More than a year ago, I'd ridden my bike to an inner-city Perth suburb on a Friday night to meet up with other motorcyclists.

The law regarding parking in peculiar in Western Australia, there's no parking on the footpath like in Melbourne, and bikes are not permitted to park in car bays.

There are pitifully few motorcycle bays, and these run parallel to the pavement in the gutter.  Where I was headed, there were no bike bays at all.

For years and years, motorcyclists have congregated on a Friday night at this place, and we've always parked in the car bays and on the footpath.   This has been kindly ignored by the authorities.

On this particular Friday night, I'd parked my FJ1100 on the footpath next to a trike and a Ducati, and gone off to find some dinner.  Halfway through my noodles, I was summoned back - my bike had been knocked over.

I don't remember crossing the road or walking up to where the bikes were parked, I guess cars and pedestrians alike just got out of the way of a severely pissed-off redhead.

The cops were there, they'd taken details of the drunk guy who'd been staggering up the footpath, had stumbled and knocked over the bikes, domino-style.

Most significantly, my bike had a huge dent in its tank, it also had assorted other scratches and bruises which added up to $3500 damage.  The insurance company said at that price, they'd write it off, so we haggled and they agreed to $2600 of repairs.

The new tank took eight weeks to come over from Japan, but everything else was fixed up pretty much straight after I'd paid my $350 excess.   Because it wasn't my fault and I'd been able to supply the name of the guy responsible, my no-claim bonus didn't suffer, but I wasn't going to see my excess until the drunk paid the insurance company back. 

The drunk claimed he'd been pushed, and that it was my fault because my bike had been parked illegally.  The matter was put in the hands of solicitors, and I figured it was best to just cut my losses.  Chances were, the drunk would offer to repay the debt at 50c a week, and I'd be riding a motorised wheelchair before I saw my excess.

Then, last week, 15 months later, I got a cheque from the insurancecompany.

It seems there is some justice in the world, it's just very, very slow.

Elle