Hi All, I am a new member hoping to get some advice on a history report for a 03 I was thinking of buying.
Its a single owner bike with accident / damage / Severe listed in 2014.
Reported as Insurance Loss - Vehicle Sold by Insurer. Claim Paid to Insured Vehicle Loss Caused by Impact with an Animal.
The seller is claiming the damage was minor. Windshield, left fairing and speedo but for the cost the insurance company said it was a loss for them . It was too old to them to fix it.
This doesn't sound right to me. How could a few hundred bucks in parts total the bike even if it was 10 yrs old?

 

because they look at what they value the bike at... not what you could reasonably sell it for... their perceived value on a 10 (now 20) year old sport bike is probably pretty low... way lower than you'd consider selling it for. Plus they look at things like parts availability and the hassle of the owner not wanting insurance to cover old parts from ebay, its just not worth the hassle to them so they total it.

Used on ebay now the speedo cluster isn't cheap.. of course i'm looking prices now... but just the lower fairing and speedometer are pushing 1500 if you go with factory parts. Then dealer labor rates even back them to repair were probably another 500 or so. And thats assuming that only those three items needed to be replaces.. I would be it also needed brackets and bolts and other fixes as well depending on what kind of animal it hit.

 

Insurance doesn't look at just cost of parts, but total cost of repair to restore vehicle back to pre-crash condition. That'll include:

1. cost of replacement parts for all damaged items, since many of these items are NLA, I'm using pricing for 2012 CBR1000RR from Partzilla (11-yr old bike)

- 329.65 upper cowl
- 125.06 windshield
- 174.43 upper cowl stay
- 40.32 horn
- 24.80 intake air cover
- 82.83 misc fasteners & clips
- 613.36 headlight
- 51.48 2x headlight bulbs
- 79.27 misc fasteners & clips
- 729.47 meter
- 25.98 misc fasteners
- 395.40 left fairing
- 40.98 misc fasteners
------------
2713.03 TOTAL

2. cost of installation, which can often be multiple times more than just cost of parts alone.


Based on sum of #1 & #2, it may end up costing insurance-company more to repair than just buying comparable bike on market. So they total it and give you market-price for bike so you can go buy another one.

Then lots of people will take discounted payout minus scrap-value of bike that junkyard would give insurance company for bike. This often is great solution because they get their bike back with extra cash! Then they'll buy parts and repair themselves.

Stumbling-block for you is verifying how much of damage was repaired and if it was done competently! I've seen lots of hacked and bumbling repairs by owners that actually makes bike worse!!! If you're not intimately familiar with this model, take it to good mechanic for pre-purchase inspection.

 

Thanks for the reply. It looks like its common for insurance to total for not much damage on an older bike. I am starting to feel better about it and the guy is going to get me pics from the claim. Minor damage is fine but I don't want something that was wrecked.

 

On front-end impacts, forks are often bent and is missed by insurance-adjuster because they "look just fine". Front wheel can be bent. Depending upon size of animal and weight of rider, frame can also be bent. Again, have it inspected by good mechanic.

Also do test-ride and make sure it tracks straight when taking hands off bar @ 100mph. No shaking or pulling or any kind of unruly behaviors. Shouldn't pull or shake when doing hard-braking from 100mph as well.

Do some 360-degree turns left & right in parking-lot. It should dive in and carve turn easily in both directions with same amount of force on bars.

 

When I asked about it the owner said he layed it down - cosmetic damage only. The report says animal. So he may have layed it down and told the insurance it was an animal. I am going to get more info and will definitely test ride and take note of those things. Thanks guys.

 

Is there an easy way to check if the forks are bent myself?

 

Yes, often sighting down length of forks from top you can see bends.
Laying piece of 12x12 plate glass on forks will tell you if they're parallel. This is 1st step in checking alignment

But to be sure, you'd want to remove, put on V-blocks and spin it while measuring with dial-guage.



On older bikes such as my VFR, replacement tubes aren't available. So I bend them back.



Due to "springiness" of steel, it takes carefully bending in opposite direction beyond straight...

 

dannoxyz - thanks for the details and info. This is very helpful.

I also wanted to ask - what do you guys think would be a fair price for an 03 954 with 34k miles and clean title - 1 owner who seems to have loved the bike.

 

Mint-condition ones appear to have $5500 asking price. Probably sell for $5000. Yours might be discounted -$1-2K depending upon damages and how thorough repairs were done.

$5500 '03 13K-miles = https://www.cycletrader.com/listing/...4RR-5027051976
$5500 '03 19k-miles = https://merced.craigslist.org/mcy/d/...643014069.html