Son-Of-A....

[Viking45]

Went to see my old high school buddy Sunday night, said needed some help with his deck/patio so I dropped in right before dark Sunday night to see if he wanted some help next week.
Two minutes later his daughter come running in saying she just hit my bike backing out of the driveway.
Sometimes shit don't register at first, I'm thinking "did I just hear that right?" Yes this gorgeous young daughter of my good friend just hit my bike.

I'm pretty cool but thank God she's a girl, a beautiful girl or I would be putting my boot in an ass right about now.

Details later as I don't know much right now.

[Tom19176]

WOW....Hope the damage is not too bad!

[ILikeStilettos]

Aww chit ....

[whippersnapper]

That sucks bad, Dave. Hopefully his home owners or her auto insurance will get it back as good as new.

[sammy the blade]

That sux big time! They never seem the same after that.

[john]

No good deed goes on punished!
Hi Dave,
I hope your bike will be as good as new. Whether it's a car or a bike it really feels awful when it gets banged up.
I hope you have good news,
John

[TRYKER]

WELL.... IF DAT DON'T JUST PLAIN SUCK !!!

[natcherly]

What classification of "hit" is involved here? Graze to smash. Backing out is probably slow speed, so hopefully damage is minimal

[sammy the blade]

One way to look at is, at least you weren't on it going 60 or better when she hit it! Still sux, hope it turns out for you. I ride too but not so much anymore since the lower back surgery in 08.

[Viking45]

What classification of "hit" is involved here? Graze to smash. Backing out is probably slow speed, so hopefully damage is minimal

To answer your question David she backed into it hard enough to bash the end of my metal throttle grip off, break the end off the brake lever and strip the threads in the mirror on that side. A bike falling over doesn't do this kind of damage,scratch chrome maybe.
It was more like a hard punch than just a minor oops. My guess is judging from the damage on her SUV is that she kept going, not over the bike but the bike on it's side moved with her. She had a six foot long gash along her passenger side.

Things are looking much better. Her agent called and was as cool as can be. He said he's a rider himself and asked if I wanted him to come by and look at it and cut me a check or have the Harley shop fix it.
I had it at the Harley shop in less than 30 minutes after getting off the phone. The insurance guy and the man at the shop know each other well and what makes me feel so much better now is that they told me the bike will actually be on a rack for as long as two days while they do a thorough inspection.
They are actually removing the wheels to check the axles and bearings, the frame and swing arm will be checked etc etc and so on.

They will then have me do a walk around and tell them what is new and already existing damage.
Well the bike was immaculate so other than minor scuffs on the tank (easily buffed away) it was perfect.

It was sitting at the end of his drive so when she hit it she clipped the left rear turn signal and rear fender only scuffing the signal but bent the fender slightly knocking the bike on the exhaust side scuffing the chrome and the foot peg folded up allowing the rear brake lever to hit the exhaust putting a dent in it and broke the front brake lever knob off the end and knocked the end off the throttle grip.
My grips are by a company called Kuryakyn and are over 80 bucks and the little end that broke off is an accessory that costs 20 bucks by itself.
Oh and it knocked my tail light, mount and all over about a full inch.

Harley does not do body work, if it is damaged or even scratched the part is replaced. So I am looking at new exhausts, rear fender, turn signal (s?), both brake levers, right side mirror and who knows what else. Looking at the bike in the dark one could not see any obvious damage but the next day I could see several bumps and bruises, nothing serious but Harley takes no chances and especially being an insurance claim you know they are gonna find all kinds of crap wrong and stick it to the insurance company.
As heavy as the bike is the guy said the handle bars could be bent so slightly I couldn't tell so I'm betting new bars are in the mix.

http://www.kuryakyn.com/products/36/iso-throttle-boss

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[natcherly]

Sounds like there are some silver linings here. Bike should be good as (or better than) new.

I am puzzled why there is such a long gash on the SUV. Could she have had the sound system turned up so loud that thump of the collision and the screech of tearing metal could not be heard?? Well, she's a kid and if I remember my kid days, some lessons just had to be learned first hand. Good luck, Unca Dave!

[sammy the blade]

Harley parts are expensive! From your description I wouldn't be surprised if your parts are over 2 grand, and labor could be more! Sounds like you're going to be covered though, maybe you'll get lucky and get it back before good weather is here to stay for awhile. Keep us posted, being a Harley owner I feel for ya!

[Viking45]

Yeah things are looking good, the adjuster called yesterday morning and said he was at HD looking at the bike and was going over it with the service tech. He called back a little later and said (this surprised me) If there are any custom parts you want, exhaust, pegs, grips etc he said go tell them and have it put on.
For example the stock exhausts/ chrome heat shields are more expensive then higher quality aftermarket exhausts.
As with many Harley Davidson's the mufflers are "slip-ons" so I can have some kick butt mufflers installed as long as they stay under the amount paid.
The tech and I talked for over an hour yesterday and we discussed the Vance & Hines 3" Twin Slash slip-on mufflers.
Two options- buy a high flow air breather and custom tuning (over $350+ out of my pocket- not happening) or this little computer tuner thingy that plugs into the bike and tunes the throttle body/injection system computer to the new pipes. All this can be done well under the price allotted for the stock pipes. I may go this route.

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Also he said they are replacing all four foot pegs, not the passenger pegs but the highway pegs and rider pegs. It barely scratched them and I didn't even mention it but they found small scratches and since they come in pairs only I am getting four new pegs.
So now I can look over their custom stuff and see if they have anything in the price range. I'm not spending a nickle on any of this so if it's not covered by the insurance I'm staying with stock.
The grips I had were over 80 buck customs so I am staying with those.

Keep in mind my bike is quiet but the Vance & Hines with add some horses and be a little louder but not insanely loud like drag pipes.
Here's a video at the bottom of those pipes on a Sportster- http://www.jpcycles.com/product/451-061
Nothing is in stone yet on the exhaust but I'm considering it.
The fuel management system- http://www.jpcycles.com/product/126-995 ... for-harley

Here's what my stock mufflers look like-

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The Vance & Hines 3" Twin Slash- (just happened to find a pic of my exact year,model color etc)

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Harley parts are expensive! From your description I wouldn't be surprised if your parts are over 2 grand, and labor could be more! Sounds like you're going to be covered though, maybe you'll get lucky and get it back before good weather is here to stay for awhile. Keep us posted, being a Harley owner I feel for ya!

Sam I have actually been at ease during this because the adjuster has been right on top of it and the damage is minimal but as you said this is going to be expensive because Harley does not do body work, if it's damaged or scratched it's just replaced which is really the way it should be.
They haven't said yet but the adjuster told me the handle bars could be slightly bent. I don't think so but it wouldn't surprise me if they replace them.

[sammy the blade]

Dave, I had a 07 classic Springer and the stock pipes were as quiet as a Honda. That was the first thing changed, replaced them with some fishtail mufflers and that made a world of difference, $300 out of my pocket but well worth it! I had $19,000 in it and was lucky to get $13,000 out of it 3 years later. Resale value on Harleys went down the tubes when they built the last factory.

[Viking45]

Talked to them at the Harley shop last Wednesday, bike is expected to be done on the 28th.....the 28th.
That's going to be a bit over a month to replace a few pieces of chrome. Waiting on parts he said, the rear fender being one of the parts.

I am betting these a-holes are looking for used parts, it doesn't take a month to get a fender and all the other stuff is common everyday bullshit.
So yeah I'm a little pee'd off about an entire month for an afternoon's worth of work.

I looked up everything being replaced, found it, priced it and even checked on delivery times and nothing took more than 3/4 days.
Oh well, whatta ya gonna do?

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