A salvage titled bike will always be worth less because a prospective new owner never really knows how bad the damage was - light damage as you say, or into a wall at 60mph and a bent frame.
It also can't be insured for collision, or financed by a bank/credit union. Also, if the bike is under warranty or has a very suspicious problem, the manufacturer will look at the NICB website and see if it is salvaged. (
https://www.nicb.org/how-we-help/vincheck)
A salvage title means that an insurance company determined that it would cost more than a certain percent of the value of the bike to return it to the way it was. The insurance company sets the rate, usually 60% - 75%.
On a 2013 CB1100, whose retail bluebook is probably around $5000, that means allocating $3000- $3750 to the repair, including parts, labor, storage, towing, etc.
My 2013 slid out on a low speed right turn at around 30-35 mph. No front impact, no damage to the wheel/forks/frame/engine, no bodily injury.
A scuff on the tip of the fender, a scuff on the headlight rim, the right side of the gauges scraped but still functional, scrapes on the underside of the exhaust that you had to crawl underneath to see and that don't bother me. The low bars with bar end mirrors bent and put a crease in the tank.
Just these 3 areas were enough to total it:
gas tank - $1100
muffler - $896
meter assy (the 4 main pieces) $1250
What I'm getting at is that it doesn't take much to total a bike these days. So your bike may be perfectly fine after some cosmetic repairs, like mine was. My bike was totalled by the insurance company, but because the owner chose to keep the scuffed exhaust and do the labor himself, he kept it from being a total on the title.
