27-02-17, 10:45 AM
It's a really good question, just how far should we go? Taking it to the extreme, when a vehicle is serviced and a non-factory oil is used (in our case, Yamalube) then that's modified... Worse than that if you pick up a stone that lodges in a tyre tread than that's modified.
Insurance companies have told me more than once that a factory fitted accessory is not a modification - therefore Yamaha crash bungs, touring screens, belly pans and the like don't require declaring. Who's to know when such items were fitted however? They are often many times more expensive than after market equivalents that would need declaring.
In the event of an incident an assessor is extremely unlikely to pull the vehicle apart and check for non-standard internals, there would have to be a good reason for this to happen. By the same token an assessor is unlikely to know the difference between a standard rear shock and an R6 rear shock considering the number of different vehicles and variants on the road. Therefore, in the real world given a reasonable risk level, only external after market bits require declaring.
Considering the above, in response to the question 'any modifications?' I declare my after market exhaust and adjustable levers and then state clearly 'you have to understand that I'm not a vehicle expert or professional, the rest looks standard to me. Would you like me to photograph the bike and send the pictures so that you can see exactly what you are insuring?' To which the answer is invariably 'no.' This is more difficult to convey on-line than in a telephone conversation.
As an aside, I don't like the attitude often shown 'insurance companies are robbers' any more than 'banks are robbers' or any other organisation for that matter - it's always owned and staffed by people and far more often than not everyone does their best. We all know that they are there to make money for their owners / shareholders, they are not a charity run for the benefit of their customers. Would you rather take away the need for and concept of insurance altogether? Probably not.
is it clean enough?