Owing a motorcycle can be a real pleasure for a lot of people. Fact is, many biker buffs like fixing on their machines, changing things around, optimizing the bike for better acceleration or installing extra parts to trick out their bike. It’s a whole culture and a whole market that is catered to by original equipment manufacturers and aftermarket parts.
Having been a motorcycle accident attorney for a good number of years, I’ve been able to talk to many bike owners about their vehicles and how they maintained them. To my initial surprise, I found out that many of them opted to get aftermarket parts, some of which had actually been salvaged from other motorcycles that had been in crashes. While this might be a cheaper option to keeping a bike in running order, it has the potential to be a very bad decision if that particular part is defective, not installed properly, not maintained the way it should be etc.
This revelation is one of the major reasons why a motorcycle accident attorney will thoroughly investigate any motorcycle crash to determine where the fault lies. Granted that motorcycle accident attorneys know that the usual cause for a motorcycle crash is the negligence of a passenger vehicle, however, if aftermarket parts are involved in the makeup of the bike, this may be another story and a different kind of a lawsuit entirely.
This is why it is vital for anyone involved in a motorcycle accident to tell the motorcycle accident attorney every detail they possibly remember. In any event, the presence of aftermarket parts may show up during an investigation of the damage done to the bike during the collision.
Generally speaking, when a biker needs to replace parts on the hog, s/he has two options. The first one would be to go with original equipment manufacturers or use aftermarket parts. From the point of few of a motorcycle accident attorney, original equipment manufactured parts make the most sense. These are the parts that come with the motorcycle when bought from the vendor. In other words, the parts haven’t been changed and they’re new. Replacing something on your motorcycle with these parts is comparable to having it done at the factory and they are dubbed “original” parts.
Option number two is to source aftermarket parts; parts that are made to work in substitution for the original parts. Translation: they are cheaper. However, along with cheaper comes the concern that they are not as effective and may be defective. As a motorcycle accident attorney I have seen and heard about aftermarket parts that are of equal, lower or higher value than the originals. It’s actually quite the crap shoot when it comes to aftermarket parts and when it comes to putting a motorcycle accident case together, the quality of the parts may be the key to the kingdom of compensation at trial or on settlement.
Over the years as a practicing motorcycle accident attorney I have heard many biker clients comment on why they use aftermarket parts. Largely it has to do with price, but more often than not it relates to customizing their ride. They might want to change the color of the chassis, alter the look of the tires and add different rims or do something different with the sheaves and cables inside the motor to enhance performance.
The bottom line is that change may be for the sake of aesthetics, for the sake of extra safety or for performance reasons. All valid reasons to be sure, but speaking as a motorcycle accident attorney who has seen a lot of accident cases, not all makers of aftermarket parts are accredited by the maker of the motorcycle. That means that while the components look like they may a good fit visually, there may be something that’s not compatible that has the potential to cause an accident later.
It never hurts to say this, and say it often, if you’ve used aftermarket parts on your bike, check it before and after every trip. Just keep in mind that aftermarket parts may also be used parts and parts salvaged from a motorcycle wreck. Be safe, be smart and try to avoid being in the office of a motorcycle accident attorney because an aftermarket part was defective.
