Bike knocked over in apt garage

[ccs]

Hey everyone;

My 82' GS850GZ was knocked over by some guy in our apartment's garage last night. I've got his info (he gave it to the garage staff and they gave to me).

I can see lot's of damage -- right rear tail signal broken, front turn signal cracked, right engine casing damaged, rear brake pedal bent up against engine, wind screen broken, throttle and grip damaged, front brake handle bent up, gas tank chipped, handle bar bent, front fender has a big dent where it looks like it hit up against the concrete pole I was parked close to, etc., etc.

Not sure if the shaft drive, swing arm, or front forks are damaged.

Thinking about calling the Suzuki dealer to come pick it up Monday and check it out.

Any advice?

Thanks.

Charles...

 

[p_s]

Ouch, probably a total loss as far as insurance is concerned. Hopefully they won't tell you it's worth $500 and that's it. Your dealer might be willing to appraise it, or they might just get a dumb look on their face. 8-[

 

[rphillips]

Yeah ouch. Be ready, I went thru that last year, The ins. wanted to give me like $900 to total my "85" all original 13000 mi. GS 1150 E, in very clean condition. Finally got them up to about $1250 & me keep the bike. I took the money & fixed it myself. A real pain in the posterior. Be ready, & good luck.

 

[Mark M]

Hey everyone;


Any advice?

Thanks.

Charles...

First off, call your insurance company and tell them what happened. That at least starts a record of the event and any issues that may come up later will have coverage. Trying to dodge insurance is very often a false economy in the end.

As stated, that sounds a lot like a write off in the insurance world. You do need some sort of appraisal of damage to give a baseline on costs. What a lot of people don't realize is that you can negotiate with insurance companies. They are interested in settling their responsibility as cheaply and easily as possible. If they want to write it off, you can offer to take a cash settlement and keep the bike, or offer to fix it yourself and have them pay for parts, etc.

The point I am making is that you do not neccessarily have to take what they offer up front. If you like the bike and want to keep it, then you can probably work it out with them. At worst, you can offer to buy the bike back from them as salvage (insurance companies auction off the salvaged wrecks they paid out, if you didn't know that) and take your settlement to buy parts with.

If you are so inclined, you can also take the guy who knocked it over to court to recover costs beyond what the insurance company covered. This is a very painful option and I would avoid it if possible. A last resort at best in my eyes.

No matter what, keep records of phone calls, pictures, details of estimates and anything else that relates to this to support your cause.

Sorry to hear about it, this always sucks to deal with. Good luck on the rebuild.

Mark

 

[bwringer]

Thinking about calling the Suzuki dealer to come pick it up Monday and check it out.

Any advice?

Thanks.

Charles...

Anyone from Cincy have a recommendation for a shop to take it to that will be honest with an older bike?

This sucks, man. I know you've worked hard on that bike, too...

Sounds like the guy didn't just knock it over, too -- he must have tried to keep going or something. Good thing he owned up to his filthy deed, or we'd be discussing caliber and cartridge recommendations, and techniques for digging large holes in the dark. :twisted:

 

[Guest]

Before you let an insurance company "total it out", check Ohio laws. I think that in some states if it is totalled, the title is impaired, and you would need to spend extra money and effort to restore the title after you fix it.