Ways to protect your car from damage caused by bikers

I am talking only about small dents/scratches here. I have observed that the contribution of bikers towards small dents/scratches on cars (in the city area) is substantial.

BHPian BhaskarG recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Many of us bhpians are bikers. I am also a bike owner. So, what is this “bike-proofing” of my car?

Terminology

“Bike-proofing” – a term coined at the spur of the moment, in the lines of “child-proofing”, “water-proofing” etc. Meaning – preparing your car with accessories etc., so that minimum amount of dent/scratches can be received on the body of your car when a joyriding biker kisses your car.

OR preparing your car in such a way that it acts as a deterrent for bikers to kiss your car. Also, we may call some cars to be more “bike-proof” – for example, a Mahindra Bolero. And some cars less “bike-proof” – for example, MS Swift.

Why

Each one of you, especially if you drive your car in a city, will acknowledge that everyone on the road is not equally civil and respectful to fellow road users as you are. We share the road with each and every person in the society, each with his/her own civil sense. Also, each individual might have different mindsets and different attitudes towards traffic rules. Hence, some differences in road behavior will be present irrespective of vehicle category.

I am talking only about small dents/scratches here. I have observed that the contribution of bikers towards small dents/scratches on cars (in the city area) is substantial. There will be relatively fewer incidents where cars dent/scratch another car. Also, most of you might agree the contributor to the most scratches/dents to your own car are bikes.

I believe the reason behind this might be:

Some of the bikers (and autos) are always in a hurry and ride recklessly.
But the real reason behind that might be because bikers can run away after a scratch/dent easily. The victim car cannot chase down the bike in the city traffic. This eliminates the fear of having to pay any compensation even if he scratches a car.
Also, a car owner is aware of the cost of repairing (denting/painting). So he is more careful on road for sake of his own car.
A biker, on the other hand, has nothing much to lose unless he falls down. Repairing a dent in a car door will cost somewhere north of Rs 5k, whereas nothing for the bike.

I stumbled upon a satirical stand-up comedy video sometime back.

Okay, enough analysis. Now coming to the topic at hand.

The most common areas of interest of bikers are:

The ORVMs: Most frequent hit, but these are not that costly to replace if only the mirrors are damaged. However, most of the time, such side-swipes are harmless, just need to stretch out and re-align the mirrors. So, I do not care much.
The front doors sheet metal: I fear these hits. Costly repair. Also, these kinds of hits are frequent, especially when a biker miscalculates his capacity to overtake through the inner side of a corner. Or doing sneaky manoeuvres between 2 lanes in traffic.
The corners of the rear bumpers: Less frequent. Passable as battle scars.

If you guys want to add anything here, please do.

I like to maintain my cars in pristine condition. Here is a body panel of my 3 years old 46k kms city-driven Santro:

As you can see, when bikers scraped and dented my other car (a Grand i10) on two different occasions, I was sad. Very sad. I decided to do something about it. Did some trips to accessories shops, but the solutions on offer were not of much use. Flipped through online stores, and yet not much to be found there. Seems there is not much you can do! Take a look at the options available:

Option 1: Bumper scratch guards. Found out that these are more useful for prevention of scrapping on walls. Not for my use-case.

Option 2: Bull bars: Front ones are illegal, and should not be put. Rear ones do help a little. But makes the car look ugly. Also chances of damaging the chassis of a hatch?

Option 3: Side beading: Many cars have it from the factory. Mine (Magna Variant) did not have it. So got it installed.

Option 4: Side Steps: I think these should be useful as a deterrent for bikers to come too close. Will be useful for crossovers and SUVs only. Also, the side steps cannot be wider than the width of the car.

Option 5: Big, ugly looking rubber guards. These would have been useful but did not wish to spoil the look of the car.

Option 6: If you guys want to add anything from your side, please do.

Above all these, watch out for bikers and drive carefully. When waiting in traffic, either leave sufficient space for a bike to go through or no space at all. My 2 cents.

Now, which cars are most “bike-proof”?

When I was looking for my second car for city use, I searched in the market for “bike-proof” cars. It may sound silly now, but to the owner of a new car that had been dented twice, it was not silly. Let us quickly go through them:

Mahindra Thar: Large cladding to cushion small scratches all around. Sadly it was out of budget for me.

Toyota Etios cross: Those ugly black plastic claddings do have some use for me, after all. It would have served the purpose well.

Other crossovers with wheel arches and plastic cladding like i20 active, WRV etc.
Also some plastic cladding can be put as accessories in crossovers like Vitara Brezza, Duster etc.

The humble cars from the bygone era those had black (non body colored) protruding bumpers.

Any other car that you would like to add?

Thanks for reading my rambling on this trivial matter. Hope to see some useful ideas from bhpians. At least some of you might be as bothered as I am about this! Happy motoring!

Here’s what GTO had to say about the matter:

A most unique thread, I must say! Well written. Throwing in my 2 paisa:

Drive carefully. In particular, I always keep a little “gap / space” around all 4 sides of my car, whenever possible.

Park carefully.

Don’t let nicks & dents bother you. They’re inevitable in a metro city.

If you do get bothered, get a tough car (Thar / Scorpio / Safari / Innova etc.). People don’t mess with my Jeep the way they do with my other cars.

Here’s what BHPian RedTerrano had to say about the matter:

After 30 years of driving on Indian roads, I have learnt some wisdom.

Scratches, dings, dents are inevitable. Especially in big cities. And the one which hurts the most is the first one. After all, it’s like Meh!

I flaunt mine like war wounds. That’s the only way to retain your sanity as well as your money.

And if it gets too much, always remember, laughter is the best medicine.