Lovely. Absolutely bloody lovely. (Apologies to the Brits.)

(Story below; actual questions in bold all way day.)

Some idiot in a pick-up backed up into my parked motorcycle. It was sitting at the outer end of its parking space (a habit I've adopted since hearing that sometimes people accidentally whip-in to seemingly empty parking spaces, proceeding to hit the bike on the inside before they realized what they've done). Only thing was, there wasn't another car in the whole row.

So he just backs up in a straight line for 50 feet and rams my bike. I was standing outside just about to leave, heard it happen, turned and saw him pull forward, releasing the bike and allowing it to fall.

First off, it looks like the tank and cooling fins are perfectly fine. That was my first fear. I think that's mostly from my engine-guard/cruising-mount-footpegs.

Then I looked further.

The front fender looks like it got a direct blow from his towing ball--smashed completely in, ripped the screw holding it into the left fork completely out. I had to pull out a wrench and pry it up so it wasn't making contact with the tire.

That's not the worst, however, I realized after a minute.

The forks are completely off. Holding the handlebars forward *(still not sure if those are bent) means the wheel is quite a bit left.

Lovely. I am holding out hope that it's just a tripletree issue, that the motion on the front fender caused the fork to be shifted, but then the screws snapped before the fork actually bent... But I think that's mostly optimistic.

It's still kind-of driveable, crazy as it sounds, and since it's my only form of transportation I just take it easy...

Anyways, the guy is some Mexican mechanic who barely speaks English and his asegurancia just expired a week before (yay for speaking Spanish! Wait... not a moment to celebrate).

He doesn't have money, either. Right away, he was trying to get me to just take $100 and his apologies, saying he didn't have anything else. I was telling him no way. (This was when we had only seen the fender).

Then we realized the forks. He said he would try and make payments to me, and showed me where he worked and said I could come by any time (some shady mechanic's shop in little-mexico around here).

By a correct alignment of the stars, it turns out that for a little gap in time I have uninsured motorist insurance, despite my intentions to get only bare-minimum state required liability coverage. In order to have minimum, I am required to send in a waiver, and they hadn't gotten that waiver to me, so they had revoked my minimum and added a bunch of options on. I didn't know this until I got a call saying that I owed them money (I paid a year upfront 3 months ago... So that was no good) last week and had it sorted out. They have mailed me the waiver, should get it any day now, and I would have had minimum insurance restated and been reimbursed upon turning in the waiver.

(Don't think I'll be doing that now).

Anyways... The front brakes are working just fine, so the rotor/caliper are good. Tire seems fine. Surely there's not frame damage at the neck, right? The other parts of the system should give before bending it there, I imagine? So this should be repairable? I've replaced forks for a friend before (saved him $1000 in parts and labor in the end! Two forks and a clutch lever from the factory, all work myself. Happy day), and I've taken off my forks when I replaced the headset bearings, so I'm fairly confident I can do the work, but last time the friend did have the shop evaluate things beforehand.

So other than taking out the forks and rolling them on a flat surface (I used a wall last time), what diagnostic checks are at my disposal?

What are the cost of parts I'm looking at? Best place to get them? (Is is possible to fine new forks, or am I stuck with finding used? Is an upgrade possible? If so, what are those options and their costs and pros/cons?)

Front fender... Anyone got one for sale, I guess?

Any advice on dealing with insurance? Adjuster will be out to look at it soon, I'm leaving it together until he gets here I guess.

 

well all i gotta say, is DONT ride it with the forks all effed. Figure out a ride from someone else, take the bus, do SOMETHING, because its not worth risking your life. Stress fractures in metal can unexpectedly fail and leave your ass skidding down the road.

sucks your bike got messed up though.

You might be able to save the lowers and just replace the upper fork tubes. While you're at it replace the stock sprigs with progressives and new fork oil.

 

uppers and lowers? I've never opened a fork, but my impression was you just replace a whole assembly; are separate fork parts available for sale more cheaply than whole forks?

 

Not sure how it works in your state but uninsured or under insured motorist insurance only is good for medical and it could apply for collision if you carry that. It would also be less the deductible so if the damage is $550.00 and you have a $500.00 deductible you would only get a check for the diff.
The insurance company would probably total it anyway because of its age and value. It does not make any difference to them if you have 10,000 hours into fixing it up because it's only worth what's it's worth in the blue book.
Too bad you'll just have to repair what you can and go after the dude for as much cash as you can get. I'm sure your not the only trouble he has if he let his insurance go he's probably on his way to Mexico as we speak.

 

Actually, my impression is that it's nothing like that in my state. It definitely applies to collision. And in all my conversations with the insurance company, no mention has been made of a 'deductible' for this, though I guess I should certainly check (I talk to the adjuster tomorrow).

As far as "blue book", the adjuster said it looked low and so said he would go online and look at a few places and see what he found.

I highly doubt he's "on his way to Mexico" right now.

 

Like I said it may apply to collision if you happen to carry collision insurance on that bike. The deductible will apply just as at always does but it would not be considered chargeable to your policy because you were not the one who wrecked it. Now that I think about it it may fall under your comp insurance since it was parked and you were not on it. In either case the insurance company will determine value and what they will pay.
In Minnesota you have to have insurance on whatever you drive. If you drop your coverage and something happens like your situation. The cops will arrest the driver and impound the Vehical. The driver gets to post bail and have a nice visit with a judge which carries a nice fine to boot. So if that dude was up here I'm sure he would be across the border by now. Minnesota does not screw with dead beats. Good luck to you and I hope you get what you want out of this situation.

 

Looks like I have a $250 deductible, and though the blue book value was $695, my adjuster looked online and decided the value was between $1200 and $1500.

I have nothing personal against the guy, everyone makes mistakes, so no reason to screw him over. Even in a worst case scenario, you can't get any money from a guy who has no insurance by screwing him over--I'd rather he pay me than fines to the state, you know.

 

Your right and hope he will make it right with you. But around here if something happens and the cops show up they want your insurance card and your license.
Well it least your insurance is going to help and that's a goog thing.

MN

 

I'd suggest you pull the forks and roll them against each other to see if they are bent. After my accident, I could see that the forks weren't level relative to each other and assumed the worst. After doing the above test (and disassembling them to confirm) I found that in fact the forks were straight.

They had just gotten twisted in the top triple tree. If you hit the top triple tree the right way, it'll shift AND tighten the nut that holds it on, preserving the twist.

If your forks are bent, you can get a new set of inners for probably $200-300. Used forks used to go for $30 on ebay and it used to be worth taking the chance, but now everyone wants $100-200 for a crappy set of forks in need of a rebuild, with corrosion, the works.

Rebuilding the forks is completely covered in this how-to: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=1 ... build.html EDIT: Sorry, this is for a 750 seca with anti-dive. Had you confused with another member. 650 rebuild should be on easier and I'm sure there's a full How-To on this site.

Also consider replacing your fender. There is a fork brace inside it, and if it's twisted, it's going to affect your fork alignment and handling.

 

What a bummer man, that sucks! Any pics of the damage?

 

It's hard to see how bad it is in pics, but looking at this you have to be away that the steering is centered--that's how much the wheel is off. From some angles you can't tell, but when you're on the bike, it's completely off. Then you can see it from any angle.

 

Oh yeah, you can see the wheel orientation compared to the headlight.

 

Oh yeah, you can see the wheel orientation compared to the headlight.

 

So, anyone have notes on fender compatibility? There's tons of 550 fenders on ebay right now, I only found this for 650:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Yamaha-XJ-XJ650 ... 930wt_1029

Which looks ok, though mine didn't have any pitting... Anyways, it'd do I guess? Are 550's ok though? They seem to look the same. And the 750's look really cool, but different--no chance they'd fit?

 

or this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1980-Yamaha-Max ... 33&vxp=mtr

 

The 550 MAXIM front fender is the exact same fender as the 650 Maxim. (Identical pn including prefix.) The Seca is different so be careful; but they are visibly different where they mount.

 

I've PM'd you. I may be able to help.