Any shops that will safety a hardtailed bike? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Any shops that will safety a hardtailed bike?

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crunkboy6

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Hey friends,

Im thinking of building a harley chopper over the winter and am wondering if anyone knows a shop that will safety a bike with a hardtail. Im pretty sure that by default, hard tailed bikes dont pass safety in Ontario because they dont have rear suspension. Can anyone recommend a shop that will safety it after im done the build? Im located in Toronto. Ive heard good things about Rosey Toes.
 
Wait, really? Hardtails are illegal? Or is it just nobody wants anything to do with them
 
TwistedKestrel said:
Wait, really? Hardtails are illegal? Or is it just nobody wants anything to do with them
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Factory hardtail are legal. Conversions cant pass safety as the mechanic needs to certify bike has similar equipment/function to when it left the factory.

A friend has a heavily modified jeep in purgatory. He bought it off the builder. The builder had a mechanic friend that let him phone it in for a safety. My buddy changed provinces and new province requires a safety. Complete fail. No abs, no airbags, no doors, no backup camera, etc. The thing has 8 piston wilwoods and can easily out brake the stock vehicle but mechanics arent allowed that much discretion.

Now, if I really really wanted a hardtail, there is probably a way to build it that would avoid most license/insurance issues. Build it so it was similar looking to original and had a working suspension to pass safety. After safety, either install shorter shocks or install shocks that had been modified to be solid. A visual inspection wouldnt be an immediate fail. After a crash, a bent/broken shock could have been result of crash. Not sure how often they go to effort of diassembling components to look inside. You are still playing with fire on the insurance end though.
 
I don't have the info handy but I talked to an insurance broker near Ottawa that specialized in custom motorcycles. He indicated that he would likely be able to get coverage for my electric conversion but said I'd likely need to move my home/other vehicles to make it worth it.

If you have other things to insure and are willing to change them to whoever will take on the hardtail then you may be in luck.
 
woot said:
I don't have the info handy but I talked to an insurance broker near Ottawa that specialized in custom motorcycles. He indicated that he would likely be able to get coverage for my electric conversion but said I'd likely need to move my home/other vehicles to make it worth it.

If you have other things to insure and are willing to change them to whoever will take on the hardtail then you may be in luck.
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do you remember what broker/insurance company it was?
 
Haggerty sold the motorcycle business in Canada to Aviva, 10-15 years ago. Any broker that sells Aviva can sell these policies. A lot of brokers want no part of these policies, a lot of screwing around for not much money. A broker makes 12.5% of the initial policy price to sell the policy. These policies usually aren't big bucks, I priced a Norton Commando and it was around $250/yr... so if the broker sold me a policy he/she would have got the grand sum of $31.25. (Intact wants about $750/yr for the Norton. Wawanesa wants about $900))
Haggerty still sells lots of car policies in Canada.
A Haggerty policy on my '84 Olds Cutlass SUPREME, was around $300, with a TON of conditions. I just bought normal insurance, for about the same price, with no conditions.
 
woot said:
I don't have the info handy but I talked to an insurance broker near Ottawa that specialized in custom motorcycles. He indicated that he would likely be able to get coverage for my electric conversion but said I'd likely need to move my home/other vehicles to make it worth it.

If you have other things to insure and are willing to change them to whoever will take on the hardtail then you may be in luck.
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.
 
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Just did an ownership change and it’s been the same every time at different service ontario and different employees.


As long as you have the safety, you can just verbally provide the insurance information. I always have the liability slip handy but, never had to produce it.

Once the ownership is changed over, you can do the work you want. However, I have know idea how you go about keeping it insured after the mods are completed. Once you mess with the frame or even remove the shocks and toss in some angle iron to make it lower and a hard tail, the claims adjuster will see a great opportunity to deny the claim and cancel the insurance.
 
All the insurance related worst-case scenarios presented are certainly valid, but are also predicated on actually riding the bike.

I think that will be a MUCH less enjoyable proposition than the OP believes, but the heart wants what the heart wants I suppose.
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