My neighbor knocked over my bike

[Zooks]

Live and let live dude. Karma tells me that she was nice enough to leave a note so you should just work it out between you. As far as "compensated for your time" - this seems a little petty to me. I charge by the hour for my job so I know that time = money, but in some cases it's just better to 'let it slide.'

This may have taught her a valuable lesson about how hard it is to see a bike from inside a large car.

[dardoonk]

If someone would have mashed her Volvo's door, would she have fixed that herself? It shouldn't be any different for you.

Take the bike over for an estimate at your local dealer and find out would cost if they were going to repair it. Now you have an accurate estimate & if you want to work out a deal with her to fix it yourself, you have somewhere to negotiate from. Even if she paid 2X what the parts cost, you are allowing her to avoid the risk of higher insurance premiums.

[bwringer]

I agree with keeping the insurance companies out of it. But whatever you do, don't let a shop actually do any work on your bike. Get an estimate if you want, but don't expect them to want to do anything but tell you it's a total.

Personally, I'd just do it all myself and leave a shop and ins. co. out of it. You'll come out with a little money for your trouble, and the neighbor's insurance rates won't go up, so she should be happy to go along.

Also, I'd replace the handlebars instead of trying to straighten them. Why fart around trying to straighten and possibly weaken a very important but inexpensive ($20 - $40) part?