Samantha's Final Ride
So I heard back from the mechanic today: State Farm is considering Samantha a totaled vehicle. A 2001 Katana is going for about $3k on the market, and there are easily over $4k worth of damages to her from the crash three weeks ago.
She was my first motorcycle, and I put almost 16k miles on her in the less than 5 years I've owned her, including a nearly twenty-month stretch where I didn't ride. New tires, new headlights, new taillight, several new batteries, a battery trickle-charger, and countless hours on the road, and now I have to say goodbye.
The insurance company is offering me $2.7k after removing my deductible, but adding in taxes and portion of my registration. They will cover my helmet, as California law says I need one, but are adamantly refusing to cover the nearly $700 of other gear I was wearing which were rendered unusable in the crash, and not including the $300 of safety mods on the bike, and the brand-new tires my mechanic put on the bike less than two months ago, which in themselves were almost $400.
So now I get to fight with my insurance company about trying to get my fair money's share out of the bike -- I won't be happy with less than $4k, but I have the distinct impression I'm going to end up less than happy with the situation. Then again, I'm not too happy at now having to a) spend 2x the time getting to and from work (bringing my daily commute to ~5 hrs), b) paying for parking ($8-$10 a day), c) paying for bridge toll ($4 a day), and d) getting half the gas mileage of Samantha. All in all, not having a bike is costing me about $35 a day more than having a bike, plus an extra two+ hours of my day taken up by travel time. I know there are commute options, but after doing some checking, very few work with the requirements of my job.
Goodbye Samantha, you were my first, and we always got along. You never begrudged me my mistakes, and I never tried to mistreat you, even when you fell apart.
She was my first motorcycle, and I put almost 16k miles on her in the less than 5 years I've owned her, including a nearly twenty-month stretch where I didn't ride. New tires, new headlights, new taillight, several new batteries, a battery trickle-charger, and countless hours on the road, and now I have to say goodbye.
The insurance company is offering me $2.7k after removing my deductible, but adding in taxes and portion of my registration. They will cover my helmet, as California law says I need one, but are adamantly refusing to cover the nearly $700 of other gear I was wearing which were rendered unusable in the crash, and not including the $300 of safety mods on the bike, and the brand-new tires my mechanic put on the bike less than two months ago, which in themselves were almost $400.
So now I get to fight with my insurance company about trying to get my fair money's share out of the bike -- I won't be happy with less than $4k, but I have the distinct impression I'm going to end up less than happy with the situation. Then again, I'm not too happy at now having to a) spend 2x the time getting to and from work (bringing my daily commute to ~5 hrs), b) paying for parking ($8-$10 a day), c) paying for bridge toll ($4 a day), and d) getting half the gas mileage of Samantha. All in all, not having a bike is costing me about $35 a day more than having a bike, plus an extra two+ hours of my day taken up by travel time. I know there are commute options, but after doing some checking, very few work with the requirements of my job.
Goodbye Samantha, you were my first, and we always got along. You never begrudged me my mistakes, and I never tried to mistreat you, even when you fell apart.