Hello all,

My name is Johan Janssen (Netherlands) and me and my brother are travelling from Holland to Indonesia and then we will fly to South Africa and drive back to Europe (about 500 days of travelling). We also have a website:

www.whoknowswhere.nl (mainly in Dutch but also some English on it)

I had a motorcycle accident in India (near Sitapur) on november 8th, 2012. We transported the damaged bike on a truck to Kathmandu, Nepal where i'm currently staying.

I was taking over a bus in India and the busdriver pushed me off the road. I had no other option than to hit a tree (with 80 kmph) that was laying next to the road. Me and the bike were launched into the air and then we hit the ground. Result for me: two broken ribs and a broken wrist so I still have plaster for 3 more weeks.

My bike (BMW F800GS - 2008) has the following damage (as far as I know):
- Left mirror is broken
- Right mirror is scratched on the back
- Handle caps are damaged / cracked
- Front fender is badly scratched and torn
- Fender at fork is torn
- Front wheel (rim) is dented (hit tree stump) is kinked
- Plastic caps on the left side are badly damaged and torn in places
- Cockpit lights are loose and broken
- Lighting functions but the housing is broken in half and glasses are broken
- Left turn signal is broken
- Windshield is severely damaged and loose
- Bracket windscreen is skewed and loose
- The crash bars are against the engine block (the engine makes a different sound now)
- Steering wheel / front wheel is bended
- Pannier box on the left side is badly damaged

The busdriver didn't stop so no insurance from that side. I also don't have insurance for the bike so it's going to be an expensive day. I will order the parts in Holland and send them to kathmandu by airplane (I have insurance for sending parts for free) so that's not a problem.

For pictures of the accident / damage see: here

Now i'm looking for a service garage and I found this one:

KATMANDU
HANSRAJ HULASCHAND & CO.
WORD NO. 12
MACHALI TEKU ROAD
KATMANDU - NEPAL
Contact No.
009771-220094

Does anyone now if it's any good or maybe you know a better one? Or did anyone also need service in Kathmandu? Where did you go and what was your experience with the service garage?

Looking for a good motor service shop in Kathmandu who also have experience with big bikes like BMW / KTM etc.

I'm also looking for an aluminium welder to fix my pannierbox.

Hope you can help me with good advice or tips!

Kind regards,

Johan Janssen

Sorry to hear about your accident and troubles in India.

For workshops, take a look in here - there may be somewhere useful
Repair Shops, Southern Asia - The HUBB

There are communities in the HUBB - the link is not easy to find in here, but now I have located it!
Horizons Unlimited Motorcycle Travellers Communities introduction | Horizons Unlimited
You may find some contacts who can advise about local facilities.

The thing for me is, you have only two wrists etc etc but there are lots of bikes in the world - please ensure that you make a full recovery!!

Good luck and sorry that your first post has to be about an accident

__________________
Dave

Thx for the advice all!

I will contact the service shop or KTM shop tomorrow so they can transport the motorcycle to their shop. I still have to order the BMW-parts for fixing my bike. I probably get 20% discount in Holland and the ANWB (Dutch traffic / help organisation) will sent everything to Nepal for free (bought an insurance for sending parts if you can't find it in the country where you are staying). So that's nice

I will post an update about the service and repairing (probably after two weeks).

Kind regards,

Johan

Sorry to hear about your crash, glad it wasn't more serious.

Keep in mind that KTM only sells the little 200cc Duke in Nepal so they might have no experience with big bikes. I had quite a bad experience with KTM Amritsar where they said they could fix my 990 but screwed it up considerably... I know, Nepal isn't India but still...

I rented a Royal Enfield from bikemandu.com and the owner seems quite knowledgeable about big bikes. Maybe he can steer you in the direction of a good mechanic. His name is A Gurung and his number 9803522833.

Good luck!

Update:

4 days ago I received all parts from the Netherlands so my motorcycle will be ready in 3-4 days. Total damage was almost € 6.000,- but I only ordered the parts that I need to drive again (€ 3.500).

I went to the cargo building and I found out you have to pay 46% tax !!! (28% import tax; 5% government tax and 13% VAT). Luckily we found a guy who was willing to fake the papers and he changed the value from the package to € 500,-. I had to pay total 30.000 rupees (app 260 euro) for the tax and some bribes. Better then 46% of € 3.500 for parts you can't even buy in Nepal!

Next week full report about the motorshop
Thx for the help again!

Kind regards,

Johan

www.whoknowswhere.nl

Many thanks to Kathmandu Motor Cycle Servicing Workshop at Kamalpokhari, Kathmandu for repairing my motorcycle!



They (Laxmi - left on pic - & Pushpa - right on pic - Narayan; twinbrothers and owners of the shop) did a really great job. I received all parts about a week ago and today they phoned me that the bike was ready. I would like to recommend this shop to all people because I don't have any complaints about the motorcycle shop.

I had to order all parts in the Netherlands because you can't buy them in Nepal. Pushpa wrote down all parts I had to order and he did good. I didn't need to order extra parts so no extra shippingcosts for me (sending packages by coerier is expensive). You have to send it by coerier because the regular mail can take up to 3 months or will never arrive.

It took them one week to change, align and repair the motorcycle and it looks great! They even cleaned the motorcycle and it looks like new again. I went to their shop like 10 times to check my motorcycle and Pushpa showed me everything he was doing. Nice, patient and friendly people who really know a lot of (big) motorcycles. Really happy with the job so we can continue our journey in 2013!



Total labour costs: 29.000 Nepali Rupees (about 260 euros). labour costs per hour is 300-500 rupees (depending on the difficulty).



Contact
Kathmandu Motor Cycle Servicing Workshop at Kamalpokhari, Kathmandu
It's on the same road (one way) as City center mall (about 200 meters before on the left side). The building doesn't look like a motorcycle shop. In the middle of the building there is an entrance and if you walk down the entrance you will see the shop on the right side.

Phonenumber motorcycle shop: 4422857; mobile Pushpa 9841235749.
Ask for Pushpa (he speaks English).

Kind regards

Johan Janssen

www.whoknowswhere.nl
www.facebook.com/whoknowswheretravel