Amigo por favor Dronie. The way I read and see it Hacking is still in your blood in spite of how much ya love Queen Bee who wants you to cease and desist!<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o> You got a great group of Hackers in the Northwet!<o></o> You have come a long way in getting the Hack prepared for all these trips of yours .mods you made that I envied, even copied! <o></o> Your stories! <o></o> Sh*t happens.. so what ya wanna do: go trout fishing, mushrooming, gardening like you said! Do the best you can and fix it. Car is OK maybe find a low mileage 1150GS or even a later 1200GS, go through the attachment dance all over again and go out and slay the CDT for us all. Youre good at it. <o></o> I sorely miss my rig and adventures should have thought hard before selling mine to Duncan, but am glad that Duncan is continuing the adventures. SWMBO said I jumped the gun <o></o> My now current adventures which you can read here: <o></o> http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=899281...<o></o> Took this trip which I missed via Hack due to inclement weather at that time but its not the same although still great but kind of artificial. Wanna do what I did here, nah.. youre not cut out for this yet! <o></o> Go Hackin cheers....
Try to do an estimate of all the part (used) you would need to replace the damage ones, and see if it is worth buying back the GSA. If you were my neighbor, I would gladly have helped you to put your GS back on the road, I have a spare R1150GSA rear frame, a front end, complete fork + wheel, handlebar, etc. ..... and many other spare parts. Good luck
Henry--I'm a retired insurance guy (I won't go into my whole background, but I was kind of a muckety-muck) and have a clearer understanding of my insurance policy than the claims adjuster I'm working with! So I'll try to describe how the policy works without using a lot of insurance gobbledygook. And BTW, if any of you guys need help or advice with an insurance claim, feel free to PM anytime. DAMAGE TO THE MOTORCYCLE The premium for collision coverage is based on several different factors and one of these is the value of the bike. All other things being equal, you're gonna pay more premium for a $20,000 bike than for a $10,000 bike. Stands to reason. And only fair. The flip side of that is if you have a $10,000 bike then add another $10,000 in farkles and mods, you can't expect the insurance company to cover all those farkles and mods for the same premium as another guy with a bone stock bike. Still with me? So to be fair to everyone, and because the insurance company has no way of knowing if your bike is bone stock or has a gold-plated exhaust system, they don't cover the farkles and mods. Those are excluded. So when you crash your bike and total it, they are gonna pay you only for a bone stock bike--$10,000 in this example. But let's say your bike is 5 years old. Not worth $10,000 anymore, is it? So the collision premium goes down as the bike gets older, and so does the payout. Using insurance terminology, this is called Actual Cash Value coverage. On a total loss, this is where you're negotiating skills come into play because there is no agreed upon formula for figuring out the current value of your bike (with all the farkles and mods removed because, remember, farkles and mods are excluded.) The insurance company is supposed to come up with a total loss value based on recent equivalent sales in the used marketplace, but this is problematic because nearly all used bikes get sold with at least SOME farkles. So you are free to do your own research on eBay or Cycletrader and argue for a higher value. Anyway, once you agree on a total loss value, the insurance company pays you and takes title to the bike. They are then free to dispose of it any way they want. There's nothing in the policy that says they must offer you the option to buy back the salvage rights. But usually they do, because it's easier than doing the extra paperwork involved in selling it to the breakers. DAMAGE TO THE ACCESSORIES So what about all those farkles and mods? Well, as I explained above, they are not included in the loss to the bike, but most policies have a separate OPTIONAL coverage (called "Accessories" coverage or something similar) that applies to all the farkles and mods. On my particular policy, my insurance company provides coverage for $3000 in Accessories for free. Cool! On top of that, I purchased an additional $18,000 in Accessories coverage. That may seem like a lot but you need to know two things--(1) anything on the bike that was not on a bone stock base model 2004 R1150GS Adventure is an Accessory. So that means Happy Trail panniers, Corbin seat, DMC car wheel, DMC steering mod, Ohlins shocks, not to mention oh by the way THE SIDECAR!! and (2) the Accessories coverage does not cover the market value (actual cash value) of the mod--it covers the full value! For example, if I bought a Corbin seat for $600 five years ago and it got destroyed in the crash, it might be worth only $300 now as a used saddle but for the purpose of the policy it's worth $800. Why not $600, you ask? Because $600 is not the present day replacement cost--$800 is. And (this is cool) even if I bought my Ohlins shocks from another inmate for $500, the Accessories coverage covers them for the cost of a brand new set of shocks from an Ohlins dealer--installed! Which is like $2000. Crazy! If you go back to page 1 of this thread, I list all my farkles and mods as of April 2011. Even though I did not spend that much, you'll see that $21,000 is not out of line when you use the "cost new" approach. An interesting side effect of this has to do with farkles that are NOT damaged. The insurance company doesn't owe you a dime for those! They only pay for accessories that are lost, damaged or destroyed. Like for instance my Ohlins shocks. Since they were not damaged, there's nothing in the policy that says the insurance company still has to pay me $2000 for them. They don't! So unless you want to give the salvage yard a lot of freebies, you want to remove any mods that are not damaged. The only exception would be for a farkle that can't be removed without destroying it like, for instance, all my reflective decals. Henry, you asked if they wouldn't notice there was no rear wheel. Well, of course they would. The way to avoid any misunderstanding about the salvage value is to make sure the insurance company understands UP FRONT what farkles and mods you have. In my case, I spent about 3 hours with the adjuster on the first meeting showing him my farkles and mods, making sure he took pictures of everything, then I gave him either a copy of my receipt for the mod or a printed page off the web documenting the current value. That way we were on the same page from the git-go. We finally agreed on a total loss value for the bike just this past Monday, and once that was concluded, the adjuster arranged to have the bike towed to my house so I could remove the undamaged farkles. Once I'm done, I'll notify them so they can tow it to the salvage yard. Everything has been agreed to in advance, and everything is on the up and up. That's the way to do it! I've tried to make this explanation as simple as I can, but note that each policy is different, and there are lots of different terms and conditions that I've not discussed. Don't want to bore you to death even though I find this stuff fascinating. I've authored dozens of insurance policies and thousands of policy amendments in my time and I always found it to be interesting and challenging work. But I realize that most of you didn't get past the 3rd paragraph of this post! That's OK. I understand.
Drone, Excellent clear description of the issues and the process. I will be talking to my insurance co. this week regarding my bike. Thanks, Ron
Drone: If I was in your boots i'd probally build another rig.I would though give Claude a call and do right the first....Its go to hear your ok that was a nasty wreck..I'd buy another used 1150 before a 1200.. For the same reason Dave mentioned..Not a big fan of the electric goods...Get healthy and be interesting to see what you do.....
DRONE, much thanks for a easy to understand how best to insure one's bike, sidecar & extras. Sounds as though keeping records will pay off big time, if something disables anyones' rig, if properly covered. well done
My advice is also to continue with the sidecar. With all due respect to QueenBee, riding a hack is something you LOVE. It would be such a loss if you weren't there to teach more people who are standing wide-eyed outside DMC what to do, or no longer posting mini ride reports on your Wumpa thread. I loved your adventures and enthusiasm, and would hate to see it go. As to what rig to use, I'll let those who know better voice their opinions there. I have both an 1150 and 1200 (the former of which is my own DMC tug) and love LOVE them both for much the same reasons (they're AWESOME). But my vote is to try to either recreate Wumpa or start a whole new adventure with a brand new rig. And if you need to get rid of some of those farkles, PM me!
Ned - I know a guy w/a 2003 1150GS for sale (I think)... ...or you could sell me Kirby(?) I won't trade my Jetta though. PM if you want.
Ned I'm the guy you sent the tire chain to in Wasilla Alaska. he chain kept hitting the muffler and the banging annoyed me to much. I opted to put a TKC 80 on the front wheel and I'm putting on Vredestein Snow + studded this year on the pusher and side car. You, Abenteuerfaher, ClearwaterBMW were all instrumental in me getting a sidecar. I started out with a 2009 1200 GS and let my fingers do the shopping at DMC It's got all the electronics, ESA you know in the Enduro mode the bike raises 2" Last year me and the wife did a 22 day tour of Prince Of Wales Island. this coming year we're coming down to Bellingham and going down the coast to San Francisco. I would get a used 1200 GS and bolt your car back on to it. I took this yesterday afternoon
Why don't you take another path? Buy a NOS Triumph Tiger 1050? There is a brand new 2010 one in the Seattle area for around $9,000. Get a subframe from Jay at DMC and install the chair you have. Lots of ponies and a very fine engine. May not get you down all the gravel trails you're accustomed to, but who knows? Maybe it will! I love BMW's, heck I have owned three of them. But sometimes think that they are over rated. Heck even a newer DL1000 would work and allow you to get on gravel. I'm guessing you will only be able to do this one more time before SWMBO sticks a trowel in your hand and points toward the flower garden. So why not try something new and radical and have fun with it?
Okay folks here is what we have decided to do at Freedom Sidecars L.L.C. in light of this thread. First off I do not feel that there is any issues with the trail reducers as they are. I think the issue described herein was due to a trail reducer loosening up and not being detected. Regardless of that it became an issue that potentially could have created much more serious ramifications than we have seen described. Let me say this: We have had outfits we have built do Trips to Alaska, Labrador, Terra Del Fuego and Africa with no issues related to the trail reducer at all. Our policy has always been to observe what could be a potential shortcoming and go the extra mile to make things better even if it may not be required. Again, I am in no way stating that our or anyone else's trail reducer is defective of under par in design but only saying lets go a step farther. Frankly I need to sleep at night and we want peace of mind in the same fashion from those who purchase from us at Freedom Sidecars (C Stanley Motorsports). This is much more important that any stupid profit and loss statement. If you are worried at all that does not let me feel good either...so... Our trail reducers moving forward will have a steel threaded sleeve inserted into them from the bottom up which will be threaded to receive the ball joint. The shape will be kind of like a top hat turned upside down and the brim of the hat will be bolted to the bottom of the trail reducer to prevent any turning. So, steel ball joint threads will be run into a secured steel threaded sleeve. If anyone who presently has one of our trail reducers wishes to have it retrofitted in this fashion that can be done. Give me a call if you want to do that. This will be done at no charge except shipping and handling. If we do it here we will charge labor however. Again we feel strongly that this is an overkill improvement on an already good design and are offering it as a standard on all new trail reducers for the 1150 and 1200 GS models and as an act of good will are open to retro fitting the old ones if anyone desires we do so. No pictures yet but I think all will get the idea. By the way we are in the middle of doing a leading link which will eliminate the telelever all together and provide a means to run the same tire and wheel combo all around on the 1200 models. On the 1150 models a Stroker wheel on the rear would be required but the sidecar and front wheel can be the same still with all three corners having matching tires if desired. This is a huge plus either way when doing any serious adventure touring. One will not need to stack tires to the moon due to two or three different tire sizes require. (Sorry to stray off topic but we are quite excited about this) Please take Trail reducer topic this in the right context. I am not casting blame on any of our or anyone else's product we are only making an attempt to up the bar a little for the good of all who may have concerns even though they are, IMHO unfounded. __________________ Claude JOIN US ON FACEBOOK....FREEDOM SIDECARS Founder: Internet Sidecar Owners Klub at SCT http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/SCT/ President: C Stanley Motorsports Inc. http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/...rsandTrailers/ http://freedomsidecars.com/
JEEBUS!!! :eek1 That's fantastic!!! Exactly the design I had in mind (well, I had thought to weld the damn thing onto the underside, but if bolting it works without interfering with the fender mount, hurrah!) Claude -- you da man!
Aye... Fantastic Claude...very generous of you. This will be immensely strong and secure; Panzer Stark !... Man, you're making me want to come back to Hacking.....damn the SWMBO . cheers...
Come on back my friend you are missed. Glad to see you posting here again. By the way Ya may want to delete the last part of your last sentence Elmer or you may be deleted by the SWMBO lol. SEE US ON FACEBOOK .... FREEDOM SIDECARS
Howdy Claude, What you are offering in the way of new trailer reduction fitting is in one word, FANTASTIC. It will not only be STRONG but could also be tailored to lenght so that what ever drop of the front end was the result of the trailer reducer could be made up for in the lenght of the upside down top hat fitting. Your offer to retrofit your older design to the new design at no cost other then shipping to your past customers is an example of true customer service above and beyond what is expected nowadays, my hat is off to you Sir.
Drone Even though I'm currently loathing you, you've had a V-Strom before, gearing is infinetly adjustable,even Claude thought this was a great tug and it's got eveything and more. http://detroit.craigslist.org/okl/mcy/3958965947.html Blue's my favorite color and then Jay could help you with all Claudes shoddy work
