Bike Insurance

tbaker

Hello,

I'm looking at purchasing some bike insurance for my bike.

Does anyone have any recommendations for good company to use and also what sort of price and cover I would be looking at.

I want to cover the bike for theft while in my shed and also while I leave it locked outside of my work.

Cheers,

tofu21

House insurance is the best place to start.

RufusA

+1 on the Home Insurance. Also most home insurance will cover you for 3rd party claims if you hit something on the bike.

Specialist cycle insurance IMHO tends to be overpriced, and you will find very few will cover a bicycle in a shed without unreasonable restrictions for example one common cycle policy stipulates for a wooden shed:

i) all external doors must be secured by a minimum of a 5 lever mortice deadlock to BS3621 standard or a 5 lever padlock, or
ii) the Bicycle must be secured through the frame by an Approved Lock to an Immovable Object within the building

And even then they'll load an extra 20% or £100 excess because it's in a shed!

My home insurance treats the bike as a personal possesion with the only condition being that if it's left in a public place, it needs to be locked to an unmoveable object! No restrictions on the nature of the lock, or need to remodel my shed with metal anchor points and re-inforced doors!

HTH - Rufus.

yenkee

I went for the ETA (https://www.eta.co.uk/insurance/cycle) insurance for mine, the swayer was the excess compared to claiming on my home insurance. Premiums depend on the value of your bike but it's a new for old replacement policy.

I do commute into town on mine everyday so perfered this cover rather than just theft. I think I get some sort of AA style recovery assistance, no idea how it works and hopefully won't need to use it.

May sound 'over insured' but better safe than sorry....

mikeyboy12345

RufusA wrote:

My home insurance treats the bike as a personal possesion with the only condition being that if it's left in a public place, it needs to be locked to an unmoveable object! No restrictions on the nature of the lock, or need to remodel my shed with metal anchor points and re-inforced doors!

Rufus, which insurer are you with? My insurer, LV, wanted an EXTRA £350 to cover my bike against theft or damage whilst out of the house. That's on top of the existing £290 premium which covers the bike against theft from my house/garage. Outrageous, really. I explained that the bike was never left in public and I only wanted it insured in case of an accident write-off but that didn't cut any ice.

Insurance is a bloody con. Another company (no names) told me that they had a "new for old replacement" policy. When I asked if this meant that a carbon framed Ultegra-equipped bike would be replaced with a new carbon Ultegra steed costing a couple of grand I was told "No". Huh? Apparently if the insured bike was a few years old it would be regarded as effectively knackered and only worth a few hundred quid settlement (minus the £100 xs, of course). Any claim would net less money than simply not buying the policy in the first place! Seems to me that, in the view of household insurers, a £5k race bike in showroom nick would be treated the same, value-wise, as a BSO from Tesco.

shouldbeinbed

I use Legal & General, they have a max bike policy of either £500 or £1000 which wasn't sufficient for mine, I called and discussed my needs and cover levels with them to get a bespoke policy for theft and legals on both of mine for £7 per month on my contents.

Most people on here seem to rate and use M&S home insurance, they seem to have a much higher value on their standard cover than many other companies. [/i]

jeremyrundle

tbaker wrote:

Hello,

I'm looking at purchasing some bike insurance for my bike.

Does anyone have any recommendations for good company to use and also what sort of price and cover I would be looking at.

I want to cover the bike for theft while in my shed and also while I leave it locked outside of my work.

Cheers,

This is a regular question, have you searched for the previous replies.

jeremyrundle

Some less informed people say insurance is a con, well, I recently had £2.5k worth of photographic equipment stolen, I had new for old insurance, the cameras stolen were 8+ years old including the professional flash AND a laptop, within a months I had £6k of NEW replacements, the company knew the age of the goods I keep all receipts, no problems, just paid out.

Insurance is like any other comodity, buy what you want and need read it and understand it, dont complain if you buy a gas cooker and complain that you only have electric, it's not the shops fault.

GOOD insurance is never a con.

gareth1234

I'm with the AA for home insurance and they also treat the bike as a personal possession, whether its in my shed overnight (no special precautions required like bolting to floors) or whether I'm out on it and it gets squashed or pinched.
Insured for up to 2.5K per item on anything I own, £60,000 contents, all for £120 per annum

RufusA

mikeyboy12345 wrote:

Rufus, which insurer are you with?

My current home insurance is with Co-op. Previously I've had Aviva and Morethan policies with similar conditions.

When searching for home insurance I always check their policy for details on bikes before purchasing and use it as one of the yardsticks to measure how "good" I feel the insurance company is. I'd prefer to pay a few pounds more to get a good policy than fighting policy wording in case of a claim.

YMMV - Rufus.

suffolk rider

Like Yenkee I use ETA. They charge me approx. £22 a year for a bike insured for £200, and yes there is a roadside recovery (doesn't cover punctures, which most cyclists ought to be able to deal with!) service, although so far I have never had to use it.

alfablue

Its been covered many times before, roughly once a fortnight.

Anyway, M&S Premier Building and Contents insurance. I pay £33pcm (for all the cover, not just bikes), bikes are covered against theft, loss and accident damage worldwide, no stipulation about locks or storage, any number of bikes covered up to £4000 each, no need to name them / specify. I have never found anything to beat this. (I also got £30 cashback on the deal from Quidco).

snailracer

mikeyboy12345 wrote:

…Any claim would net less money than simply not buying the policy in the first place!...

Of course, that is how insurance companies make money.

It is not worth insuring things you can afford to replace yourself – you might as well “pay” yourself the premium every year, after 5 years or however long it is before it’s likely stolen, you would have put enough money in your own kitty to buy a replacement anyway. Insurance is for improbable but expensive things, like being sued for £1,000,000 by a pedestrian you injured if you crash into them on a zebra crossing.

whitestar1

I am with my bank's home insurance for an extra £1and something along with British Cycling.