop right at the split second when I’m peering down at my gloves which were about to fall off the moving bike. And, shit I with no time to react, BANG! I drilled him right in the rear-end at 10 mph which had the added domino effect of taking all three of us down!  Crashing plastic, bent components were strewn everywhere. Even worse, his break lever and bracket were totally destroyed.  My bike had only minor plastic cowling damaged.  If you know anything about Corsicans, you don’t want to cross their line. Profanities were directed at me, in English no less, and I felt pretty dumb. Luckily no one was injured in the melee.

We gathered ourselves, picked the bikes up and moved over to the roadside to wait for three more ferries when Andres was to arrive with our support truck.  Andres assessed the situation. We had Suzanna’s bike in the back of the truck which was a source of spare parts, so I thought. You have to understand that these guys are Google executives and high up with teams they manage, with the ability to assess issues. They proved to be topnotch thinkers and very nice nerds.  I’m feeling pretty bad about creating a ruckus, especially because it took time from our riding.  In the end, I volunteered my bike to Eric, the Corsican, and I rode his bike the 300 kilometers, on mostly “ripio” (dirt and loose gravel roads), with no brakes for the rest of the day.

Andres and I hatched a plan to repair the motorcycle. I was to ride as quickly as possible to our destination and contact a mechanic he knew who might be able to fix it.  Understand, there are no services out here, no BMW motorcycle shops, not anything!  Obviously, Eric refused to ride a bike without front bakes.  You really don’t use them in the dirt anyway, but I felt it was no big deal riding his front brakeless bike. My penance for the crash was riding that piece of shit and having to give up my beautiful BMW GS 1200 ADV.

I jammed over to Coyhaique where we hoped to find a mechanic. When I arrived, I had to wait for a text from Andres giving me directions to the garage and letting me know when he would arrive with the truck. Together, with a real team effort, we totally “MacGyvered” the brake lever and got it to work.  I retuned the bike to Eric, he was good with it and I was back on my beast which I affectionately call the “Pregnant Guppy”. It is just so bulbous and ridiculous looking, but boy does it go well and get the job, thank God.  Another thank God was for opting in on the damage insurance!

What a day, what a doozy out here on the ripio of Patagonia.

P.S. Yes, it’s all on GoPro!  Totally by mistake.

-Timothy Darrin, Adventure Writer

“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit.” 

  Napoleon Hill