Comments on: What Happens With Insurance After a Motorcycle Accident

By: Steve Williams

Steve Williams — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:08:52 +0000

Just when the day was looking sort of nice I read your post. It’s probably why I consider my Vespa an expense so that if the day ever comes when something happens I will have zero expectation of protection by insurance.

Great post you’ve written by the way.

When I started riding and writing reviews for a local BMW/Ducati/Triumph/Vespa/Piaggio dealer one of the things I was happy to negotiate was that any loss or damage was on them. So I can ride all those nice, new machines without worry.

Now, if the weather would just cooperate.

Steve Williams
Scooter in the Sticks

By: Stacy

Stacy — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:30:07 +0000

@RichardM: Yup, one of those "hope it never happens" kinds of things... @Liz Petersen: I'd imagine car accidents will follow a similar path, but it takes far more damage to total a car, and insurance is more willing to pay out more money for repairs rather than total it. Insurance companies consider motorcycles to be toys, so they'd rather go the easy way out and just total it and cut a check. The big gap in this article is what happens when you're not at fault and you have to deal with the other insurance company. I don't have any first hand experience with that so I decided to leave that part out instead of guessing. @ish: That is crazy! I'm glad you guys were all right after your crashes. Insurance cuts both ways: sometimes it's better to let the bike go, and other times it's better to fight. I'd be so scared of crashing a rental bike!

By: ish

ish — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:11:08 +0000

This is one seriously helpful and well written article. Man, before my buddy and I opened up our own motorcycle rental shop in los angeles, we were both dumb enough to crash the same bike. We basically shared the motorcycle, and hilariously enough, we crashed it within weeks of each other, and incurred the same exact damage: two different times! We were totally scared of insurance rates hiking, etc. But we weren’t smart enough to think about doing a cost analysis on which way would be the best to go.
Long story short: we both spent a lot of money, when insurance would have probably been cheaper in the end. Lesson learned the hard way, I guess.

We sold the bike, and pretty much quit riding after that. Until we picked up Jupiter’s Travels, that book totally inspired us and then we got back in to it. So at the shop, we’re pretty damn knowledgeable about the whole insurance thing now.
But man, I’ll tell ya, you crash a rental, at least you don’t gotta deal with the whole insurance and fixing debacle. ha!

By: Motorcycle Accident & Insurance?!? « BasherDesigns

Motorcycle Accident & Insurance?!? « BasherDesigns — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:55:18 +0000

[...] Read her full post here:What Happens With Insurance After a Motorcycle Accident [...]

By: Liz Petersen

Liz Petersen — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:20:20 +0000

Well-written, Stacy! This is really important information you are passing along.

I wish someone would do this for car accidents (which are probably far more complicated). I got totally and completely screwed by an accident I did not cause, but it was word against word, and the claims agent was not willing to revisit my claim despite the other party being found guilty in traffic court. I have a couple more months to file a complaint with the insurance commission… better kick my butt into gear and do that.

By: RichardM

RichardM — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:53:53 +0000

An excellent post! Hopefully, it will remain just a reference for me but I really appreciate the write-up. I plan on using this for my son to have as a reference next to his insurance card.

Thank you…