[medicvelo]

Hi everybody

I’ve just bought a very nice bike, and now need to think about insuring it. At the moment I’m too sacred/too much in love to leave it out of arm’s reach but the time will come when I need to go to work 🙁

I’ve been looking at protectyourbubble, but does anyone have any experience/recommendations of this or any other insurance company they’d like to share?

Thanks

Topic

[Deswahriff]

..I’m comfortable with the
..I’m comfortable with the bikes in the shed not being covered, fairly low risk where I am. I do want covered if the commuter is nicked from the station (ticks all the boxes for cover, Sold Secure “silver” lock, steel hoop in concrete etc)and I also want covered if I trash my good bike in a no fault accident – not sure if house insurance will cover the latter?

[medicvelo]

Thanks for your comments –
Thanks for your comments – has anyone had any positive experience of insurance?!

I’ve had a look over a few of the policy wordings regarding the issue of having locks embedded into concrete etc.

I looked at Evans/cycleguard (it’s the same policy), protectyourbubble, ETA – and they all stipulate that the bike must be locked to an immovable object (concrete embedded ring etc) only if kept in a shed/garage. If you keep the bike inside they pay out if there is violent/forcible entry into the house (and you have photographic evidence).

I’m starting to think it’s not worth the hassle from what other people have said, and that insurers aren’t very willing to pay out on much. I’m just a bit worried – i live in a slightly rum part of town and don’t want to take any risks!

[starchild]

Avoid HCX –
Avoid HCX – butterworthinsurance.co.uk
They have yet to respond to an accident claim of 5 months ago. Police took no action as I ‘failed’ to get the Reg of the car who left turned on me!

Will probably not bother with another policy as locking requirements extreme as noted above and accident requires blame & witnesses. I’ll make do with.3rd party only!

[aende]

I use my house insurance,
I use my house insurance, however;

As I build my own bikes, I have to keep receipts for parts. I am expecting that any claims will be refused though – TBH.

I did use cycleguard; But dropped it after I was broken into and they refused payout.

**Short story**

Bike locked in shed and chained to hoop in concrete floor – insurance spec locks. Garden access side door, locked with 3 bolts – insurance spec locks again.

Thieving gits break in and pull doors off shed to access, bolt cutters used on chain.

Bike must have been passed over the garden gate.

Bear in mind that my wife gave birth on the day of the burglary – As she was in labour when I noticed the break in, I patched the shed up quickly to stop further access and then we headed to hospital for the birth.

Cycleguard refused to payout!

Only after escalating to a manager and the managing director did I finally get a settlement for the bike – It was a battle.

I was told that I had to provide photographic evidence of the burglary (even though I had phoned the Police and had a crime number) and provide photo’s of the locks or receipts for the locks – even though the locks were not damaged or an active part of the burglary! I even offered to send my daughters birth cert as proof of the birth and that I was under pressure to just sort it out and go.

The Police don’t care for bike crime or bike parts being stolen, so, I would not buy anything too special nowadays as insurers will rarely help and the Police are not interested.

[Steve_S_T]

In my experience most of the
In my experience most of the specialist insurers are similarly priced – the annual premium is usually about 10% of the bike’s replacement value. However, one thing to bear in mind is that most insurers insist on the bike being securely locked by means of a gold standard lock that is bolted down, or built into, a concrete floor. So no good if you store your kit in a shed with a wooden floor. I reckon there could be hundreds or even thousands of people paying quite a lot for bike insurance who, because they aren’t aware of the lock criterion, probably wouldn’t get a penny if their bikes were stolen.

[jimmo62]

I moved my house insurance to
I moved my house insurance to Aviva and got mine covered through that. Most house insurance has a pretty low level of cover but Aviva allowed me to increase it pretty cheaply.

If you buy a separate bike insurance policy you end up paying quite a lot more in my experience so worth looking at this route

[Author]

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