So... it's pretty frustrating to had damage your bike. Right? Hmm... not really. I'm more sad to see my Akrapovic muffler damage and my Sony DSLR camera are totally lost. Two things that I can't get back from my insurance. As for me and the bike, we'll both recover to a 100% shaped anytime soon.
This what happens when a 200 pounder guy sandwiched his camera on the tarmac. Waaaaaaaa!!!
The claiming procedure is not that complex. Same as any other car accident, but cars insurance claim here is much faster. You can get back your car in just a few days. Of course, depends on the damages. For big bikes, I would gave it at least a month.
The first step for claiming the bike after the accident is to make a police report. It has to be done within 24 hours. If you not able to do so, like you a badly hurt on the accident, don't worry, a prove that you not able to do so like an m.c. from the doctor, will help you to delay the report. The nice policemen would understand.
If you go down by yourself, you'll get a fine ticket from the policemen. If you go down involving other parties, the policemen will then be the judge on who's fault was it. The fault party would then be fine.
After this, get your bike to the police station to get them photo-ed. If you in no shape to ride you bike, ask someone else to do it for you. If your bike couldn't the ride, get a transport to get the bike to the station. It is compulsory to have you bike snapped. The insurance agent will then acquire the photo from the police file.
When you done with this. Take to the bike to the workshop. The workshop will standby a list of item to be repaired and replace and will then submit it together with the claim form to the insurance company. You need to fill out the claim form and describe again how the accident happend. A simple drawing to explain the whole story helps.
For most superbikes, all damage item usually will be replace. A performance machine will need tip top repair condition and can't easily be knock straight back up again. The workshop and insurance company know this. They also wouldn't want be responsible if other incident would happen if the repair job is not done perfectly.
After submitting the claim to the insurance, an adjuster will come an see the bike and confirm the part which will be repaired. For new bikes, most of the time the insurance will pay a 100% value of the parts. For machine which is more than a year and so on, they have an adjustment which they called it betterment. The percentage on the adjustment depends on the year. An example, a 5 year machine will have 25% cut off from the parts original value. I don't really sure the exact calculation, but it is not debatable. The figure is been studied and agreed by government and insurance company. The owner will have to bare the differences.
The list of repair bill will be prepared by the workshop. All the parts and repair work will be claim on their retail price. An insurance company is also smart. They will find and check themselves the repair cost so that there will not be any dispute on the price later on. I say this is fair.
Within a week of submission, an approval letter will then come out from the insurance company. The repair work can be done after the shop received the approval letter. Some shop can start their work after the adjuster had had a visit to your bike, but any claim that can be rejected means it will have to be bare by the workshop. So they try to let this not come to them. Parts then will be outsource and will take days or weeks to arrived. This is where Kawasaki is superior than any other brands here in Malaysia. They are prompt and spare parts are easily available. If it not available locally, it'll take Kawasaki just few days to sent them over from Japan. For other bikes like Suzuki, Yamaha and Honda. They don't have local distributors. Workshop will depends mostly on Singapore and if it's not available there, it'll take you some time to get you bike back.
An insurance company will try to pay the least possible amount to you. If the you're not happy with the amount, an appeal is possible. All these process will take about a month if it's been done promptly. Heck... I knew a guy who waits for 10 months to get his bike ready again. I can't imagine the suffering.
Since my camera is a totally whacked. This blog might turn out to be more text for sometime. I lost my Lowepro pouch bag as well, a serious repair needed for my Arai RX-7 RR4, another lost on the Manfrotto G clamp, a torn jeans, shorts and my inner suite wear. Quite some figure that I need to recover back, but again I left out breathing perfeclty, a scar to remind me to always wear a suit, and all bones and joints are AOK. That's likely are more and most important. Alhamdulillah.
