Insurance company totaled bike rebuild done..

About 2 years ago I picked up what I thought would be a good deal and an easy rebuild. Well it is now 2 years later and I am done with the rebuild. I actually needed a break from tractors or so I thought. No I didn't work hour after hour on it.
When an insurance company totals a vehicle I guess they know what they are doing. This bike was laid down with obvious cosmetic damage, but when I got to taking it apart, I found a lot of unexpected problems. Oh well live and learn I guess.

I'm not a motorcycle man but do like them. What
model is this?

Three weeks ago a young man was coming up our
road. I had just sat in my easy chair when I heard
him shifting gears. All of a sudden his engine
revved way up and just quit. He had run into the
ditch, hit the end of the neighbor's culvert and
was thrown 50 feet onto a pile of big rocks we
have at the end of our waterway. His Harley was
broke in half and he sustained substantial head
injury. He wasn't wearing a helmet. That was on a
Sunday evening at 8 pm, the following Wednesday he
and his wife were back at the scene looking for
one of his shoes. They were just here visiting
friends. They told us their story. Turned out he
only had to have 29 staples on the outside and 9
stitches on the inside of his head to hold his
scalp on. She had pictures from the emergency
room. Wow! He's lucky to be alive. The friends
they were visiting had worked on his bike front
end. He said on his way home that night it started
to shimmy and he couldn't control it. But then he
said he wanted to reach 100 mph on this oil road
that is only a mile and a quarter long. His wife
was following him in their truck and saw it all
happen. This is the part you won't believe. Two
days before this I was laying on my living room
couch looking out my front door into the clouds.
Just for a second I saw what appeared to be an
angle looking in the direction of where he wrecked
his motorcycle. I didn't put this all together
till days after the wreck.

Nice work a very pretty bike I wish I was able to ride again
there is nothing like on windy road, you the bike and total
freedom.
Walt

John B.. It's a Blue one & looks Nice!!

If that isn't testimony to God's Grace, I don't know what is!

(quoted from post at 08:10:47 06/19/14) Nice work a very pretty bike I wish I was able to ride again
there is nothing like on windy road, you the bike and total
freedom.
Walt

Click to expand...

Thanks... It is a 2005 Honda VTX C 1300 with 3500 miles on it.
There is a scrap yard/towing company here in Western , Pa, that seems to get the wreck cleanups off of I80. They get a little bit of everything. Guys seem to go out and buy these bigger bikes and can't handle them or just don't know how to handle them. A few miles down the road and they pile them up.
Oh well that's life in the fast lane I guess.

When an insurance company totals a vehicle, that doesn't mean the vehicle can't be fixed, it just means that when the company applies their own criteria (which varies greatly from company to company) to that particular vehicle they would rather buy the vehicle than pay to repair it.

Case in point: Several years ago, on a dark, rainy morning, several of the neighbor's black angus cattle walked out of the ditch in front of the Pontiac minivan my wife was driving and she nailed three of them. There was even cow poo in the middle of the windshield. The insurance company insisted on fixing the vehicle.

Right then, a local Dodge dealer had an identical Pontiac minivan on his lot with 40K fewer miles than the one my wife was driving. The bottom line was, by the time the insurance company paid to fix our van, plus some undiscovered damage and a rental vehicle for my wife to drive, they would have been $900 ahead if they'd simply bought the van from the Dodge dealer, given it to us, and taken ours.

Sometimes it doesn't make sense.

After the bike is "totaled" the state makes a new title that reflects that, right?

(quoted from post at 09:24:34 06/19/14) When an insurance company totals a vehicle, that doesn't mean the vehicle can't be fixed, it just means that when the company applies their own criteria (which varies greatly from company to company) to that particular vehicle they would rather buy the vehicle than pay to repair it.

Case in point: Several years ago, on a dark, rainy morning, several of the neighbor's black angus cattle walked out of the ditch in front of the Pontiac minivan my wife was driving and she nailed three of them. There was even cow poo in the middle of the windshield. The insurance company insisted on fixing the vehicle.

Right then, a local Dodge dealer had an identical Pontiac minivan on his lot with 40K fewer miles than the one my wife was driving. The bottom line was, by the time the insurance company paid to fix our van, plus some undiscovered damage and a rental vehicle for my wife to drive, they would have been $900 ahead if they'd simply bought the van from the Dodge dealer, given it to us, and taken ours.

Sometimes it doesn't make sense.

Click to expand...

Goose, most insurance companies are not going to buy a vehicle like that for the insured. If the vehicle has a problem then the insured seems to think the insurance company should foot the repair bill.

Most companies look at the book value of the vehicle, dollar amount of the estimate and what a scrap yard will pay. If the value of repairs plus what a scrap yard is willing to pay is 70% or greater than the value of the vehicle often they will opt to total it, cut the insured a check and allow the insured to go buy their own vehicle.

Rick

My experience is and has been, there are two kinds of riders. Those that have gone down, and those that will go down. I've been down more than once, and not because of something that I did or didn't do.

Good luck. Ride safe.

Mark

i think it's a money thing, not a damage thing. i bought a ducati 996 off of fleebay. by the time i bought all the replacement parts i had $ 12,000. in it, not including my labor. still cheaper than buying one outright. no frame or structural damage, but the parts cost out the yeng yang.

(quoted from post at 16:25:34 06/19/14) My experience is and has been, there are two kinds of riders. Those that have gone down, and those that will go down. I've been down more than once, and not because of something that I did or didn't do.

Good luck. Ride safe.

Mark

Click to expand...

knock on wood, every rider i know has gone down except um waa. not to say i haven't been in some very close calls, been riding since i was 12yrs old. i learned very early to be very paranoid cause everyone is out to get ya.

(quoted from post at 10:58:23 06/19/14)

(quoted from post at 09:24:34 06/19/14) When an insurance company totals a vehicle, that doesn't mean the vehicle can't be fixed, it just means that when the company applies their own criteria (which varies greatly from company to company) to that particular vehicle they would rather buy the vehicle than pay to repair it.

Case in point: Several years ago, on a dark, rainy morning, several of the neighbor's black angus cattle walked out of the ditch in front of the Pontiac minivan my wife was driving and she nailed three of them. There was even cow poo in the middle of the windshield. The insurance company insisted on fixing the vehicle.

Right then, a local Dodge dealer had an identical Pontiac minivan on his lot with 40K fewer miles than the one my wife was driving. The bottom line was, by the time the insurance company paid to fix our van, plus some undiscovered damage and a rental vehicle for my wife to drive, they would have been $900 ahead if they'd simply bought the van from the Dodge dealer, given it to us, and taken ours.

Sometimes it doesn't make sense.

Click to expand...

Goose, most insurance companies are not going to buy a vehicle like that for the insured. If the vehicle has a problem then the insured seems to think the insurance company should foot the repair bill.

[b:688397a31c]Most companies look at the book value of the vehicle, dollar amount of the estimate and what a scrap yard will pay. If the value of repairs plus what a scrap yard is willing to pay is 70% or greater than the value of the vehicle often they will opt to total it, cut the insured a check and allow the insured to go buy their own vehicle.[/b:688397a31c]

Rick

Click to expand...

he problem with that is that most times one can not buy an identical vehicle back for the pittance they pay out on a write off

Nice looking bike, I'd say you did a great job!
My downfall seems to be deer. I've hit two on a bike, 20+
years and 1/2 mile apart. Last one got me a LifeFlight ride.
Here's the one I'm currently riding. Carefully. LOL

That was kind of hypothetical. If the insurance company had cut me a check for the asking price of the other van, I'd probably have bought it, 'cause I knew the former owner.

I wonder how the motorcycle market is doing??? I know that a few years ago it was red hot and then died. There where a lot of bikes for sale at BIG loses for the owners.

I used to buy and sell motorcycles every year. The young fellows would buy a new or late model motorcycle when the weather first warmed up and they where working long hours in the construction/building trades. Fast forward to winter and they where laid off an needed Christmas money. I would offer so much cash money and most of the time they would take it. Then come spring I would put them out front of the store I was working at and they would sell like crazy. Heck one fellow sold and bought back the same cycle two years in a row. I told him to just go to his bank and borrow against the bike if he wanted to keep it. I guess he did as he never came back. LOL

Our hired man once told me that about the time you think you know how to ride them, they ride you. More truth than poetry. I had a DR 650 Suzuki that I checked fields with plus pleasure riding. It would do 110 being flat out on the seat. But it didn't have the torque out in the field going slow. So I got a DRZ 400 now but I don't get the gas MPG and the seat it too high for me. I have never gotten it stuck in the mud as I did with my old 165 and 185.

Been years since I rode but not my idea my wife thinks sailing
is safer.
I sat one down at 70 in the gravel on the side of the road, tore
up both sides of the bike that is when learned a good helmet
and leather jacket is the best thing a rider can ware.Walt

Hi
Nice Bike I know where you are coming from, I rebuilt a few burned tractors for guys, Mainly cab fire stuff and a paint job after the repairs /cab replacement.
I follow a guy called one lonely farmer on you tube, he had a JD burn the cab and did a rebuild on it. I messaged him at the start, and said it would be a P.I.T.A to do.

After a good few video clips and about $20.000 he finally got it done. Then publicly stated he would never do a burned tractor again.
I guess I was right and that's why burned tractors don't get fixed by me anymore. It's quite the achievement to do it. But not worth the bother with hidden problems that show up during and after it's finished. Plus the hidden costs as you found.
Regards Robert

(quoted from post at 19:51:15 06/19/14) Been years since I rode but not my idea my wife thinks sailing
is safer.
I sat one down at 70 in the gravel on the side of the road, tore
up both sides of the bike that is when learned a good helmet
and leather jacket is the best thing a rider can ware.Walt

Click to expand...

Thanks for the comments. I am 64 and my wife wants me to give up riding my horse and the bike. That stupid horse has
dumped me a couple of times and although I usually don't end up scratched up, it sure hurts for a while. Him I may quit riding. The bike now is a different story. I have a 95 electra glide that I love to ride. I have had a couple of close calls, but never been down on a bike. If I had to sit on the porch, I would go crazy. My wifes favorite saying is "If you were meant to hang, you won't drown", so keeping that in mind, I will keep riding both. "Just Passin Thru Anyway".