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[BIG A]

sorry to hear about the accident lex,  glad your ok, the bike can be fixed, thank goodness you wore your helmet and jacket, keep us posted how your doing

[Stormy]

Sorry to hear you had the accident,Lex. Glad you are OK. Know how you feel with those fractured ribs I busted a couple of mine once and it took about 6 weeks for me to breath right again and for them to heal.

[Crewsn]

Won't be there tonight or for a while.  Took a spill on I-410 in San Antonio last night.

Two fractured ribs and battered and bruised from head to toe.  But I live to ride another day.  Accident happend at rush hour in bumper to bumper traffic in a construction zone.  Basic story, while traveling west bound in the left lane the Suburban in front of me suddenly slams on the brakes and veers into the jersy wall, while looking for an escape route I notice the guy behind is not reacting so my only option is to veer onto the left shoulder also.  The shoulder is littered with gravel, sand and general construction debries. I lose the front wheel and go down on the left side and slide about 10 feet into the trailer hitch of the Suburban. 

The brunt of the impact was taken by the front forks which are trashed along with the front fender and the headlight.  Amazingly the only other damage that I could detect at the seen was the left foot peg.  Thanks to my couragous and selfless willingness to act as a human crash bar there was no damage to the tank or any other part on the left side.

Safety equipment: It was a warm and beautiful night and I was going to leave in tee shirt and my half helmet.  But at the last minute I decided to put on my full face helmet and actually went back into the house to get my leather jacket.  Thank goodness for both.  I took a pretty good hit in the left temple and cheek and had in not been for the full face helmet I am pretty sure that I would not be writting this today.  I am going to throw away my half helmet so I am never tempted to use it again.  The leather jacket equipped with padding and double leather in the shoulder and elbow for sure saved me some serious damage and pain.

Damage to the Suburban?  I bent the little bracket that holds his trailer light socket.  Guess I showed him!!!!

See you guys in a couple of weeks when the X gets out of the hospital.

sorry to hear lex, at least your ok. bikes can be replaced, bodies can't. if there is anything i can do just say the word. good luck and thanks for posting this, may help save someone else.

[VTreX]

 Good to see everyone tonite!!! My wife was cold on the way down(60*) by the time we got home it was in the lower (40*s) and she was FREEZING!!!!!! I will have to find a way to mount a HEATER in the back!!!!! I think we will ride down next week, IF THE WEATHER IS WARMER!!!!!! I had a good time..... Ride Safe Ride Long

[txgaboy]

 :)Good to see everyone there, hopefully the weather will start getting warmer. Next week they are suppose to have live music, and the "roller girls"! Gotta order some space cushions for Lex!! Glad he is okay!

[forevrtxan]

Good to see everyone tonite!!! My wife was cold on the way down(60*) by the time we got home it was in the lower (40*s) and she was FREEZING!!!!!! I will have to find a way to mount a HEATER in the back!!!!! I think we will ride down next week, IF THE WEATHER IS WARMER!!!!!! I had a good time..... Ride Safe Ride Long

Get some bubble wrap Kenny!!!! 

[vtxcrzr]

Thanks everyone for your well wishes.  I hope this experience helps others on that day they decide to go out for a "quick ride" and not use their full safety equipment.  Bottom line when that little voice whispers in your ear, listen carefully.

The Insurance claims process has been a real education that I am willing to share in hopes that future generations can benefit from my experience.

The insurance company called Friday to say the bike is a total loss.  This is very misleading because its not due to the severity of the damage but rather it is an artifact of their calculation which considers the salvage value of bike which is apparently very high for VTXs.  The basic equation is:

($street value$) - ($salvage value$) must be less than the total repairs.  In my case the numbers are:

$9,097.94 - $5,700 = $3,397.94. The repair estimate came to $5,311.08 so they claim total loss.  Make sense right?  Well maybe not because:

The estimate includes $4,174.41 in parts
                                 $797.50 in labor
                                 $339.17 in tax

I priced the parts on HDL and I can get all original Honda OEM parts for a total of $2,660.57 (no sales tax, free shipping, thank you Hal).  The repair estimate figures 11 hours of highly skilled labor @ $72.50/hr.  So for me I am guessing 22 hours of my time which equals 1 case of beer @ $24.95 for Corona (+ $1.50 for limes)

Upon further questioning and pressure they offered an alternative settlement of $4,279.03 payout where I keep the bike.  So simple arithmetic says $4,279.03 - $2,660.57 gets the bike restored to its original glory and leaves me $1,618.46 to play with.  Well not so fast there are still a couple of  outstanding issues:

1) Progressive is reluctant to provide collision coverage at policy renewal on a bike that was declared a total loss and since restored.  This is due to concern over the possibly of shoddy repairs and parts and then a future claim for the full value in another "accident". Can you say insurance fraud? But they do have a process to verify the quality of work and allow for future collision coverage. Since I am going to use Honda OEM parts it should not be a problem beyond more paper work.

2) The other catch is that lean holders are often reluctant to go this route because sometimes people give up in the middle of the restoration process, stop making payments on a motorcycle they can not ride and the lean holder is stuck repo-ing a box of parts from somebody's garage.  I don't think this will be a problem for me since the salvage is so high and I owe so little on the bike and I am way ahead on the payments and the repairs are relativley striaght forward. ie new front fork and wheel.  But I still need to get formal approval from them because the check will be made out to both of us and I'll ultimately need their endorsment to cash it.

3) The final concern was the possibility of change of status of the Title to Salvage Title. The insurance guys tell me that will not be the case in this scenario because if I accept this settlement then the bike is never officially declaired a total loss and there is no change of Title.  This is different from the scenario where the bike is declaired a total loss and the insurance company takes possession with a transfer of Title (now a totaled vehicle with a Salvage Title designation) and in turn sells it to a salvage dealer as a totaled vehicle with another transfer of Title as a Salvage Title.  The salvage dealer can either part it out or sell it "as is" with another change of Title but keeping the Salvage Title designation.  The other scenario that can generate a salvage title is if the bike is declaired a total loss, the insurance company takes possession with transfer of Title (now a totaled vehicle with a Salvage Title designation) and then sells it back to the original owner (or any other individual) as a totaled vehicle with another transfer of Title still keeping the Salvage Title designation.

Well I obvioulsy now know too much about how insurance actually works but I hope this info helps someone else know what questions to ask if they find themselves in a similar situation.  But remember the first step is to survive the crash and that survival is critically dependent upon using the proper safety equipment.

[VTreX]

I printed that out for future refference!!!! That would have been alot of work or me...Do you have sore spots where you did not know you had SPOTS!!!! Thanks for the info.. I hpoe I don't need it unless I have to share it with someoneelse!!!!!!