Should I insure my bike?

WiltshireWanderer

I have just bought my first road bike after doing a season of riding and triathlons on my aluminium hybrid

It's a Giant Defy Advanced 2, so carbon frame and worth about £1700 new

My options seem to be:
-add to home contents insurance and/or already covered (will check Ts&Cs) for theft
+/- get BC membership for £37 to cover personal liability
+/- get a specific cycle policy such as Velosure or Cycleguard for about £100

The main thing I am worried about having never owned a carbon frame is accidental damage - I am worried the frame will crack if I fall or have a collision, and I imagine that accidental damage is not typically included

How do you insure your bikes?

fenix

Just part of my household insurance.

I've had bikes for years and never written one off on the road. Even if you smashed your CF - places can repair most things.

Take the cheaper bike out in the winter when its slippier and grittier.

MiddleRinger

Check your home and contents insurance (may need to add it if it's over a certain value). British Cycling or similar membership will give you public liability insurance and legal cover in case you damage property or injure somebody while out cycling.

slowbike

Easy answer is get a quote. Then see if you think it's worth it.

I think household cover generally only includes theft - even so, it's probably worth ensuring you're covered for that by following their requirements.

Basic BC or CTC membership gives you 3rd party and legal cover - IMHO well worth it when someone takes you out or you find yourself having caused £££'s worth of damage to someones property through no fault of theirs.

I don't bother with specilist bike insurance - last time I looked it was a significant proportion of the cost of the bike for fully comp - I'd rather just save that to buy a new one should I have a stupid numpty moment...

pblakeney

House insurance - check the away from home cover. That catches a few out.

kingrollo

I like pedalsure.

But I just cover myself not the bike. Some places charge £200 pa to cover a bike - - you can sort of self insure (pay £20 pm into a savings accounts) after a few years you have a decent wedge towards your next bike.

Pedalsure pays £35k if I am killed or seriously injured riding my bike - only costs £5 pm - its a benefit as well - I don't have to go through lawyers to get that.

ryan_w-2

Most home / contents will cover up to £2k per single item, you just need to check if you have to specifically list your bike on there.

My home insurance wouldn't cover my bikes (£10k and £4k), so I had to go down a specialist route.

Ended up paying £580 for contents with a few listed expensive items and both bikes, not bad when my original contents insurance was £350 on it's own.

stoveman

My LBS has put together a package for the club members that includes fully comp bike insurance through Yellow Jersey, a silver level service package and free jerseys,along with some other member only benefits for £25 a month.
I was quoted £20 a month alone for my Bianchi Oltre, so to me it makes sense.
Don't know of any other LBS that offer this,but I would insure every time.

pblakeney

£300 per annum just to insure a bike? There are better alternatives. You will even save enough to buy a jersey of your choice. Fix/upgrade the bike yourself.

Frank Wilson

No.

ben@31

Depends on the cost of the bike. My "best" bike costs more to insure than my brand new car ! But then I'd loose £thousands if the bike was stolen or damaged while uninsured.

House insurance will only cover bikes upto a certain value, if your bike costs more then you'd need separate insurance like the policy by British Cycling

Its worth remembering that your bike is only covered under certain circumstances... You need to use a certain bike lock and you cant leave your bike outdoors unattended for more than x hours.

Insuring some cycling accessories (Garmin, powermeter, lights,etc) are an extra cost or not covered .

ben@31

stoveman wrote:

I was quoted £20 a month alone for my Bianchi Oltre, so to me it makes sense.

What's the value of the bike?

ben@31

oxoman wrote:

After looking at insuring mine and the lads bikes I came to the conclusion that I'd rely on the house insurance as named items and always securely locked when not in use. British cycling covers me for liability. I was disgusted by the fact that I can insure a nearly new car fully comp for alot less than the bikes and I can do a lot more damage in a car. Makes you wonder how they come up with such high costs.

Probably because the price of insurance is calculated by the probability of a claim and the replacement cost. Bikes are harder to secure against theft and get stolen more frequently. I'm guessing its also easier to write off a bike in an accident than it is to write off a car.

jgsi

Insure yourself.... hopefully more valuable.

pilot_pete

And don't forget that car insurance is compulsory, there must be 20+ million insured drivers. This means the cost is spread over a vastly greater number of contributors compared to the comparatively very small cycling insurance market. I know there are lots of car insurance claims, but losses as a percentage of total number of bicycles is probably significantly greater due to the ease of nicking them!

I felt the cost of insurance just wasn't worth it for my expensive bike - last time I looked it was £400pa for a bike that cost £2500. I hate to think what they would want for my new(er), significantly more expensive best bike...!

PP

pblakeney

Pilot Pete wrote:

And don't forget that car insurance is compulsory, there must be 20+ million insured drivers. This means the cost is spread over a vastly greater number of contributors compared to the comparatively very small cycling insurance market. I know there are lots of car insurance claims, but losses as a percentage of total number of bicycles is probably significantly greater due to the ease of nicking them!

I felt the cost of insurance just wasn't worth it for my expensive bike - last time I looked it was £400pa for a bike that cost £2500. I hate to think what they would want for my new(er), significantly more expensive best bike...!

PP

Consider changing your insurer.

pilot_pete

PBlakeney wrote:

Consider changing your insurer.

if I had one I might...

pblakeney

Pilot Pete wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

Consider changing your insurer.

if I had one I might...

Your choice but I have full house contents insurance (including all bikes) worldwide with all bells & whistles and no stupid restrictions or rules for £302.

webboo

PBlakeney wrote:

Pilot Pete wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

Consider changing your insurer.

if I had one I might...

Your choice but I have full house contents insurance (including all bikes) worldwide with all bells & whistles and no stupid restrictions or rules for £302.

With which company.

pblakeney

Webboo wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

Pilot Pete wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

Consider changing your insurer.

if I had one I might...

Your choice but I have full house contents insurance (including all bikes) worldwide with all bells & whistles and no stupid restrictions or rules for £302.

With which company.

Pedalcover.

webboo

Thanks I will try them when mines up for renewal.

mental3ed

ben@31 wrote:

oxoman wrote:

After looking at insuring mine ( https://versicherdich.de/e-scooter-versicherung/) and the lads bikes I came to the conclusion that I'd rely on the house insurance as named items and always securely locked when not in use. British cycling covers me for liability. I was disgusted by the fact that I can insure a nearly new car fully comp for alot less than the bikes and I can do a lot more damage in a car. Makes you wonder how they come up with such high costs.

Probably because the price of insurance is calculated by the probability of a claim and the replacement cost. Bikes are harder to secure against theft and get stolen more frequently. I'm guessing its also easier to write off a bike in an accident than it is to write off a car.

Most insurances are a ripoff :shock:

handful

PBlakeney wrote:

Webboo wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

Pilot Pete wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

Consider changing your insurer.

if I had one I might...

Your choice but I have full house contents insurance (including all bikes) worldwide with all bells & whistles and no stupid restrictions or rules for £302.

With which company.

Pedalcover.

I've only had cover with standard contents insurance before this year with bikes of modes value, £1k-1.8k but after adding to the stable with a new Ti bike with Sram Red eTap this takes my total bike value to over £10k now so I have now got Pedalcover as well. Very professional throughout the quote/purchase process, can't vouch for any claims experiences yet thankfully.

bigmat

I have my (more expensive) bikes named under my home contents insurance. Policy extended to cover items away from the home and accidental damage. Recently bike got trashed in a RTA, insurers initially said it wasn't covered as I would need a stand alone bicycle insurance policy for that, but when I asked them to point to the clause in my policy that actually said that, they couldn't! They have now agreed to cover the cost of its replacement. Just need to get a LBS to confirm its replacement value and they'll be paying up.

dannbodge

Imo Yes.
I pay around £25pm for insurance on my £4.6m Tarmac and £1k Allez, along with all the personal, accessories and upgrades cover that my policy provides.

For me it's a no brainer

webboo

Dannbodge wrote:

Imo Yes.
I pay around £25pm for insurance on my £4.6m Tarmac and £1k Allez, along with all the personal, accessories and upgrades cover that my policy provides.

For me it's a no brainer

You have a bike worth 4.6 million. That’s some bike I would guess.

daniel_b

Webboo wrote:

Dannbodge wrote:

Imo Yes.
I pay around £25pm for insurance on my £4.6m Tarmac and £1k Allez, along with all the personal, accessories and upgrades cover that my policy provides.

For me it's a no brainer

You have a bike worth 4.6 million. That’s some bike I would guess.

lol, that made me chuckle

Fwiw, I'm with pedal cover as well - from memory about £350, some 50% more than normal house insurance, so approx £10 a month premium - have any of you guys given them a list of your bikes, and values etc?
They never asked me for anything, but I wondered if it might be prudent / useful.

slowmart

A few years ago I came across competitors information for a customer. This was specifically a insurance company who insured North Korean ships which was against international sanctions at the time.

The sum for the premium. £5 million per annum. During the period of insurance the policy paid out £10k in claims.

The price of breaking sanctions? In excess of the profit made

There’s a reason why Warren Buffet who has substantial involvement in supplying insurance is one of the richest men globally.

It’s a legal license to print money

dannbodge

Webboo wrote:

Dannbodge wrote:

Imo Yes.
I pay around £25pm for insurance on my £4.6m Tarmac and £1k Allez, along with all the personal, accessories and upgrades cover that my policy provides.

For me it's a no brainer

You have a bike worth 4.6 million. That’s some bike I would guess.

Whoops. That's meant to be k not m

pilot_pete

Daniel B wrote:

Webboo wrote:

Dannbodge wrote:

Imo Yes.
I pay around £25pm for insurance on my £4.6m Tarmac and £1k Allez, along with all the personal, accessories and upgrades cover that my policy provides.

For me it's a no brainer

You have a bike worth 4.6 million. That’s some bike I would guess.

lol, that made me chuckle

Fwiw, I'm with pedal cover as well - from memory about £350, some 50% more than normal house insurance, so approx £10 a month premium - have any of you guys given them a list of your bikes, and values etc?
They never asked me for anything, but I wondered if it might be prudent / useful.

I would certainly give them a call to clarify the requirements - I have two expensive bikes listed individually (I’m talking £10k each) and a total of £24k worth of bikes. They were not interested in listing individually the several cheaper ones which added into the total, so I guess there will be some threshold value at which they will want them listed specifically.

PP

joey54321

handful wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

Webboo wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

Pilot Pete wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

Consider changing your insurer.

if I had one I might...

Your choice but I have full house contents insurance (including all bikes) worldwide with all bells & whistles and no stupid restrictions or rules for £302.

With which company.

Pedalcover.

I've only had cover with standard contents insurance before this year with bikes of modes value, £1k-1.8k but after adding to the stable with a new Ti bike with Sram Red eTap this takes my total bike value to over £10k now so I have now got Pedalcover as well. Very professional throughout the quote/purchase process, can't vouch for any claims experiences yet thankfully.

I can. They're bad. Axa (the underwriter) refused to pay out on a very reasonable claim and they didn't want to know, didn't give a shit and didn't at all live up to the 'designed for cyclists' part of their website.

The claim was that we had multiple bikes (which should have all been covered) locked up together and to a post, when they got stolen they were considered as locked to a bike (rather than locked to a post) which is moveable, therefore not locked up to an immovable object, therefore not covered. I would have more sympathy for PedalCover if they gave any shits about us during the claim process, but they just didn't want to know. Currently, the case is with the ombudsman.