Brake De-Linking

[cannonball]

Does this constitute a modification to the standard bike for insurance purposes :dunno: Over to you legal heads..


:beer:

Bob

 

[Wolfie]

i would say yes. But i am not an expert.

 

[Allan1]

Does this constitute a modification to the standard bike for insurance purposes :dunno: Over to you legal heads..


:beer:

Bob

If you were to be involved in an accident and it was found you had modified your bike in this manner, as you have taken it from its production spec, you could, and most likey would, be found at fault.

What qualifications have you to prove that by de-linking the brakes, the bike performs, handles, brakes better than when it came off the production line.

Prove that and you have a winner - fail to prove it, pay up....

Allan

 

[Fat Bert]

Cover yourself~~

Inform your insurance compnay and make sure it on put on your file

Should be OK then

 

[Jaws]

If you were to be involved in an accident and it was found you had modified your bike in this manner, as you have taken it from its production spec, you could, and most likey would, be found at fault.

What qualifications have you to prove that by de-linking the brakes, the bike performs, handles, brakes better than when it came off the production line.

Prove that and you have a winner - fail to prove it, pay up....

Allan

This is a very pertinent point at the moment..
A guy in Chelmsford has come severly unstuck for something very similar.
He fitted dual line breaking to his Vauxhaul go faster thingy.. The guy IS a mechanic and is well into his cars.. The mod was done at home by himself though this had no impact I suspect.
After being involved in an accident ( not his fault, but a bus hit him ! ) the bus company lawyers said the vehicle was not road worthy and should not have been on the road.. If it had not been on the road the accident would not have happened..
The ruling was that the braking system was designed for race or rallying, and whilst it may be better than the original it deviated too far from the manufacturers original spec and could therefore be deemed unfit for road use..unless he could produce a certificate for a one off vehicle test..

Now as far as I am concerned that is all so much fookin gobbledegook but the bottom line is that matey lost the case and the bus company did not have to pay out..

 

[R2B2]

When I de-linked my brakes I thought long and hard about this. Is, or isn't it a performance mod? As an Insurance company will do their utmost to wriggle out of a claim for the slightest excuse, I erred on the side of caution and opted to tell them.

At first there was the predictable knee-jerk reaction and they put the premium up by ?84, under the generalisation of "performance modifications". I rang them and spoke at length to one of the supervisors. After explaining in a bit more detail what the mod involved, and after making comparisons with "acceptable" mods like braided hoses and higher performance brake pads etc, (in other words, I was playing down the significance of the mod), they agreed to just a ?24 increase to cover the cost of the policy endorsement.

I didn't go in guns blazing and complaining, I approached the subject in the manner that I didn't understand why changing a brake system to match that of just about every other bike on the road was using as standard (ie - individual brakes!!) should create such a premium hike. I put my case to the effect that in my opinion I was removing a mod (brake linking) rather than creating one.

The guy was very understanding and explained to me that not all the renewal agents in the office were mechanically minded and as such would just lump the modification in as a general performance mod, and the computer would tell them the increased premium, depending on how that individual entered the information.

It pays to talk! My advice would be to tell them, but do it verbally and emphasise the nature of what you're proposing to do... :-: