Never saw it Comming!

About a month ago, while riding at night with a pretty young thing on the back of my 05 Chopper, I decided to take a service road to swing back around to town. I got about a half mile down, and was doing about 50 when out of nowhere, I hit a railroad track that stuck up about three and a half inches. No problem in a cage, but on a bike, at night, very different. As it launches us into the air, I manage to keep control as I feel the death grip of freshly manicured nails dig into my skin.... As we make contact with the surface I am relieved that both wheels are still in the right direction but having been thrown up so fast my right foot came up off the foot peg and now was squarely planted on the brake....... the momentum of my foot completely slammed the brake and we skid for about 30 feet before I was able to over come the force and lift up off the brake... I managed to control the bike and keep us upright and I was persuaded that Home should be the next stop... I agreed since I didnt know what damage I had done if any.

The damage: the rim on my 05, was bent so bad that it immediately caused the tire to go flat once I was home.. took it in to see if it could be hammered back straight... no luck,, wouldnt hold air... So the next logical step,, order new wheel. This is where I get the bright idea of filing a insurance claim, I mean why do we have insurance right? Full coverage even with it payed off! Well that was a big mistake. After explaining what happened and seeing the adjuster, Im told the incident will be listed as an "AT FAULT accident." Which for those of you who dont know, that means in insurance terms... WE WILL TRIPLE YOUR PREMIUM THE NEXT TIME YOU RENEW... so the 700 dollar check they cut for me to pay for the thousand dollar front rim, was billed right back to me in the next term... what a joke. I cancelled with them and went elsewhere... the company name isnt imortant (GEICO), but just beware the night rides....

Yeah, in case your wondering, I still did okay with the girl,,, several times.:lol:
 

TLB08K9

Well-Known Member
That sucks ,not the part with the girl :2thumbs: , but the way insurance sticks it to you for crappy roads that we have no control over.
 

01Mastiff

Active Member
If it's a county road you can file a claim with the county. I have seen them pay if they knew there was a hazard or had previously been reported as a hazard.
 
If it's a county road you can file a claim with the county.* I have seen them pay if they knew there was a hazard or had previously been reported as a hazard.
Yeph... We have lots of potholes and you can claim it with the City as damages caused by a pothole... I had a car alloy rim replaced and was paid 900 dollars for a rim that was purchased from Tirerack.com.* I was plesantly surprised that it turned out good :cheers:
 

Old Hippy

It's 4:20 somewhere
Calendar Participant
About a month ago, while riding at night with a pretty young thing on the back of my 05 Chopper, I decided to take a service road to swing back around to town. I got about a half mile down, and was doing about 50 when out of nowhere, I hit a railroad track that stuck up about three and a half inches.

Bad news Dude, and sorry to hear of you rough ride. May I suggest contacting the railroad's claims dept?? I work for a major railroad and when something like this happens, their claims dept will gladly pay a claim such as this. It sounds as though they would be responsible account having some sort of problem with that certain crossing. Go back and take pics of the rail sticking up and pics of your scooter. Send the pics to your local media outlets, along with this same story you shared with us. Give it a try.!! I'm sure they would not like the negative publicity about their faulty rail/highway crossing.!!!

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BigSpenda864

Active Member
I know what you mean about insurance companies. I have Geico was well and recently had an incident with them. I paid my premium for the entire year when I bought the bike. The reason I chose Geico is because they were cheaper for the same coverage then my previous company. After a couple of months I got another bill in the mail saying they wanted an additional $700 and my insurance would expire in 6 months instead of 12.

I called them up and the first told me I was in an accident in May 07 that I had not disclosed. I informed them I was not in any accident and therefore they were wrong and needed to honor my original policy. After almost an hour of going round and round they informed me they were wrong about the accident; however, the increase was because they made a mistake when quoting the policy and I need to pay the difference. I advised them I would not pay the difference because they had all the info when I got the quote and its their problem if they now think they didn't charge me enough. I spent another hour and a half telling them I wasn't going to pay it and I expected them to honor the quote.

I finally started saying they were committing an unfair trade practice and I had been the victim of a bait and switch to get me to leave my other insurance company. They tried to get me to give up the fight but I kept saying it wasn't acceptable and that I wasn't going away. They finally caved in and honored the policy but it took hours to solve the problem. If I had not been so persistent, I would've had to pay the extra money. I wonder how many people they screw over by raising the policy each day. You know there are hundreds if not thousands of people who wouldn't have the knowledge or the assertiveness to hold their feet to the fire. Insurance companies suck IMHO.
 

Cutter

Well-Known Member
I...I have Geico was well and recently had an incident with them. I paid my premium for the entire year when I bought the bike. The reason I chose Geico is because they were cheaper for the same coverage then my previous company. After a couple of months I got another bill in the mail saying they wanted an additional $700 and my insurance would expire in 6 months instead of 12.
I had a similar situation with Geico...

Paid my 1st year up front...
1 year later got a bill, and my insurance went up - I didn't have time to look around so I just paid it...
6 months later got another thinking I had paid for a full year, and it was only for 6 months... :eek:
I should have read more carefully, because it more than doubled - no claims, accidents, or tickets. :bang:

I have State Farm now, by far the cheapest for the Dog in MI - and my agent lives right across the street. :2thumbs:
but still too effin expensive
 
Dam, I had no idea that people were getting taken by the Company that pretty much prides themselves on providing the best Motorcycle insurance. I see it on TV and in every mag I buy.... guess they dont have the small print that says, "Buyer beware!"

I have done some figuring and over the 5 years I have insured a motorcycle with Geico I have payed them over 1500 dollars without one single penny being payed back to me. I made a claim for exactly 675 dollars then got billed for my new policy at $710.... so they just made another 35 bucks by doing nothing but licking a stamp! Oh yeah, they dont even do that. I guess thats why we see an insurance broker on every corner now... the law makes it manditory for us to pay it, but does nothing to make them be honest. Making money at the working man's expense!

A bunch of crap!
 
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XTREEME

Active Member
Hmmm... Geico doesn't sound so good after all.

I've got everything under one big umbrella with AmFam (Cars, House, Life, Bikes, etc).

The new dog only cost me $219 for the year (500 ded). I was shocked at how low it was. I was expecting somewhere around 300.
 

TLB08K9

Well-Known Member
Hey you guys should be happy, The damn lizard quoted me a price of $2000 a year, and progressive wanted $1400, I ended up going with formost ins. for just under 1k for my new dog (was only paying $400 a year for my old harley with progressive). No wrecks, tickets, nothing! I was happy to get it under 1k for a year.
Everybody talks about it goes down when you hit 25, well it did, when the hell is it supposed to lower again? Rip off is all it is, Your wallet is damned if you have it and the impound loves your ride if you dont.
 

BigSpenda864

Active Member
Hey you guys should be happy, The damn lizard quoted me a price of $2000 a year, and progressive wanted $1400, I ended up going with formost ins. for just under 1k for my new dog (was only paying $400 a year for my old harley with progressive). No wrecks, tickets, nothing! I was happy to get it under 1k for a year.
Everybody talks about it goes down when you hit 25, well it did, when the hell is it supposed to lower again? Rip off is all it is, Your wallet is damned if you have it and the impound loves your ride if you dont.
I had the same basic problem when I bought the BD. I was paying just a few hundred per year for the Harley but my insurance company wanted almost $1700 for the Dog. I shopped around and found Geico to be the cheapest but still almost $1200 per year. That's before my story a couple of posts back hen they tried to hose me. I am looking for a new company before my policy expires.
 
I had the same basic problem when I bought the BD. I was paying just a few hundred per year for the Harley but my insurance company wanted almost $1700 for the Dog. I shopped around and found Geico to be the cheapest but still almost $1200 per year. That's before my story a couple of posts back hen they tried to hose me. I am looking for a new company before my policy expires.
Wow :eek: Your insurance up north is high. I pay $454.00 a year with $500.00 deducable. Could have got it for $378.00 with $1000.00 ded. And I was complaining......I'll just shutup and pay for now on. Mine is through Progressive, may want to check with them.
 

BigSpenda864

Active Member
Wow :eek: Your insurance up north is high. I pay $454.00 a year with $500.00 deducable. Could have got it for $378.00 with $1000.00 ded. And I was complaining......I'll just shutup and pay for now on. Mine is through Progressive, may want to check with them.

Up north? Hell, I'm in South Carolina. I wasn't happy about the increase I will tell you that much.
 

TLB08K9

Well-Known Member
BigSpend,

You might give these guys a try, not sure if they offer it in your state but worth checking into. They offer breaks if you have lojack, or any type of riding course . This is the one the dealer recommended to me when I was talking to them about the high cost. Saved me some money and have a decent policy for coverage and the cost of accessories, plus free roadside. Which I have already used once.

Foremost Insurance - Offering Insurance for a Wide Variety of Special Items - Mobile Home, Home, Motorcycle, Motor Home, boat, wave runner, jet ski, snowmobile
 
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