Triumphrat

bigred900 · 08-05-2007

Some might remember about this...

Had my legend stolen in July, Bummer!! The insurance company made a fair offer of £2300 which I accepted (47,000miles on a 2001 Legend. Reasonable price i thought).

Now here is where it gets wonky.

I took my lovely cash last Tuesday and coughed up £2900 for a 2000 TBS with 17,000miles which I pick up tomorrow morning. Its in fairly good condition apart from a few nicks in the paintwork and a bit of alloy corrosion and TBird silencers (drilled i think). Nothing a bit of TLC cant fix. Nice thinks I.

The next day I'm half way to Yorkshire from London (working away), when I get a call from the Metropolitan Police (you know whats coming don't you...).

"We have found your stolen bike." said mr plod on the phone. It turn out to be dumped about half a mile from my flat with very minimum damage and several parking tickets attached. " It's been there for at least two weeks, You should move it quick or the local council will tow it away for parking violations" said mr plod.

So I call my recovery company and persuade them to pick it up for me and leave it in a bike parking bay near my home. That took some convincing let me tell you. Seeing as no-one would be there at the pick up or drop off. But they did it and I got a nice call from the recovery driver to clarify the details (top bloke).

So now I have my Legend which, since I sent off the keys and ownership papers, officially belongs to the insurance company sat outside my flat. Although magically the Thunderbike 3-1 system has transformed into the stock pipes and headers and the rack and alloy bling has appeared in my hallway!!

The damage to the Legend is all cosmetic I think, but it will amount to a couple of grand to get it back into pristeen condition and get the engine thouroughly checked for damage. Im hoping the insurance company will offer to sell it back to me for peanuts and then I can pretty it up and sell it to someone who will cherish it as I did. I can't bear the thought of it being stripped at a breakers.

But the twist in the tail is that I pick up a TBS tomorrow morning. I won't be posting pics or a ride review fro at least 2 weeks cos im gonna be riding the **** thing like its going out of style!!! 3 weeks off a bike and I'm going nuts.

Anyhoo, just wanted to pass on the story.

Take it easy everyone. And remember to lock your bikes up!!

Wayne

tridentt150v · 08-06-2007

I'd say half a mile is about as far as the thieves wanted to push it before they ran out of puff!!!

Slinky · 08-07-2007

Glad to see you got your bike back..

You need to be careful how you handle the insurance company. They will probably only let you keep the money and buy back the salvage if it is beyond economic repair.

bigred900 · 08-07-2007

Thanks slinky. Im gonna be really cagey with the insurance company. Overplay the damage. As for the cash, they cant have it back cos i spent it already!!! ;-)

I will keep you all posted tho.

As an addendum to picking up the TBS...

I took it out to Eastbourne yesterday. I was having a lovely ride pushing through the winding a roads. Then lady luck once again craps on my breakfast and gives me a puncture in the front!!

Managed to hobble to a petrol station and call the recovery service who took 5 hours to get there and tried to charge me £200 to get me back to London. Bloomin cheek!!

Anyway, took it to get a new inner tube this morning (god bless Essential Rubber in Hackney). and all is good in the world again. I'm gonna call the recovery service customer service later to tell them exactly what I think of their service.

At least the sun shines today.

Wayne

gibsonstrident · 08-07-2007

had my trident stolen last year when i was visiting relatives in hull- got it back that night about half a mile from the house - again i guess they were too knackerd to go any further - damage looked mostly conmetic -tank indicators casings etc but the insurance company wrote it off- not a good day i tell you !!

bigred900 · 08-07-2007

It's kind of mad how little it takes to 'write off' a bike. I guess it works in our favour sometimes because the bike is often worth more to us than to the insurance company so we don't mind putting the cash and hour in to repair it if we can. How many cool cafe racers or streetfighters have been born from an insurance write off?

Wayne

MickMaguire · 08-07-2007

its the simple economic realities of getting absolutely everything fixed - parts and labor are both very expensive