Carol Nash And Aftermarket Exhausts (tors)

Well, in theory, this post is evidence that you are now not ‘ignorant’; lack of knowledge may mitigate a ‘sentence’ or ‘consequence’ should it come to a dispute in court. The points you raise are points you’d use to defend yourself to argue your bike is ‘road legal’. The final arbiter would be the court. My insurer has had full disclosure on what my pipes are. They accepted it. In the event of third party injury, leading to your insurer declining to pay out because the bike was not legal, you would be facing a court case to get them to accept liability. The other’s insurer would try to get your insurer to pay, failing that they could sue you in a civil action as an uninsured driver? As far as I’m aware there is no case law covering this. Back to the point, I believe ignorance is no defence, it might be taken in mitigation? One for a lawyers comment.

 

Ignorance unfortunately is no excuse in law. The problem I believe that us in the UK would encounter would be if you had not specifically declared to your insurance provider that your bike is modified and has performance silencers fitted, and nearly every after market silencer will be performance enhancing. Many insurance providers will refuse to insure a bike with any kind of performance enhancing modification. My experience with Hastings was that once I told them I had after market silencers (not TORS, not marked off road only) fitted to my Bonneville, they told me that I must cancel my policy and gave me 7 days to find another insurer.

 

I have actually informed my own insurers, Triumph insurance, of the exhausts on both those Bonnies and it didn't seem to make any difference to my policies. They cost roughly the same to insure as my totally stock Bonnie. What I was wondering was if the onus would transfer to the Retailer who sold the machine and the MOT tester who MOT'ed the machine as being fit for road use if it turned out that the machine wasn't technically road legal. To take it one step further, what if a machine had had a Big Bore kit fitted and been ported, polished. How would I, as the new owner be able to know these things if they hadn't been declared to the DVLA and the bike had come to me from a dealer with MOT and no word of the modifications. Ignorance is no excuse in law but there are times when you couldn't have avoided that ignorance. Of course amidst all of this I know that, as a friend who is a lawyer tells clients -"Justice is for the next life in this world all we have is the law" and so I would expect insurers to use every possible trick in the book to avoid paying out. I've never made an insurance claim in my life and hope that if I ever have to it won't be too difficult or too negative an experience.

 

Triumph Insurance are Adrian Flux who are also Bikesure

When my Street Triple insurance was due for renewal, I got some quotes, then contacted Bikesure who insure my Bonneville, and when I told them I'd had a quote from Triumph Insurance they said that's us, and I had the choice of having my insurance either branded as Triumph Insurance or Bikesure for the exact same policy with the same underwriters at the same cost

 

I used Triumph insurance but it depends which underwriter they use as had to cancel my original policy and go with a new one that allowed modifications. The lady on the phone was surprised the original would not allow any modifications whatsoever but the new one was the same price, although I lost a bit by cancelling the original one.
Probably worth checking when you take a policy out that they will allow modifications and make sure you inform them of any so they don’t have an excuse to invalidate your policy when you really need it