Opinion on frame damage

[MxHansen_imp]

Backing up for a minute, the discussion of what's next for your bike assumes that you have the bike in your garage, and that it currently is not in a repair shop, correct?
If not, and it is in a repair shop, good chance that they have already contacted your insurance company to have them come to reinspect the bike.

Bike is in the garage, I took it home before I removed the crash bars. The adjuster seemed like a decent guy, was open to the notion that I didn't want it totaled out, but suggested to me that I remove the crash bars and inspect the mounts before we finalized the claim.

Hello Mx, there are many shades of gray, and your frame is one of them. Many useful comments have already been made. But there is still one aspect which hasn't been worked out. You do not want to invest into this work without 100% insurance that a) the fix will last and b) the symmetry of the frame is preserved after the work is done.
My take, the bike's frame has to be striped of all other parts (that is expensive or time-consuming), another cradle (frame) needs to be build which allows to hold the bike's frame while welding AND allows sub-millimeter measurements of the position of a number of critical points on the frame. Whether your welder tells you this same story (or not) is one way for you to tell about his seriousness.

That crack looks like it's on a weld (middle photo). Is that the case? If so, it's probably compromised now, but maybe a welding shop could repair it. However, if that is indeed the case, your insurance company may elect to just total the bike based on a cracked weld on the frame, while they could see a scrape and minor dent as a cosmetic issue.

That crack is *right on* the weld unfortunately. The crash bar compressed the tube, kinda makes me wonder....what is the point of the crash bar if its just going to thrash the frame. Oh well, I walked away from the crash, grateful for that.

Thank you for the reply.
Mx

Thanks for pointing this out, so far I have been unable to find a welding shop that will even look at the bike, let alone consider what the work would entail.
Mx


*Update*

FWIW, my local chopper shop (read heavily tattooed HD enthusiasts) assure me this is no big deal, and that they can TIG weld this back up so that it is stronger than original build. Should take them maybe an hour, and no need to remove electronic components from bike.?.?

Lots to consider, I appreciate all the help from this forum...sometimes I wish I didn't love this bike so d@mned much. I am the second owner, the original owner only put 300 miles on it and purchased it from a dealer in 2018 who still had it unassembled in the crate at that time.

Thanks again guys.
Mx