:: The story of how I lost my motorcycle :: Published: 8th of April, 2017

I do not write often. But I feel I need to write this down so I do not lose my mind over it.

This is the story of how my bike burned down.

How it happened ]

"We'll leave you guys to get some sleep before the flight", I remember saying, before we left. It was Sunday night, 12th of March. My friend had been organizing a trip to Spain for quite some time, and this was the night before their departure. We gathered at her house for goodbye-drinks, as she would be away for a whole month. She literally lives across the street from me so I came home from university, took a shower and at 22:00 walked across the street to her house. The bike was parked below my block of flats, chained up to a curb post, as it has been for the past 6 months of me having moved into this neighborhood.

After some beers and good fun, I returned home - slightly inebriated. I remember falling asleep like a brick at around 03:00. This is where things start to go downhill. The next thing I remember is me waking up to the sound of a siren right outside. The air in my room smelled of burning plastic. I live on the third floor, and when I looked outside I saw the blocks of flats in the opposite street bathed in orange light. I remember thinking, "it can't be morning already". I stumbled to the balcony from my bed and looked down.

My little black Honda was blazing away in bright, orange flame and a small firetruck was pulling over. For some reason I went in full auto-pilot mode, I put on my jacket and shoes, and went down to the firefighters blasting the skeleton of the bike with water. That was it, and it really was over that quickly.

The Aftermath ]

The bike, after it burned

Other side

Click images for full-size.

This is what was left, after the fightfighters finished. The firefighters themselves were surprisingly reassuring and friendly, and managed to calm me down as the reality of the situation started to hit me, some minutes after I went down to the street to the burning scene. My bike had burned down.

It was 06:05 when the firefighters were called by one of the neighbors, and it was now 06:30. The fire was put out and we started exploring the scene. It was a mess, with all of the plastics having melted and there being a crust of the stuff on the ground, concealing everything that might have been useful. Note the tools that were underneath the backseat, the only metal parts to have survived the fire, now lying besides the tires.

Two investigators from the fire-brigade arrived at the same time as the insurance first-response guy. They all took a verbal testimony of the events from me, and took photos. No crime-scene data, no investigation, no nothing. The fire-brigade guys really did try to calm me down however, and one of them even rolled me a cigarette because he saw that I was freaking out. All in all, I remember them as a voice of reason and calm in a sea of chaos and stress.

A slight note here: The gas-tank did not catch fire and the fuel did not explode. This, amidst all the bad-luck, was good as I had 16L (4.2 gallons) of gas in it. I had filled it up the day before. If it had gone up, there would've been a fireball, and there's a couple of elderly ladies living on the ground floor 2 feet next to where the bike was parked. They would have been at huge risk, and I would have been the one to blame.

Trying to find out "Why" ]

The bike's chain, seemingly untouched

Being loaded up on the insurance truck

After I was summoned at the Fire-brigade offices to give an official statement of what I thought happened, we started looking at "who" and "why" the bike burned. I was asked if I had personal enemies or past relationships that could take revenge by burning the bike. I could only answer "no". I'm a 25-year old computer-science student, my friends are few, my relationships fewer. I had no enemies or people pissed enough at me to do something like this.

Another theory was that someone tried to steal it, couldn't, then set it on fire because out of frustration. All I could make of the chain and lock, though, was that it was untouched and untampered. We could only conclude that it was arson, and nobody has seen who did it.

A week after that, the investigator cotancted me about a possible suspect, living opposite from where the bike was parked, that had a history of prison time, violence, and had threatened other neighbors in the past, that he would burn their bikes (there were 2 scooters parked next to mine). They say that he's probably the one that did it. I've caught him looking at me from his window sometimes, but we never antagonized each other, and he never spoke to me. I never thought he could do something like this out of the blue. I also feel that the neighbors that this guy had beef with are trying to use the arson to point the police at him because they don't like him. He's an easy target, and he fits the bill. In the end, I feel I'm in the middle of a hateful exchange that I never asked for, and I might be hating a guy that might've had nothing to do with the whole thing.

What happens now ]

Me, standing next to what's left

I do not know. I have gone through nothing like this before. I never would have expected it.

All I can say for sure is that I wish for no-one to experience this. The whole situation has been a rollercoaster, and has set me back a lot. The CB500F represented all the money I had made in my life, working with my own two hands. I do not have enough to buy a new one. It was also my only means of commuting to the university. It was not only an emotional hit, but also an academic one, as I'm missing classes left and right in these past weeks. Not to mention the beaurocracy I've had to deal with, in the fire-brigade and police (Yay, Greece!).

As I also mentioned in the first Reddit thread I made, and thank god for the help of the gentlemen there, the mechanic was trying to take advantage of me trying to "fix" an unrepairable bike. He tried to scam me into buying 3000€ worth of parts, that I would "surely get out of the insurance". Thanks to their advice, I avoided it and didn't rush, though the insurance is still trying to only give me a fraction of the compensation that is listed in the contract, and generally skim on everything.

As per their advice also, I've started speaking with a lawyer about getting the full amount I was insured for. It's only half the cost of the bike, but at least it's something. I believe I won't be getting on another bike for some time to come. The bike's remains are stored in a garage until then.

Here are the exact numbers of the damage:

My bike: Honda CB500F, 2015 How much I paid for it: €6200 (~$6600) What I think was its current value: €4000-4500 (~$4200) How much I was insured for in case of fire: €3000 (~$3200), clearly written What the insurance offered me: €1300 (~$1380)

The insurance company is "Atlantic (Greek: Ατλαντική Ένωση)", belonging to: Baloise Group (Switzerland) and Basler (Germany).

A conclusion, and a warning to all other city bike-bros ]

So long, and thanks for all the memories

Whoever lives in a city area rarely has the privilege of indoor/garage parking. Many of us need to park our bikes outside. What I would like to shout to you, now that I've had this whole thing happen to me, is this:

Do not let yourselves grow comfortable and say "Fuck it, it won't happen to me". Your bike is something you love, something you build memories with. Take care of it, so it takes care of you. Leave it out of the public eye, park it somewhere where a random passerby looking to start trouble won't have the opportunity to do so. There were many times that I caught myself too bored to lock up my bike with the chain, or neglecting to put on the alarm. I grew comfortable.

Always assume the worst. I made the mistake of not doing so.

As a final plea from me, if you've had a similar experience, could you please pass me any information that has helped you? Anything I should be doing or not doing, or anything that you see in the pictures that might help the investigation. It will be extremely appreciated as nothing like this has happened to me before. Use my e-mail to reach me, or reply to the Reddit thread. I will be checking everything.

Thank you for reading this,

-Dimitris