• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

Ain't Insurance Grand?

lkchris

Active member
Have a friend with a 2016 K1600, purchased earlier this year new.

Recently he experienced a tipover in a gas station area. Moving less than 5 mph.

This put some scratches on his motor and the BMW dealer says the repair for this is a new motor and a bike in this condition has zero resale value and therefore the bike is totaled. Insurance agrees.

Seems like there ought to be a heck of a discount on insurance for installing engine guard bars!
 
Seems like there ought to be a heck of a discount on insurance for installing engine guard bars!

Seems like there should be more customer demand that manufacturers provide effective tip over protection from the factory as standard equipment - on all bikes.

I've read of similar losses with the K1600 models. Max BMW parts fiche shows very few individual engine components available. Empty crankcase is NA, short block runs $8521, complete engine $18641. Add labor.

KBB trade in value on a 2016 K1600GT is only $14,600.

A similar situation: http://www.k1600forum.com/forum/bmw-k1600-general-discussions/50601-oem-engine-guard-protection-my-experience.html. Even with OEM engine guards, minor engine scratches required engine replacement to repair damage.
 
With the prevalence of people who have committed a S.A.D. (Stopped And Dropped) at some time in their riding career, it seems incredulous that a manufacturer would design a bike that would be totaled if the engine is scratched, and not design into it some kind of protection.

Chris
 
Seems like there should be more customer demand that manufacturers provide effective tip over protection from the factory as standard equipment - on all bikes.

I agree that BMW should offer better options. The Victory Vision, although not real pretty to look at, was designed so that it would rest on the floorboards in the event of a tip over. HD does a decent job on the FLH line with standard factory crash bars as well.
 
Does the bike not run any longer or was it only cosmetic? From the photos it's hard to see where vulnerable engine parts would be in a drop to a flat hard surface.

Screen Shot 2017-08-15 at 9.31.00 PM.jpg
Screen Shot 2017-08-15 at 9.32.30 PM.jpg
 
With the prevalence of people who have committed a S.A.D. (Stopped And Dropped) at some time in their riding career, it seems incredulous that a manufacturer would design a bike that would be totaled if the engine is scratched, and not design into it some kind of protection.

Chris

Totally agree.

I've had 2 tip-overs with my Gold Wing - it simply rested on the OEM guards and ZERO damage. Heck- even the chrome on the guards was so thick it didn't scratch off. And that's 904 lbs. of bike.

Not so lucky with the R1200RT.

No - not in the habit of tipping a bike over, but it can happen. :dance

Engine and luggage guards should be OEM - like Honda figured out early on. :dunno
 
Two years ago one of our fork lift operators was working in a tight area and bumped a new K1600 (his spotter wasn't paying attention) and the bike fell over. Nothing significant (scratched pannier cover, etc.) but the outraged owner (who shouldn't have park his baby where it was to begin with) was able to nick the company for slightly more than $14,000 for "damages". The operator, and his spotter, were pulled off the job for two days, and required to take remedial training classes. The owner of the scooter continued to park it in the same place (under a roofed area between warehouse buildings).

Considering the depreciation of any motor vehicle the moment you drive it off the lot, I find this a bit more than ridiculous.
 
I watched a YouTube video this weekend in which the owner of a 2017 Mercedes AMG 63 reported how his new car (six weeks old, and less than 2,000 miles) was written off by his insurance company. He was driving it in fairly heavy rain somewhere in Pennsylvania, and water was sucked into the engine. The car quit, and refused to start. Mercedes diagnosed it as vapour lock, and said the engine would have to be replaced. They quoted a price of over $70,000 USD for the engine from AMG (I don't think that included any labour). The insurance company decided to write if off and pay him a settlement of somewhere in the vicinity of $88,000. He's buying a 2018 version of the same model.
 
This put some scratches on his motor and the BMW dealer says the repair for this is a new motor and a bike in this condition has zero resale value and therefore the bike is totaled..

Ridiculous, but not unbelievable for the BMW dealership to say so. And the insurance agent? Heck, it's other people's money.
I especially like the part where the dealer says this bike which cost almost $30,000 new, with a few scratches is now completely worthless. Right. They will quickly buy it from the insurance company for about nothing, buff it up, and have it out on the showroom floor with a price tag of $20,000 on it. The only ones hurt in this deal are the rest of us who keep seeing our premiums go up to support this kind of thing.

As is often the case, I have found, reality is the complete opposite of perception. New bikes, of all makes, seem massive, indestructible. In reality, they are far more fragile, both on the outside and internally, than motorcycles of years ago.

I would say though, that incidents like these make me often wish I had a GS instead of an RT. They seem designed to handle tip overs, non-washing, and general rough use. It would be a welcome relief.
 
I guess my Wunderlich protection bars saved my ass...!
Not a scratch...anywhere...and I was moving between 5 & 10 MPH.


20160814_161517.jpg
 
Back
Top