[Jon D.]

Hi folks, just got back from lake and learned some new facts that I had never heard of on custom bikes. A friend of mine looked at a Harley Davidson trike. It is a 1998 with lehman trike kit, wide glide front, screaming eagle accessories, and a really sweet paint job. Bike has only 14,300 miles on it. Started out as a Harley Davidson Sportster 1200 XL. Anyway he is buying it for $12,500 which is a great price when comparing it with Ebay and other areas we looked at. Now the issue is insurance. If filing a claim on such a bike the adjuster will go by the VIN# only. We were told by a gentleman who has been dealing with this situation for 40+ yrs. that the insurance companies will gladly take your money for more coverage, but when all is said and done they will only pay by the Vin#, so, buyer beware. If you buy a bike over 10 yrs. old the Vin# will be deciding factor. Just want to give everybody a heads up out there. Ride safe and God bless you all. Jon D. P.S. His wife told him to buy the bike and take his chances. She fell in love with it. Gotta love them ladies !

[Munch]

Yea. That’s a huge problem with custom work on any bike. Insurance companies only are in it for cars and trucks and have no real idea about motorcycles. That and it’s near impossible to keep up with the constant changes a bike goes through with the personal accessorizing. Some do a better job then others. Progressive has a type of policy that can carry a portion of accessories but if you go from a bike to a trike they have no way of figuring expenses, especially if the Trike was a DIY project. Harley has now started selling Trikes as an original VIN’ed vehicle. But you have to buy it as such .

[owlie]

I have a friend who has had some luck with getting paid for repairs his custom graphics job when his car got hit because he had the paperwork & receipts on the job. But as Munch says, good luck if it is a DIY kind of thing or you don’t have a paper trail.

[Author]

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