Help me value my bike to fight the insurance company

As the title states, I've got to fight the insurance company from totaling out my baby. I had a lady turn left in front of me about a month ago and it basically rashed the whole right side of the bike. Bike is a 2004 VFR in asphalt black with 40,000 miles. I've only seen 3 for sale in the last 3 years including mine of this color.

Accessories that I can come up with are as follows:

OEM side panniers
OEM top box
Lazer Xtreme exhaust
98 headers - ceramic coated
PCIII w/ dyno tune
Sargent Seat
Vortex rear sprocket
MOTY lithium battery
rebuilt forks with GP2 internals and upgraded springs
K&N filter
HID lights
Throttlemeister cruise control


All the pics of the bike can be found here: Index of /~meatloaf/vfr_wreck

and the overview pics of the damage are :

http://server1.geekstorage.com/~meatloaf/vfr_wreck/DSC03342.JPG

http://server1.geekstorage.com/~meatloaf/vfr_wreck/DSC03343.JPG

http://server1.geekstorage.com/~meatloaf/vfr_wreck/DSC03347.JPG

http://server1.geekstorage.com/~meatloaf/vfr_wreck/DSC03355.JPG

http://server1.geekstorage.com/~meatloaf/vfr_wreck/DSC03345.JPG

 

With a quote so far. I intend to do the repairs myself though.

 

I say total it out. Insurance companies go through a lot of hassle if they have a vehicle that is "totaled". You can buy the bike back after it is totaled extreemly cheap.

Last spring a woman backed into my bike in my apartment garage, knocked it over into a wall and then continued to back over it (stopped when her tire hit my tire, scratched my other tail fairing). All said and done, it was all cosmetic damage, five scratched fairings (some went through the paint), scratched windscreen, broken mirror, and a scratch on the TBR pipe. I dropped it off at a local Honda dealer to get a quote to fix it. Quote came back at $2900 for parts $3200 with labor. I blue booked it at $2000. It was "totaled" After the chick's insurance company agreed to pay me for their blue book value ($2300 I didnt complain!), I said that I wanted to buy back the salvaged title. The cost to buy it back was around $270. I had a check in my had for just under $2100 and the title to a cosmetically salvaged bike. A few weeks later I got the bike certified as "OK for retitle". Later I replaced the broken mirror and sold the bike for $2000.

If you really love the bike, and its cosmetic and you dont mind a month long ordeal, its an option for you to fix it your self.

 

I'm trying to keep it from being totaled. It is a pain in the ass to get a rebuilt title on a salvaged vehicle in Indiana and it will also drop the value of my ike about $1000-$1500. I shouldn't be forced to incur any sort of current or future loss due to this lady's negligence.

 

How long do you plan on keeping the bike?

 

The beginnings of a great Franken-Viffer!

 

Not very hard at-all, All you need is pics of bike before you fix it, pics while you fix it, all receipts for parts excetra. Then take it to a state police post for inspection.

 

Thats the way thingsused to be but they've made changes in the last 18 months or so. A lot more red tape to go through now and as I said... I shouldn't be forcued to incur any loss... future or current.

 

I'm looking for a realistic value of the bike... not some book value that someone who knows nothing about bikes just spits out. I don't have receipts from everything and haven't kept up on the market as of late. If i were going to stick a price on this for someone to buy, assuming it wasn't wrecked, what would I realistically expect the bike to bring in?

 

Sorry about your mishalf, I have been thru this few years back and the result is not pretty......If you want to hear my story and my opinion feel free to PM. I don't want to bore the peeps on this forum.

 

Sorry to say, but they aren't worth much and they certainly aren't going to give you market value for it, Meat. If you don't like the way the process is playing out, get an attorney and sue the driver and their insurance company. Either way it's gonna cost you.



.

 

I went through this when I lost my 05 due to a fire. Unless you had the aftermarket parts reported on your insurance (and paid the extra premium) they will not cover the value of those parts. If you still have the stock parts then swap out the aftermarket items and let them total the bike. You then have the option of buying it back cheap or getting another bike and you have the benefit of having the aftermarket parts ready to install.

 

I say total it and then buy it back and part it out and make a few more bucks.

Rollin