Riding a repaired insurance write-off?

[HOS]

Would you? Depending on how bad the damage was?

In the UK there are four different categories of insurance write offs, A, B, C and D.
Category A is a total loss, a scrapper.
The reason I ask is its always been taken as read in bikes that a Cat-A is not a bike to repair and ride. ie major structural damage.

I met a guy in town yesterday who has a 2 year old black ZZR1400 and we got chatting like you do.
His bike came from a friend of a friend of a friend. But he was open with me saying the bike was a Cat-D write off after major frontal
impact damage including the frame. Headstock was bust. Thats more like Cat-A damage?
He had bought pattern bodywork from China and it showed. The bodywork had 1/4" gaps in places.
I know the cheap pattern stuff can be a bad fit, but this looked more like the bike being out of shape in addition to crap bodywork.
The insurance company will not normally allow you to have a Cat-A write off back and its has to be sent away to be officially scrapped
and the bikes logbook destoyed all legally proper. Thats how its supposed to work.

I wouldnt myself, but is this view out of date?
Would you ride a scrapper?
Dangers? Pitfalls?

[HOS]

There is a UK insurance register and if the bike is registered as a Cat-A you will not be able to insure it.
But if the bike is somehow not placed on the register it can be repaired and put back on the road without anyone knowing
I've looked at damaged bikes for sale in the past in dealers and the question is always "is it on the register" for a true indication of the bikes sale price
and its real value.

Its a bit of a minefield with avoiding crashed repaired bikes, always is despite all the new measures.

[TRACK MASTER]

Seems like u will need other parts but if price s right might b worthwhile .
My friend that is cycle mechanic found old gs1100 rusting in guys back yard.
He had cut chain off 2 move it body was worthless he got engine off
with some work put it on another gs body he had.He gave $200 for it
it made good bracket race bike ran good all summer.

[magus]

A lot of my vehicles (cars, trucks, and bikes) have been total loss wrecks.

I have about $2k in my dodge ram hemi, the truck before that I picked up for $900 drove for a bit then sold it for $5k

[MREDDIEB]

I would say it depends on the damage.  There is a shop here in Maryland that use to buy wrecked bikes and repair them to sale. Two of my buddies brought bikes from that shop and rode them for years. One of the most important factors I would also include is the quality of the repair.

I could ride a salvage titled bike if I knew it was taken down to the bare frame and back up again.

[TRACK MASTER]

Kind of funny story behind my buddys $200 engine he let a friend use it 2 bracket race in his gs1100 frame.
The guy was doing good with it in street bike class but my friend thought running it to hard.
The guy was shifting it past redline running the dog out of it.
He asked him 2 back off little bit the guy laughed @ him + ran it even harder next pass.
My buddy took engine back off season over.

[Rocketgeezer]

I would have no problem riding a total loss repaired bike, (if I did the repair)