Kat down

[shpielers]

Well this sucks.
Cage took me out the other day (Monday 3/27), changed lanes without looking and sent me tumbling across a lane of freeway traffic. Kat's totalled. Haven't heard official word from the insurance folks yet, but common...blue book is what $1500?
Haven't had a chance to pull what's left of the fairings off and check out the frame yet, but the forks are nuked as is the headlight stay.
If the frame is still in good shape, she'll get resurrected... eventually...




might not look too bad yet...


getting worse


that's fixable...


So's that...


This though...not sure yet.


From a different angle


Well that's clearly fuct...If the frame is true and the bike is salvagable, drop the racetech goodies into a new set of kat forks, or swap in GSXR forks?


Fixable, with enough free time...


Ugly, but whole.


Don't even know how that happened, I HAD a tank bag on there before hand. Unless that's from my knee...which come to think of it might explain why it's so sore.


Probably fixable...


All in all, I got lucky. Spot of rash the size of a fist on my side, and one the size of a silver dollar on me knee. ATGATT!!!
Helmet is toast. Jacket was a winter/waterproof mesh jacket, so it's toast - holes in both arms. Leather vest I wore over the jacket looks fine. Guess who is buying only leather from now on.
gloves are toast, have a hole all the way to the liner (got a heat blister from that) in one, and the other is ground down almost all the way through. Pants are done for, they were mesh too.

Little stiff and sore the first couple days on the left side where the car hit, but I'm back to ~90%. Left shoulder, wrist, and knee are still sore, but fully usable.

After my girlfriend came and picked me up, I went home and got my truck to get the bike home. Wasn't about to push it up the ramps in my beat up state if I didn't have to, so popped the key in, hit the button and...fired up. Since there's a quarter sized hole in the engine cover, and most of my oil soaked into the freeway, not highly recommended. But it worked. These engines are seriously bulletproof. Just ask the 115,000 miles on mine.

So...now I'm bikeless. Kinda...going to dig into the carcass this weekend and see if the frame is good. Whatever that outcome is, I've got my long-term-havent-had-a-chance-in-literally-almost-2-years project 1100, and my old ninja 250 that's been sitting for 4 years since I had to throw it in a storage unit for a couple months during a move and the carbs clogged up. So...which project is it gonna be?

[Corylo]

Glad you are ok man.

[Xerrith]

Man, it's sad hearing about this, but I'm glad you're okay!!

[mmiltonp]

same sentiments here! wow... just never know!

[shpielers]

Thanks guys. Still waiting to hear anything back from insurance.

[92xjunker]

Well....damn Spielers.. good to hear your still upright. That bike has had a long life and only ended by a cage....that sucks..

[woobie]

Glad to hear your ok, That is what matters the most.

The bike will be a write off. If they do total it and don't let you buy it back I would look into seeing if you could pull the seat and that would help pad the pay out.

I crashed mine in 08, no structural damage but the repair bill was $4500 cdn by the insurance company. Everything "damaged" get's added to the total and it adds up fast. The fairings and exhaust alone would put you up over $1500 in damage. In my case I took the pay out, bought the bike back for $1300, slapped an engine cover on and rode it for another year and 30,000kms. Then stripped the after market goodies to sell separately(seat, cowl, and rear shock) and sold the bike for $1100.

Don't forget to press to have your gear included in the pay out, helmet, jacket gloves. That's an added cost to you that is a result of the other drivers actions.

[Kreylyn]

It's fixable.

No question about it.

Get everything you can from the insurance company, and keep the bike. I'd suggest not settling on the first offer, generally you can push them to give a little more.

Once fixed, KR can get you hooked up with parts to make it more than work keeping the bike.

I got a lot of stuff in the garage that needs to be cleared out... jus sayn

Krey

[shpielers]

Thanks woobie, Krey, junker and others.
Was able to pull the fairings today
Something is bent.
Triple clamp is twisted, pitch and yaw.neck looks ok.
The rear is out. Swinger looks/measures fine but rear wheel isn't straight. Nor is it aligned with the front wheel.
Used the string method (http://www.framestraightsystem.com/M...me%20Check.htm).

Anyway know how to tell if it's the frame vs swingarm that's bent?

[PADEROLIS]

Sorry to see your bike in this condition; but glad to read you are doing relatively alright!

[ZukiFred]

Glad to see you are ok.

[zuma]

I am glad you got through it relatively well. My first Kat was the very same bike as yours, right down to the paint, and though I hate seeing any bike screwed up, one identical to one I owned smacks. Again, I am glad that you are okay. Leather indeed.!

[maniac1886]

Damn man, that fucking sucks. I'm sorry to hear it, but I'm glad you're still whole. Keep a keen eye on the neck of the frame, if you tweaked the triple, it's a good possibility you tweaked the frame too. Granted it was a different scenario, but when my kat got wrecked, I looked the neck over real good, even had other guys put eyes on it and I couldn't tell it was tucked in till I put a straight front end on it. Best of luck man.

[katanarider]

Wow man, just seen this thread for the first time.
Glad your ok. That looks like a high speed road too, so I can only imagine what it must have been like...yikes. My vote is to fix the 1100. Seems like it would be cheaper/easier and cooler.
You could probably buy another Katana off Craigslist for cheaper than you could fix that one.
Anyway, get well soon. And, way to tough it out ! I'd probably sit the bench after a spill like that. Your the man

[shpielers]

Thanks all.
Insurance (finally) coming out to inspect the bike and my gear tomorrow. Apparently they've been having issues with the other insurance company. Not sure why that means they get to take 3 weeks to send someone around but ok...