Got hit on the motorcycle, insurance advice needed.

[roguerower]

Well, I'm GUESSING on the cost at this point. But the taillight itself is ~150 (LED). Then add the turn signal bar below it which is bent.. probably ~300 or so if its even available for my bike anymore. Then the entire rear fender will have to be pulled off and body work done to remove the dent, and repaint since paint is coming off where it buckled. Either way, its not $100. My mechanic looked at it quick and said $900 at least, he will probably be on the low side. I suspect I'll get quotes for more than that.

Hell, I tried to buy a fuel hose for my Harley the other day, they wanted $26 for a 12" fuel hose.

That is frickin ridiculous. I can get an entire tail kit (tail light, turn signals, fender eliminator, all with wiring harness) for $140 from a legit manufacturer for my Triumph. Can't you just use one of those dent-be-gone things and use a little spray paint on the fender?

Are you going to be doing the work yourself (besides the fender body work & paint) or are you going through a shop for everything? Go take a look on ebay for your parts, should be able to find a better deal. I managed to pick up a bunch of parts for my GS500 for 1/4 of the OEM price, they were just salvaged off of bikes which went down.

Oh, and you didn't stay on topic.. WHICH ONE? Mine or theirs?

Gods. He should be able to cover it.

On a serious note, I'd just involve theirs. The amount isn't ridiculous and it didn't involve any bodily harm.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Yea, I dont care how small it is, cops are being called. I think you were not too smart not calling them.

Minneapolis cops wouldn't have shown up for 1-2 hours here for something so ... small. I probably would have done what the OP did after collecting information.

 

[simonizor]

Well, I'm GUESSING on the cost at this point. But the taillight itself is ~150 (LED). Then add the turn signal bar below it which is bent.. probably ~300 or so if its even available for my bike anymore. Then the entire rear fender will have to be pulled off and body work done to remove the dent, and repaint since paint is coming off where it buckled. Either way, its not $100. My mechanic looked at it quick and said $900 at least, he will probably be on the low side. I suspect I'll get quotes for more than that.

Hell, I tried to buy a fuel hose for my Harley the other day, they wanted $26 for a 12" fuel hose.

Bent != broken. Unless it's bent beyond repair, you're not just automatically entitled to a new one because he slightly damaged your old one.

 

[videogames101]

Are you sure about that? That doesn't seem right to me - the government compelling you to report incidents over an arbitrary amount, precluding the option of a mutual settlement between two private parties. Also, how do you know how much damage is caused at the scene of an accident? Sometimes very costly repairs look very minor at the time.

http://www.nh.gov/safety/divisions/dmv/forms/dsmv400.pdf

Read the first 2 lines, in NH you must report any accident with over $1000 in property damage.

 

[alkemyst]

Just go through their insurance. No need to talk to your own. Should be pretty cut and dry as there's no question of fault.

except almost all policies require all accidents get reported to your carrier.

 

[simonizor]

except almost all policies require all accidents get reported to your carrier.

Yeah, I don't know who these people get insurance through that say their insurance didn't care whether they reported it or not, but I've never heard of one that doesn't require you to report accidents.

Something tells me these people are just ignorant to the fact that they also have to report their accidents, and they didn't get in trouble when they didn't, so they just assume that's the way you're supposed to do it.

 

[thescreensavers]

Really? You'd call the cops for this unbelievably minor accident? Would you call the cops if someone accidentally opened their door into the side of your car in a parking lot? Where exactly do you draw the line, because your statement seems a bit idiotic and wasteful.

I keep my car as tip top as possible and if anyone does something to damage it, I will call the cops.

If they put a considerable ding into my door yes. It could cost over 1k to fix I am no expert, which is why I get info and the cops called. I am not going to be stuck paying for their lack of care of other peoples property.

sure if someone opens the door and puts a slight ding and are apologetic then what can you do...

 

[CVSiN]

must be different in different states. here in Texas they almost 99% of the time will come out. and most insurance REQUIRE a police report.

They would have ticketed the guy who hit you here in Texas as well.

 

[alkemyst]

There are two sets of rules and they are mutually exclusive.

Regardless of whether the police will ticket anyone, if one requests an accident report I believe in all states they are obligated to do one. They don't have to assign fault or assess damages, but merely verify information and acquire it. I know here at least they will do that and in the other areas I have been.

The insurance company doesn't care whether you were cited or whether you reported the event or not to the police. Whenever a vehicle they insure is damaged one is required to report it. I believe this is irregardless of full coverage. Unless you make a claim, this should never affect your rates (providing you were not ticketed as well).

It's an easy way for an insurance company to later on deny coverage when it matters.

 

[Zenmervolt]

That is frickin ridiculous. I can get an entire tail kit (tail light, turn signals, fender eliminator, all with wiring harness) for $140 from a legit manufacturer for my Triumph. Can't you just use one of those dent-be-gone things and use a little spray paint on the fender?

I don't see why he should settle for anything less than a perfect bike with factory-finish paint if that's what he had before the accident. Dent-be-gone and spray paint aren't even close to bringing it back to original condition.

Bent != broken. Unless it's bent beyond repair, you're not just automatically entitled to a new one because he slightly damaged your old one.

Actually, the OP is entitled to whatever is necessary to bring his bike back to its previous condition. If that previous condition was pristine, then simply bending the fender back to something close to what it was before is not at all adequate.

I think people here are really underestimating the cost of a proper paint job. Even if the fender can be pounded back into shape (which is actually reasonably unlikely), if the paint has cracked, the only way to properly fix it is to strip the entire fender and go through the full primer and re-paint process; simply blending in a bit of paint isn't going to look right. Paint work alone, even for "just" a fender, can run several hundred dollars to get it back to factory finish and that's not counting the labor to hammer out the buckling.

ZV

 

[alkemyst]

Sounds like some of you dudes above are the types that have no problem hitting another car with your door...I don't get those types...."things get dings/dents, it's normal".

 

[hdfxst]

If you need a new fender harley will not sell unpainted parts,so you have to order the fender and wait for the factory to paint it(2-3 months).Another thing is they will not give you the paint code.If it's vivid black i think ppg has the code for that.The fuel tank for my soft tail was 600 dollars and a little over 3 months to get.Take it to the dealer and get an estimate.How old is the bike?

 

[simonizor]

What year/make is your bike? Bikebandit.com has fenders parts for 2008 and earlier models. The most expensive one is $435. They come primed, so you'd have to have it pained, but I can't imagine that painting small piece of metal like a fender would cost very much. They have pretty much all other parts at good prices too.

 

[Zenmervolt]

What year/make is your bike? Bikebandit.com has fenders parts for 2008 and earlier models. The most expensive one is $435. They come primed, so you'd have to have it pained, but I can't imagine that painting small piece of metal like a fender would cost very much. They have pretty much all other parts at good prices too.

If the part has to be replaced, the OP is entitled to exactly what he had before: A factory Harley fender. Not some cheap knock-off.

Even if those are actually factory parts (which seems doubtful since Harley typically doesn't sell unpainted parts), a proper paint process to get factory thickness will easily run another $200+. The factory finish for a Harley is something like 3 layers with a 2-layer clearcoat; there's sanding and drying time between coats and it's not a MAACO spray and pray process. Then you've still got labor at ~$100/hour to pull the old fender and put the new one on. I know that it's a lot smaller than painting an entire car, but painting a car can run $4,000 or more if you're going for a factory finish. Paintwork isn't cheap.

What I'm getting from this thread more than anything else is that a lot of people have no idea what actually goes into quality bodywork.

ZV

 

[jlee]

Are you sure about that? That doesn't seem right to me - the government compelling you to report incidents over an arbitrary amount, precluding the option of a mutual settlement between two private parties. Also, how do you know how much damage is caused at the scene of an accident? Sometimes very costly repairs look very minor at the time.

It is in NH, and yes, I am sure about that.

 

[Fear No Evil]

I spoke with my agent (Doesn't work for my insurance company). She told me to work through the other person's insurance. I called them today and opened a claim.

As for the bike, its a 1996 Harley Davidson Road King. Which, tends to make things difficult because 1997 and up models changed a lot of things. So parts are more difficult to find. It is (was?) in very good condition. I certainly agree that I could find parts cheaper online, but since the other driver asked me to work through his insurance company its not my responsibility to save them money. I'm not going to spend hours of my time to save his insurance company a few hundred dollars.

 

[hanoverphist]

I spoke with my agent (Doesn't work for my insurance company). She told me to work through the other person's insurance. I called them today and opened a claim.

As for the bike, its a 1996 Harley Davidson Road King. Which, tends to make things difficult because 1997 and up models changed a lot of things. So parts are more difficult to find. It is (was?) in very good condition. I certainly agree that I could find parts cheaper online, but since the other driver asked me to work through his insurance company its not my responsibility to save them money. I'm not going to spend hours of my time to save his insurance company a few hundred dollars.

if they are anything like allstate, they will try to get aftermarket parts before they look for factory. the aftermarket parts they tried to pass off for my truck got rejected by the shop due to quality issues, and i got all factory fenders for my truck.

gl working with them, hope they dont try to push you around too much. if they start to get like that, get your ins company involved so you can use their lawyers.