What would You Do? (Uneconomical to Repair)

**Woody** · 06 Nov 07, 05:56 PM

If your wonderful Ducati motorcycle was being written off
by your insurance company, deemed
'uneconomical to repair' because it's wiring loom had
spontaneously caught fire (as is the case with mine), would you:

Consider it dead;
Consider repairing it;
Consider buying another Ducati;
Consider buying another brand of motorcycle?

**Dave101** · 06 Nov 07, 05:59 PM

if its written off, surely they will replace the bike for you? i would get another one! only if they were paying tho....

but warranty aside, INSURANCE should still pay out, it was a 'fire' afterall?

**Woody** · 06 Nov 07, 06:03 PM

My 748 was a 2001 model, not under any warranty.
I bought it second hand from Daytona Motorcycles Jan 2006.

**brian91cfr** · 06 Nov 07, 06:12 PM

No 4 for me . no way i would buy another duke. just my 2ps wurth

brian

**diamondbrit73** · 06 Nov 07, 06:19 PM

Consider buying it back and building a track bike?

**hhhjesus** · 06 Nov 07, 06:22 PM

depends on so many things... how reliable your bike had been before, what you had paid for your bike, what mods you had done, if you want another one the same of fancy a new model or a change of brands... just too many personal issues. If the insurance company paid out minimum just enough to replace my 749 l id have another 749, if they paid out what i had paid initially for my 749 id maybe upgrade to a tricolour if there were any out there.

**Woody** · 06 Nov 07, 06:33 PM

No mods, factory cans, complete service history.
My 748's motor was perfect. So perfect it even started up on it's own
while on fire, after I had switched it off and removed the key.!

It had never so much as hiccupped, even 1 second before it caught fire!

**gjbird** · 06 Nov 07, 06:40 PM

Woody,
If you're up to repairing the bike yourself and have the time then buy the salvage, draw up your action plan, and then go for it. However, if you're not able to do the work yourself and willing to spend time sourcing used parts to make it economical then say goodbye to the beast and move on. What you move onto is your choice, if you really love your Dukes then go for another one. Otherwise draw up a short list of other bikes you fancy and get some test rides done before winter sets in.

Just remember not to accept the first offer from your insurance company - demand the amount of money that it would cost to replace your 748. Gather adverts similar to your bike and copy these to the insurance company - stuff any offer of the market/trade value, you're insured to replace what you lost so that means them giving you what it would cost YOU to buy a similar bike.

If you do any test rides then try out a 2002/3 RSVR you get loads of bike for your money - Ohlins, Marschini, carbon, and they are bloody fast, reliable, and Italian!
Good luck,
Gareth

**cianer** · 06 Nov 07, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Woody

No mods, factory cans, complete service history.
My 748's motor was perfect. So perfect it even started up on it's own
while on fire, after I had switched it off and removed the key.!

It had never so much as hiccupped, even 1 second before it caught fire!

Personally I wouldn't buy it back and restore it myself cos I'd never trust in it 100% again after a spontaneous failure like that. I had a bike that gave intermittent trouble before (ok, it stopped short of going on fire!) and even after the root cause was found I still didn't trust it so got rid of it. You don't enjoy riding it if you are always metaphorically looking over your shoulder.

If you enjoyed the bike before that then I'd buy another Duke. If it didn't I'd buy another brand.

**Woody** · 06 Nov 07, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gjbird

Woody,
If you're up to repairing the bike yourself and have the time then buy the salvage, draw up your action plan, and then go for it. However, if you're not able to do the work yourself and willing to spend time sourcing used parts to make it economical then say goodbye to the beast and move on. What you move onto is your choice, if you really love your Dukes then go for another one. Otherwise draw up a short list of other bikes you fancy and get some test rides done before winter sets in.

Just remember not to accept the first offer from your insurance company - demand the amount of money that it would cost to replace your 748. Gather adverts similar to your bike and copy these to the insurance company - stuff any offer of the market/trade value, you're insured to replace what you lost so that means them giving you what it would cost YOU to buy a similar bike.

If you do any test rides then try out a 2002/3 RSVR you get loads of bike for your money - Ohlins, Marschini, carbon, and they are bloody fast, reliable, and Italian!
Good luck,
Gareth

Thanks for the replies/advice/insights.

'Gather adverts similar to your bike and copy these to the insurance company - stuff any offer of the market/trade value, you're insured to replace what you lost...'

Great advice. Thanks

**CK & AK** · 06 Nov 07, 08:27 PM

Once you have agreed your 'price' from the insurance co, then find out from them what category the bike is classed as as a write off - if its A or B, then let them keep it - if its C or D then might be worth haggling to retrieve it back as a road or TD bike or to break yourself?

Good luck

C :-)

**Woody** · 06 Nov 07, 08:53 PM

CK and AK .. thanks.

The motor in my 748 is faultless, as an auctionable 'un-economical to restore' write-off
it has great value motor wise. I will make sure the insurance co. are aware
that I am aware of it's true value.

**Kiwi** · 07 Nov 07, 05:11 AM

negotiate with the insurance company and rebuild it yourself and make changes as you see fit

**Nickalos** · 07 Nov 07, 08:58 AM

What?

You dont say what damage the wiring loom done to the bike?

I presume it burnt the bike quite badly, or are you telling us all that the insurance company have written it off just because of the cost of a wiring loom?

That being the case find out what value they attach to the bike - most insurance co.'s allocate a value to bikes written off, which differs acording to their original value.

... and you also don;t say what they are offering to pay you out?

It may well be worth taking the payout (if it;s a true value payout) and then buying the bike from the insurance company (depending on the writeoff value they allocate to it), fixing it and pocketing the differance.

Nick

**moto748** · 07 Nov 07, 12:34 PM

When my 748 got written off (cosmetic damage only) the insurers wanted a grand for me to buy it back. I said, you won't even get that for it at auction. Only the wheels and forks were salvageable; the engine would normally be valuable second-hand, but how much would you pay for an engine with 60k on the clock?

Shame, cos if they'd offered fora couple of hundred quid or something, I'd have jumped at the chance to put it back on the road.