2013 Ultra Limited.
Had a fender bender with a car, very simple I was coming out of a stop sign to make a left onto the main road. My left side traffic was good but my right side was tricky. It was a fast road for a small street (30mi zone) the cars were back up at the light were obstructing some of my view to cross and make a left. Apparently, I miscalculated and after I straighten out of the turn to make the left a car and myself merged into each other (we were parallel). Well to keep it simple while she scraped against my right side engine guard it was pushed forward 2" - 3" making the left side twist towards my left leg. Not a big deal at all just replace the engine guard and new right lower fairing maybe. I can't say the same for her convertible Jaguar. So my insurance broker told me to send the bike to HD and have an estimate of the damages. When I called to check status of the bike the person told me it looks like a total loss. I was like what are you talking about. "yea you have a pre lim report of $11k. What? its just the engine guard. I inspected the bike on the scene other than the obvious nothing else was damaged. Oh I do this all day I know what to look for. Ok I'm coming down and you can show me what you see. 1. the right under side of my Rinhart muffler tips were scratched. In my head I'm saying this person has no idea what they are looking about. I explained those are from parking to close to high side walk and when my lady sits on the bike it gets scratched.
2. the tour-pak is totaled, Um where is it damaged. It was some paint from the other car was rubbed on about 3" worth easy clean. Really.
3. fairing brackets are broken. Apparently to the person because the out and inner were never fitted properly from taking it apart so many times at another dealer for radio work. I was like did you open it to know that, answer NO.
4. The front tire had what seemed like a razor cut not too deep at all from something sharp in the road debris from braking the front tire. Ok a new tire is in order.
5. Bike is misaligned. So how do you know that did you use a laser to see that, NO but I can see it. Ok let me see what you see. (Note: I am in the fabrication business and have a trained eye for seeing such things) wanted me to stand three feet in front of the bike and straighten the handle bars so I can see in a straight line of view that the fender and the "A" shape of the frame are slightly off. I can't see a damn thing out of line.
Mind you I rode the bike back home with no issues what so ever, ran true for 60 miles didn't notice anything wrong even with the lady on the back.
All this is $11k in damages. So here I am obsorbing all this information. I figured they just want me to buy a new more expensive bike after the insurance pays out the bike. So I guess HD or just the one I went too is in the habit of total loss for just to get you to buy a new bike. Can anyone weigh on this?

Junior

 

You state : engine guard it was pushed forward 2" - 3" making the left side twist towards my left leg.
Pushing an engine guard forward that amount can very easily bend the center tab for engine guard.
Basically that bend in center frame tab would be considered frame damage (new frame required).
The dealer will document anything that is scratched as requiring replacement
(part + labor).
Dealers replace parts..they rarely buff and touch-up.
A frame, fender, tour pack, tire, engine guard, right lower fairing and a few more items + labor would probably add to the number you describe.
If dealer was trying to make money from an insurance claim then it would be in their best interest to not total the bike and make money on parts + labor.
When dealer totals the bike there is always the possibility that you can go someplace else.
Something such as the situation described should be discussed in person with the dealer representative and not over the phone.
If the damage on the tour pack and a few other items was pre-existing and therefore not fall into the claim then it is possible that it might fall below total loss number.

 

Thanks for the input. I have a lot to think about as to where I go from here.

 

Having been hit and and taken out a Deer had a couple bikes in to HD to get looked at.
My experience is the Dealer went over every inch of the bike and missed nothing. When Insurance adjuster came in they were right there to represent my interest fully.
My 2011 RGU at first did not look totaled. Didn't look good but first glance fixable.
Frame broke,front tubes twisted Lot of little stuff,

 

Wow glad your ok, hitting a deer is not easy to come out of. But just to reiterate I did not have a head-on collision just two merging vehicles and super slow (5 mph) didn't go down just pulled away from each other. My Insurance team doesn't have a adjuster to look at the bike they are releying on HD to make those estimates, I am in NYC.

 

My Daughter had the same BS pulled on her. Insurance adjuster showed up at dealer and it did not take long to get things done properly. At about 1/2 of original estimate. Little scratch on bottom of frame meant new frame to dealer.

 

I spoke to a friend at another dealer and they said yup that is policy not to fix any small insignificant part of a frame b/c it all has to do with liability if they ok a simple fix then if you get hurt or worse killed.