I bought a 2001 Honda CBR 929RR with 5,000 miles and a clear title for 4,700 last summer

Click - Before

I was very happy with the deal that I got. The only nuisance was the rapidly rising coolant temperature in traffic, caused by a fan that was disconnected to prevent it from hitting the fan frame which appears to have been bent when the previous owner downed the bike. A poor fairing repair prevented me from removing the fairing to resolve the issue until I had some time to deal with it this winter. So our personalities were a perfect match - neither the bike, nor I, liked sitting in traffic.

Then the inevitable happened. I was stupid and took the bike out of storage on an early morning ride in January. Going through "Dead Man's Curve," in a suburb of Boston, I slipped on some sand and lowsided the bike at about 55 mph. [sm=smiley29.gif]
I slid about 400 feet gathering the oil behind the bike, took my helmet off, and counted my blessings for lack of oncoming traffic and the presence of a fellow motorist behind me to summon some assistance. Everyone got there really quick and off to Mass General I went. We stopped a few times on the way due to a bumpy ride, but we made it. Chick-chick went the scissors through the remainder of my gear and clothes and that is when the ER doctor took advantage of me and stuck her finger up my butt. I came in at 6 am, woke up by 11, and limped at 3:30 pm with 6 fractures (wrist, shoulder, and ribs), a bunch of cuts, and a destroyed helmet in hand. I love US healthcare - get them in, get them out : )

Here is what the bike looked like when I climbed out of bed in a few days [sm=smiley18.gif]

Click - After

The biggest concern are some cracks going through the casing that surrounds the clutch assembly.



Would that be the engine casing?

The insurance company declared the bike to be a total loss. The appraiser told me he got up to $8,000 and stopped counting. He said that just as I, he does not know all that much about bikes, but he did not believe that there was any frame damage. I offered the insurance company $600 to buy the bike, but they declined, citing an Adesa / Copart average of a $1,400 salvage value.

For those with experience rebuilding bikes, is it worth it to pay them $1,400 given the damage involved? Would I be able to restore the bike for around $1,600 to net me an overall cost of $3,000, or should I just let Copart pick-up the bike tomorrow and move on?

Thank you for your input.

 

I don't have any words of wisdom for you regarding what you should do with the bike, but I can say that I am glad that you are ok and came out relatively unharmed! Too bad about the bike, but they can be replaced, unfortunately we cannot. Good luck to you!

 

Yeah Glad your still with us, That crack seems to go into your engine block from them pics. If thats the case it would mean major difficulty to repair or need to replace it with another block. That could get costly, especially if you have no knowledge of fixing bikes yourself. Do you have any like minded friends or local mechanics who could look at it and give you advice?

 

If it were money I'd take the money, get a new bike, and move on with my life. In some cases laying it down might just mean a totaled bike just from cosmetics, but it looks like you've got some serious mechanicals to fix. You'd need tools and knowledge beyond the avg biker to check frame, engine, etc.

If it were me I'd take my dough, get a known-good bike, and let someone else deal with this one.

 

Thank you, RCKT GRL. The helmet saved my life and the jacket's spine protector did its job.

Anubis: There appear to be some chunks missing from the casing, so it would need to be replaced. As you say, this may require purchasing a new engine if it is not a separate part. I am relatively new to motorcycling, and although my cousin and I service our own cars (we deal in Volkswagens and Audi's), this may very well be a very consuming project.

Thank you for your advice, kiggy74. I think I will heed it.

 

I wouldn't buy it back if it was me. There seems to be quite a bit of damage to the right side of the bike and will probably end up costing you alot more than you may think. I bought a wrecked bike for my first bike and that wasn't a very good idea IMO. It wasn't half as bad as your bike, but it went down on both sides. Lowside on the right side and the guy who had it tiped it over into a truck on the left side busting most of the plastic. I replaced all of the plastic, but there was always a thought in the back of my mind about it being wrecked. It just worried me and I didn't feel comfortable on it just having the thought of something mabye going wrong or something not being right or bent after it was fixed. If you don't mind me asking how much is the insurance company going to give you for the bike? I would say to look at getting a 954 or another 929 but those are probably my favorite bikes if you can't find one of those look at the 1000RR just look around and you will find something.

I'm glad you were able to walk away without too many injurys and like everyone said, bikes are replaceable but we aren't.

-Jesse-

 

Thank you, Jesse, I appreciate you sharing your experience with me. You are right about the confidence factor.

As I am a dealer and I never registered the bike, the insurance company considered it to be part of my inventory and paid me $3,700, or what I paid for it, less a $1,000 deductable, plus the cost of improvements made.

It does look like I am back in the market. I very much enjoyed owning a CBR and would love for my next bike to be an exact replacement. We'll see what comes my way and how anxious I get : )

 

No problem man, I try to help out when I can. Good luck finding another 929, they seem to be getting harder and harder to find but they are a really nice bike.

-Jesse-

 

Good choice.

 

good luck on your search!