[Ghedebrav]

I recently had a bit of a prang with a motorist. He paid up without any 3rd party involvement in the end, but not without a great deal of hassle, pain and veiled threats about personal injury lawyers (which I didn’t really want to get into).

However, I now realise that it could have been even worse – in different circumstances, he could’ve just driven off. There would be no way that I would’ve caught his reg number or anything else lying battered, winded and shocked on the tarmac, so would simply have been left with a load of expensive repairs.

Which has now got me thinking about insurance… I don’t have any, other than home contents which covers my bike for theft even outside of the house (though I’m lucky to have secure bike parking at my work and keep the bike in the cellar at home, so I don’t tend to worry about theft so much).

All of which is a long-winded way of asking – what do Road.cc-ers think are the best options for bike insurance. My steed cost about a grand new; with better tyres and saddle I’d say to replace more-or-less as new you’d be looking about £1,100. Is it worth it, or will ‘excess’ make it pointless? What should I be looking at paying monthly? What does anyone else do?!

Topic

[stu287]

Yes it seems like dedicated
Yes it seems like dedicated cycle insurance is very expensive, been trying to insure my new f8 and is coming out at around £800 per year. looks like i am going to just have to be careful

[stu287]

Yes it seems like dedicated
Yes it seems like dedicated cycle insurance is very expensive, been trying to insure my new f8 and is coming out at around £800 per year. looks like i am going to just have to be careful

[Cyclosis]

Looking for insurance for my
Looking for insurance for my bike and found this thread.

Thought it worth a mention that many home insurance policies (mine included, as I just found out) do not cover bike while they are in use, even if you have the accidental damage and away from home cover on possessions.

So I’m now looking for dedicated cover.

Jim

[paulfg42]

I’ve been quoted £200 on
I’ve been quoted £200 on house insurance to add two bikes worth approx £1800. Seems a bit steep to me but I’ve nothing to compare it to. What sort of premiums do other people pay?

[dacorr]

I have used CycleGuard for
I have used CycleGuard for years as the cost of 3 bikes were more than non specific insures would cover. It also comes with Liability insurance and being hit by uninsured drives. What made me chuckle was the break down recovery cover 🙂

Dac

[movingtarget]

Sorry for the late follow up
Sorry for the late follow up but our agent was on holiday so I was finally able to get in touch with her. For us (we live in Portland, Oregon) our bikes would be covered under our homeowner’s insurance for all instances. If they’re stolen, there’s a $1000 deductible and then the insurance will pay the difference between that and the purchase price. If they’re damaged in a hit-and-run they’re still covered under homeowner’s even though the damage occurred outside the home and strangely the deductible is $2000 in that case. High deductibles but considering how much our bikes cost, it’s still worth it. We would also have to show a receipt for the bicycle price if something happens so they know how much they need to reimburse. On the bright side, there’s no extra premiums since it’s folded into our homeowner’s insurance premiums but if we end up filing a claim we could get our premiums hiked up so depending on your situation it may be cheaper/more expedient to get stand alone bike insurance.

[mooleur]

I used protect my bubble when
I used protect my bubble when i was living in london, they’re simple to deal with and super cheap. Also I just cancelled as I’ve moved back to the Isle of Man and the cancellation took about 3 seconds over the phone, no quibble. Best insurance company I’ve dealt with to date. They have a bicycle specific policy so it’s not just “gadget” cover.

As a ballpark the two bikes that i insured were insured up to a value of just shy of 5k including accidental damage and theft and premiums cost 17 quid a month.

[Shep73]

I’m with Cycle Guard, covers
I’m with Cycle Guard, covers all the possibilities, even if I stack my mtb into a tree. Also got breakdown recovery on the road bike. For two bikes worth 6k I pay just over £500 for the year.

[Vorash]

Have a look at
Have a look at http://www.totalcycleassist.co.uk/

[cqexbesd]

When we lived in the UK we
When we lived in the UK we had (in addition to our CTC 3rd part insurance) ETA bike insurance. It covered theft and touring overseas but the bit I liked most was road side assistance! I never got to use it so I don’t know how good it would actually have been (I guess it probably means a lift in the van to the LBS) but I loved the idea.

[Shanefutcher]

Firstly your situation was
Firstly your situation was exactly like mine.i commute by bike,wife on maternity leave,got knocked off car,bike broke etc.all things like you described.but not to have insurance is absolutely crazy and i think all road users should have insurance.i pay just £8 a month for my insurance.after i got knocked off,the police attended the scene,i took the driver details and got in touch with my insurance company.they sorted it all out and the full £500 repairs were paid

[mike1727]

CTC 3rd party insurance is
CTC 3rd party insurance is good, worked really well for me and membership is cheap too.

[rojre]

Take a look at ETA green
Take a look at ETA green cycle insurance ! I was very impressed by the service they provided me with when I was bumped off the road by an open back van/truck. They paid up for £200+ repairs ages before any court case, and as I remember there was only a very small excess fee. There really was no fuss involved at all.

[movingtarget]

From what I could google on
From what I could google on UK homeowner’s insurance most companies will cover damage outside the home but some put a £500 limit on bikes so you may need to get stand alone bike insurance? Our insurance is bundled so the same company provides our home & auto + an umbrella policy in case of catastrophic events (hubby is a worst case scenario type of guy). Will see what our agent says (if it’s home or auto that covers hit-and-run bike damage) but hopefully some of the UK members will chime in as what’s applicable in the US doesn’t necessarily carry over across the pond.

[Ghedebrav]

Cheers guys – but would this
Cheers guys – but would this cover me in a hit-and-run scenario for repairs to my bike? Without wishing to cry poormouth I genuinely rely on my bike to get to work; I was out of action for nearly two weeks because of the incident described above and paying for public transport during this time was a relatively big expense (my wife’s on maternity leave at the moment but not really getting any money now).

Incidentally, if I had to go through the whole thing again (hopefully I won’t!), I would definitely do things differently – report to the police within 24 hrs, take witness contact details, get all the driver’s insurance details and probably go down the personal injury route. I get the sense that there aren’t many honourable people in the world, and still fewer who drive Audis.

[Author]

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