bike insurance
grandyville
Posts: 30
in General Chat
Hi all
My bike insurers have raised my premium and now take the money every 28 days rather than once a month. So working out a bit more costly.
Just wondered who people use to insure there trusty steeds? Good companies, companies to avoid etc. Unfortunately my bike was booted out into the garage by the wife (poor thing over winter!) so it definately needs to still be insured but it is too expensive to have it named in the house insurance.
Any replies appreciated!
Thanks
Andy
My bike insurers have raised my premium and now take the money every 28 days rather than once a month. So working out a bit more costly.
Just wondered who people use to insure there trusty steeds? Good companies, companies to avoid etc. Unfortunately my bike was booted out into the garage by the wife (poor thing over winter!) so it definately needs to still be insured but it is too expensive to have it named in the house insurance.
Any replies appreciated!
Thanks
Andy
0
Comments
Paid out on a crash I had last winter covered things such as damaged brake levers, pedals, wheel skewers, saddle as well as clothing which was high quality inluding Assos bib tights. I only had to pay £65 excess on a claim of nearly £1000. Point here was I had notified them I had upgraded my bike with new wheelset, saddle etc as well as the pedals which did not come with the bike originally.
A word of caution, they agreed everything was covered but they were more set up on their online forms to deal with a full bike replacement. When they did get a full quote for clothing and parts, and they needed a quote for fitting of pedals and bar tape etc which took a while they at first offered me the value in Halfords vouchers which I obviously refused. Their claims department eventually sent me a cheque in the post covering the cost of all the items. This process took around a month to go through.
My advice would be check with companies you are already using for insurance often you will find them a lot cheaper. If you find they are go down a line of questioning what if this happens what if that. I was happy with the price of my own insurance but its true value only comes to the fore when you get in a messy situation such as I did, fortunatly for me they came through.
Also consider not insuring. Look at some of the security requirements such as locked to an immovable object etc and can you comply or what would the cost of upgrading be. Especiallyt to a garage.
A typical premium where I live (very, very low crime and the local kids leave their bikes outside) would be around 6% of the cost of the bike. A payback of 15 years. Having had decent bikes for nearly 30 years (including lots of overseas cycling) without a theft I reckon I'm up on the deal. But I do take that bit of extra care where I park & lock up my bikes. More because I don't want to walk home. I do the same for laptops, mobiles etc. Never paid for an extended warranty either.
Could then spend the saved premium on a secure floor anchor for the garage and some top notch locks.
May not work for everyone
Harry
I have always seen bike insurance as an expense I dont need. If of course you are leaving your bike locked in town or a work then i can see the point but that doesn't effect me.
They are only covered for theft from within the house - but as I never leave them outside that's not a problem. Where insurance gets expensive is to have them covered when locked up outside.
My home insurance (Axa) will only cover any single bike upto £1000, and combined to a total of £2500. We have 4 bikes, but none worth more than £1000 - yet....
I'm currently looking at TT bikes in the region of £3k - so this is a problem.
Any ideas appreciated.
It is a case of making sure you inform them of upgrades, for example had a crash with new dura ace wheels on at the time which they were happy with as long as I had all the reciepts which i did.
Like any insurance we have been with this company for over 20 years I guess with very few claims and I suspect they want to keep us on board and so will be sympathetic, not sure what their attitude would be to someone a lot younger or if I made repeated claims.
They cover you whilst the bike is in Transition, and doesnt need to be locked up, which most places insist on you doing so, not ideal to have to unlock your bike whilst in T1 then lock it up again in T2!!!
Even better for the races such as IM where you have to rack your bikes the day before.
I cant insure my bikes under contents insurance as its sky high because I live in Barracks on an RAF Base and its in communial areas.