Well I'm just finally getting round to posting this but a couple of weeks ago I was overtaking a car and they pulled out to overtake the van in front obviously without looking in their mirror and I had to ram on the brakes and lost the front end so me and my beautiful bike which I had only bought 2 months ago went sliding down the road. Fortunately I suffered nothing more than bruising and a sore shoulder now my insurance are saying the bike is a write off due to being uneconomical to repair. They haven't yet come back to me with a figure but that brings me to my 2 questions.....1 how much is it worth? It's a 2009 red white and blue HRC with 19500 miles full service history, totally standard which I have loads of photos of before hand to prove was absolutely immaculate...... 2 would you buy it back and repair it? It needs a side fairing, mirror, clip on, bar ends, engine casing, gearshift, rearset and has a scrape on the tail (which is repairable) and there are some superficial scrapes to the swing arm and it has torn off the paddock stand bobbin, I am thinking I would buy carbon covers for this and engine covers, I'd use second hand parts or uprated parts. There didn't seem to be any real damage although it destroyed the frame slider at that side so what's you guys thoughts on this?? The last picture is of it about and hour before this happened Cheers Colin
For my 2 pence worth. I’d wait for their offer and (assuming it will be) say its too low and you want the bike as well. You can then break for spares, or fix it up with a set of chines fairings depending
Unlucky mate, glad you're ok. If I were in your shoes I'd build it back up as a winter/track bike. I couldn't live with a repaired bike as my "good" bike though, if you're the same maybe just draw a line under it and move on.
Glad you are ok! I went through the same thing on my 09 hrc. If you interested read here. https://www.1000rr.co.uk/threads/cat-n-buy-my-old-bike-back-or-not.36592/#post-478489 Had the choice to buy the bike back but decided it was too much hassle to rebuild it as a track bike or break it as spares. In the end salvage company offered to buy off me and plus the insurance money I got 5k so at the time it was an awesome deal. Bear in mind this 2 and half years ago on a 70K plus blade. At the time I replaced it with a minter 12K 2010 blade about 5K from a dealer!
They may offer you a decent full payout. Second hand prices are through the roof at the minute. I was in the same boat, and had a long conversation with a nice guy from 4th dimension who was dealing with the write off and he'd looked at the sale prices online as I had done, and I got virtually what it was insured for minus a bit of excess. Never a good time to bin your bike but with the covid prices, it's a good a time as any
Thanks that's making me feel better about it, I'm dealing with 4th dimension too, yeah I'm hoping to get out of this well enough that save for my excess I'll be able to buy another exactly the same, I had an Audi A4 Avant that got written off a couple of years ago and I got £500 more than I paid for it and I'd had it for a year and a half. I paid £5300 2 months ago from Chris Walker motorcycles which seems like an absolute steal for a genuine mint 09 plate with full dealer service history and not a mark on it, judging by what is currently for sale. I got £750 for my helmet and leathers claim which will help too, I've got too much gear anyway
Unless you are planning on using it as a basic track bike and get it from the insurance company for an absolute steal I wouldn't waste your time trying to repair it. It also depends what category write off it is, if it's a CAT B you won't have the option of buying it back anyway. I've bought a few insurance write off and they generally require a lot more work than you originally assume.
Yeah I feel this too, I just know how mint the bike was pre accident and couldn't believe how little damage there was to the bike considering it went for about 30 metres down the road on its side, the crash bungs and foot peg took the burnt of it. My leathers and gloves came off worse, I managed to wear holes in my knees and elbows. But back to the bike I know that I could put it back on the road for not too much money but then I'd be riding a written off bike and eventually when I go to sell it that would come back to bite me. I'm just not looking forward to the looking around for another bike it took me long enough to find this one and doubt I'll find another 12 year old bike without a single mark on it.....please someone on here take pity on me and sell me your pride and joy for cheap lol!!
Seeing that crash protector fold like that (and that's why you should always use crash protectors that bolt into the engine mount, even if that means cutting the fairing), I would assume the damage would have been much worse. Glad you're doing ok, that's the best part.
My view is that if the bike is a good example and well looked after and the damage is cosmetic, then if I want to carry on riding a quality sports, the last of its kind before the rider's aid intrusion, then why not keep it provided the damage is coemetic and gradually change the parts. I can also understand the opposit view of letting it go specially specially if you are itching to get a new bike with the latest gizmo (and headache IMO)
Once you have sourced all the original parts and assuming you have all the right tools (Abba swingarm removal etc etc) you'll find that the cost is only slightly less than just going and buying another used one that doesn't have the accident damage label on it.
Well a quick update, spoke to my insurance yesterday and the settlement figure is quite generous I'm just waiting for the cash to hit my bank account and I'll be back on another blade, I was worried they would low ball me and I would be better off buying it back and fixing it up rather than downgrade. Cheers for all the feedback and helpful comments folks.
I would disagree on mounting the crash bungs to the engine mounts. Surely it would cause more damage with the potential twisting of the engine mounts and cracking the casing?
That's good to hear, I got stung as my insurance was only a month old. As the bike was a write off the policy was cancelled so I have to get a new one. Can't remember the exact figure but premium went from alot less than 200 a year to well over 300 even though I was not to blame
That's shit mate, I'm dreading what my insurance is going to cost now, it wasn't my fault but the car didn't stop and I had no witnesses so I've had to claim my own insurance.
Sounds like it's all working out for you, another option some people take is to buy the bike back from the insurance company (if it's a bargain price) and then sell it on, as is, for a profit.
You may want to get some quotes before buying a replacement - you don’t want any (more) nasty surprises.
