Dropped my bike today....arghh!!

Hey All,

Need some help. 15 seconds of carelessness, and I have a scratched up bike. I pulled it out of the garage this morning and let it idle on the driveway. I have the triangle mod on my bike to lower it so now it sits kinda upright on the side stand. I normally make sure its solid on the stand before I walk away, but today, I got off to go get my tank bag, and as I walked away, wham it fell over with a big thud. DAMN DAMN DAMN. I am so pissed with myself. I even installed my new zero gravity windscreen last night, all was so nice and shiny, and looking good. Now it looks like sh*t.

Broke off the clutch lever, scratched the lower plastics pretty bad, and literaly chipped the paint of right below the left indicator light.

I checked with the dealer, both pieces of plastic (yes injection molded plastic) will cost about $960 to replace.

Any ideas folks? The plastics are scratched, not broken, can they be sanded and repainted? Where can you buy factory paint, my dealer doesn't carry it.

Help! please!, got get my baby back to lookin good, can't stand to see her all scuffed up.

Any advice from the guru's is appreciated.

now...busted up 02vfr800

 

Ouch, sorry to hear this. You might try Service Honda for price checking. I've had good luck. Now that it's to late you might want to get the side stand cut so this won't happen again.

 

Cheapest fix I can think of would be a big wings decal kit - they look pretty sharp actually.

 

the decal kit is a good idea, less is more with the touch up paint if you do that. Old carguy trick use the end of paper match...

I'm Just glad you didn't drop it on your foot!:jaw: Pick your head up, everyone has done it at least once.

 

Thanks for the ideas. I did find a paint vendor. www.colorrite.com, they even have the italian red I need. Wonder if the plastic can be painted over, or how the painting thing works. Any one ever repainted any part of their bike?

 

Are you talking about doing this yourself or taking the parts to a shop? you can get the paint code from Honda but there's no guarantee it will match perfectly - it probably won't.

 

Automotive paint sticks as well to the ABS as metal. Don't sweat it, just sand, fill as needed, sand, wet sand, paint. Or take it to a local body shop when it's ready for color and let the pros handle it. You should be able to do WAY better than spending a grand on new plastic.
I've been there, but had a friend that worked at an autobody joint do it for a fifth of Wild Turkey.:smile:

 

autsh, that hurts, sorry to hear. I know exactly how you feel. I dropped mine 4 years ago when droweing on board on a ferry, was some diesel fule on the steel surfase so the time I hit the front brake, flip I was down. To my releath the hard side bag and my helmet (had it on my arm) tock the most inpact but the helmet pushed aganst the sid faring and it got a crank. Its still there.
An last summe my wife dropped her suzuki when starting it on the morning, and forgot she had left a gear in. Bam. good thing alredy ment to paint it this winter...

The good thing, you are always a bit more wise after a accident like this.

 

Definately not doing it myself, I want it to look good . My dealership doesn't carry paint, but I guess I could get the color code. The colorite site was given to me by the Suzuki dealership when I had wanted touch up paint for my old SV650. They had told me that was "official paint" whatever that means.

I didn't think about mismatch of colors due to different paint batches. Hmm, wonder if I should get the whole thing repainted? I'm sure that'll more than double my cost though.

 

Don't feel too bad 02vfr800, been there myself with a previous bike. I think the big wing graphic is a great suggestion, might be pretty challenging to get a perfect color match on a partial repaint.

 

O2vfr800,

As others have said, we've all been there and it hurts!!! Especially in the first 24 hours because we want our "baby" to be all right again... and in a hurry!

A few months ago a 17-year-old kid turned left in front of me... I had no witnesses to it and instead of getting insurance involved, I chose to cover about $1200 in damage in plastics (dealer cost) myself. I found an on-line OEM parts dealer that saved me about $400 off dealer costs.

Their website is: http://www.mrcycles.com/default.asp

Best of luck to you.

 

I dropped mine at a stop sign in October, put my foot down on some dry leaves and my right foot just slowly slid away to the side. It all happened in slow motion. The scratches are small emough that I am trying to just get over it (as my wife keeps saying). It scuffed the top edge of the multi colour VFR decal. Maybe one day I will repaint, but not soon.

The funny thing was that my wife for some reason was driving by that intersection and saw the bike on its side and an old car stopped in the intersection ( the guy had stopped and helped me lift it back up) and thought I had been in an accident!

this is a club with a LOT of members!

John

 

Bummer dude - I was stopped in traffic and slipped in front of a car wash on my Intruder a few years back and damaged my baby. Hang in there buddy - and get that stand modified for your bike.

 

Getting a perfect match on 4 - 5 year old red paint will be virtually impossible. There WILL be some difference. How noticeable it is depends on the skill of your painter. A patient one will keep working the tint until it is as close as possible. A production (read: busy) one will get it within reason. The patient guy is more expensive.

If you are really anal about the finish on your bike (I can admit it...I am) respray the whole thing. It really won't cost that much more - paint is mixed, parts are in the booth already. Bite down and get it over with. No chance of ending up with a checkerboard this way.

If you just want it to look good, repair and paint the affected parts.

 

If you replace with OEM painted pieces and your bike paint is a bit faded ... will it not be a mismatch? I think I'd ask around and find a painter. Dropped mind in a dirt parking lot at a stand still and had it sanded, et al for around $325. The paint number is on the bike and a good painter should be able to do a good match. If you're as picky about your bike as you sound, your paint must be in good shape ... which makes for a easier match.

 

I recently replaced a couple of pieces on my '95 (red) with new OEM plastic, and under certain lighting conditions, you can tell that the new plastic is a bit darker than the original. It's the kind of thing that if you know about it, you can see it, but if you didn't know, or were not looking for mis-matched paint, you would never notice. My bike sits in the garage when not in use, so sun fading has been kept to a minimum, but at 12 years old, the original paint HAS faded at least a little bit.
The way I see it, the only way to have every piece of bodywork match PERFECTLY in this situation is to replace it all or paint it all.
As a side note, I decided to replace rather than paint because it was simple and easy and in the end, probably didn't cost much more than it would have to paint it, although I do get a hefty discount working at the dealership.

 

Hey guys,

Thanks for the support and great ideas. My bike is an 02, but the guy before me rode it and then stored it. I bought it in Oct it had 52xx miles on it, so not alot for a 4+ year old bike.

Eitherway, paint fade is a definate possibility. Someone pointed out about how anal the painter is. I have a guy that has done some good work for me on our cars. He is the type that rather fixes vs replaces. He fixed my Dad's car, (dad has managed to smack every side of his car, but at 76 guess that happens) he had torn the front plastics on the lower facia of the car. This guy actually patched the plastic.

My wife reminded me about him so going to see if he can help.

The thing is I have to take off all the plastic and take it to him so if I don't repaint the whole thing, I have to take another piece to him so he can get close, or perhaps just paint the whole thing.

Man what a headache for 15 seconds of carelessness!

I ordered a clutch lever today, big price difference between Honda and off brands. I ordered an offbrand (Bike Master), hope its ok.

 

Did you check with your insurance co.? you might be covered for some of the expence. nothing like OEM body parts for a match

 

No didn't even think about it. I wonder if rates would go up for this, my deductible isn't that high, so maybe thats a worthwhile option.

Thanks for the suggestion!