My poor KTM. I need help and advice - insurance.

[mikehandsdown]

Hi, It would be great to get some advice from people more experienced than myself with an insurance issue.

2 days ago my KTM duke 125 (2013) was stolen, and yesterday is was found a mile away, in a hedge, pretty beaten up.

I bought it a month ago, my first motorbike, a stepping stone to a proper bike. I paid £3000, it was immaculate, not a mark scratch or blemish and had 1000k on the clock. Apparently it's a limited edition as its black, and most of these are white or orange.

Now there isn't a panel that doesn't have a scratch, locks drilled out, steering lock broken, pegs bent, bars bent etc. I'm gutted. After the police found it they gave me a lift there and just said 'good luck pushing it home' and that was that.

On the way home pushing it, I passed a garage and had a word with the guy there, he offered to fit a new lock kit and see if it starts. I decided to leave it with him, was happy to so as its probably more secure there in his shop than at home where it got nicked and I don't have a replacement lock yet and it saved me the rest of the walk home pushing it uphill. Its there at the moment, he's going to order a lock set and fit it in a couple of days.

So, my insurance was £467 for 3rd party fire and theft. Excess is £400.

Basically I'm trying to calculate my options going forward, if I claim and what that will cost me in the long run, if its written off and what they'll pay out, if I don't go through insurance and just fix it up on the weekends. My heads spinning with figures and i'm still so pi##ed about what happened I can't think straight.

Also I'm now wondering if I should tell the guy at the garage to hold off doing any work on it, as I don't really know what the plan is yet.

Would greatly appreciate some level headed advice, I've never calmed before and I've a week to sort this as I'm supposed to be going on holiday next week.

Sorry about the rant.

Thanks

Mike

[arry]

Firstly - sorry to hear it


As for what it'd cost you long term, how old are you? Declaring the incident for 5 years means 5 lots of loaded insurance premium that needs paying, but it's only really loaded relatively heavily for the first 2-3 years then after that it's probably marginal at best. Do remember though that your insurance will likely be cancelled if you get paid out for a total loss, so that's £467 gone already, really.

Do some quotes on one of the comparison sites (incognito it, dunno if that'll help but it sounds cool). Don't use your own details, but pick a house nearby, similar bike, and then play out the scenarios in terms of claim value £2500 in previous year and no NCD, then one year NCD and claim in the year prior to the expiry period, etc until you can work out what it's going to look like.

The next question is do you rely on the bike or was it a fun purchase? If it's your way of getting to work, then the easier option is the payout, of course.

Anyway, hope you get it sorted.

[mikehandsdown]

Thanks for the advice Arry,

I'm 30, and I don't rely on the bike, I got it in order to follow my dad about on the weekends, he's a bike nut.

I've added the claim of £2500 to a comparison site mock quotation, it takes the premium up with lexham (who I'm currently insured with) up to £513. Everyone else has quoted over £1000.

I have over 9 years NCD with my car, do you reckon claiming on my bike insurance would effect my car premium, would I need to declare it there?

[iooi]

Well are the Insurance co aware it was stolen?

I know you will get loaded for the claim for a few years. But can you afford the cost of getting it back to std yourself, as well as finding the parts.

TBH. If the Ins co are not aware then if you are claiming. Don't delay.

Yes. You will have to declare the claim on your car ins.....
____________________
Just because my bike was A DIVVY, does not mean i am......

[mikehandsdown]

The insurance company know the bike was stolen and have been updated that it has now been found, they have already sent out a claim form.

The claims department are going to call tomorrow to get updated etc, I don't yet know what to tell them.

I can afford to fix it myself, it just seems a joke, we all pay for insurance, huge amounts in some cases and just when you need to use them you cant through fear of future costs, low payout, cat-c's. What's the point, why did I bother paying more for 3rd party F+T if I cant use it.

Sorry. Just so annoyed with all this and that scumbag that took my bike has no idea the aggravation and cost he's caused.

[arry]

If I were you mate I'd suck it up and stick the claim through. Otherwise it'll be kicking around for ages dragging you down, and you'll be spending money on it always knowing what has happened and worrying about it.

[mikehandsdown]

Thanks Arry. I'll update with my conversation with the ins. company.

for what its worth, pic's before and after.

https://imgur.com/a/9bYFL

https://imgur.com/a/oRD53

[arry]

Such a shame.

Next time - get an almax chain and never buy an Oxford waste of time novelty security device ever again

[Amber Phoenix]

Why not just put a claim in, it'll probably be written off cat-d (often any repair bill over about 66% of bikes estimated value), then just buy it back from insurers as salvage for a small percentage of value (25-40%) and then do it up yourself in your own time?

Sure, you'll get the premium loading for a couple of years, but you keep your first bike, you still get a reasonable pay out and you repair it to a standard you're happy with. May be just get it functional again and live with some of the more costly cosmetic issues.

Oh and always ague the toss over value, the first couple of valuations will be just taking the piss. Show them a bunch of autotrader ads or completed ebay listings and point out exactly how they all are way more than their valuation and not even as good as your bike was.
____________________
Beginner Biker Adventures Blog
Yamaha FZ6 S2 2007

[mikehandsdown]

[M.C]

[mikehandsdown]

Please correct me if I've got any of this wrong but:

Say, for example they pay out close to the bikes value, £2500, I would then have to absorb the following costs:

Insurance policy would end costing me £467 for the month cover I got.
Excess is £400, so this would be removed from the amount they pay out right?
Buying the bike back for (e.g.) 30% its value would be £750 I would have to pay them?
Lets say I spend £400 just fixing the worst of the damage myself.

That totals £2017. Leaving me about £483 in my pocket.

I then need a new insurance policy for when the bike is fixed, approx £550 and deal with a few years of higher premiums on the bike and car with a claim on my insurance. Finally, when it comes to selling the bike it would be listed as a cat-c or d and id have to take a hit on what I can get for it if I can sell it at all.

So thats that option...

Alternatively, I forget the insurance company, spend the same 400 doing it up myself. Don't need to get out a new policy, bike doesn't get listed as cat-c or d, can sell it for more, no claim listed on my insurance, no damage done to my NCD.

I want to use the systems in place but it just seems not worth it in the long run, unless I've got my maths completely wrong.

Thanks for bearing with me on this...

[M.C]

[arry]

[Rogerborg]

Pretty much, but you've got a loss recorded against you anyway, whether you claim or not.

It is a tough one, there's no obviously correct answer on it. I'd probably be minded to just press on with the claim.

I take it that Dibble had no interest in getting prints from it?
____________________
Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[mikehandsdown]

[dydey90]

Insurance policy ends? I wouldn't have thought so, I've had pay outs before and they've been happy to continue the policy on a new vehicle.

If you put a claim in then make sure it's for at least £3000. That's what you paid. If there's a similar bike currently for sale, in the specified rare black trim, then save the advert to back up your claimed value. Bonus points if bike is advertised above £3k.
____________________
This post is probably not serious and shouldn't be taken literally.
Past: CBR125,ER6f NINJA 650, ZZR600 Current: VFR750

[arry]

[M.C]

[Wonko The Sane]

[Northern Monkey]

My Car insurance went up by about 5% following a motorbike claim the previous year.

Mrs NMs car insurance, on which I'm a named driver, (Admiral) don't record motorbike claims on their car policies according to the lady on the phone, so there was no increase
____________________
Fisty: after polishing the tank with the glistenng beads of sweat from my full hot scrotum, I filled the headrace bearings with 10cc of my manmilk

[Bozzy]

Sorry to hear about that.

Shame we can't always enjoy something we've worked hard for without some thieving 3.14 key spoiling it.

Hope your insurance sort it quickly with the minimum of fuss.

[Robby]

Put the claim in. This isn't a borderline case where you might just break even, the value of the bike is far more than the policy and excess. Also bear in mind that you might not want to ride this bike afterwards. Generally after a theft or a biggish crash, the bike will never feel right to you again - always worrying that something is broken and will fail at the worst time.

Also, the bike may be insured with a value of £3k, but insurers will pay out market value. This means collecting a few ebay and autotrader adverts where people are asking silly money (around £3.5k) and using that as evidence that the market value is £3.5k. I've done this myself, nice way of cancelling out the excess.

You may also get the salvage for a lot less than £750. If the vehicle is worth £10k, so the salvage value is more like £3-4k, then the insurers might try and get some money back out of it. If it's under a grand, they want to get it sorted out as quickly as possible. A few hours of a claims adjuster's time quickly eats into any money they can make out of it. Bear in mind that for them to take the bike, store it, sell it, and do all of the ownership paperwork is quite a bit of work, will easily cost them £500.

You should mention this to your car insurance company, at renewal time, on the phone. Mine have never cared about bike related things.

[Flemy]

[Flemy]