Bike insurance - tell us what you want to know

I last looked at specific cycle insurance a couple of years ago, to include legal protection in the event of an accident & the premium was higher than for my motorcycle . If insurance companies want us to insure our bikes they should get their act together and give reasonable premiums !

It's not that I believe insurance is a scam of some sort, it is a mechanism to share risk between many people, each paying a small premium to protect against a catastrophic loss by a few. However someone has to make a living out of quantifying risks, arranging and administering the scheme and the many also have to stump up for the less than honest who see insurance fraud as a victimless crime. If you can manage / mitigate your risks and if you can afford to take on the cost of a loss yourself, essentially self insuring, then you are far more likely to come out ahead in the long run.

Over the years I reckon I must be several £1000 better off by not taking out non essential; insurance, extended warranties or any of the other 'peace of mind' covers for non essential items that I could afford to replace if I lost them. If nothing else this tends to make me more careful with my property.

As suggested above, bike insurance is pretty much a waste of money unless you intend to claim on it. That is, you are certain that you will suffer a loss. Anyone who pays for specialist cycle insurance but never claims on it would be a fool. Much better, as suggested, to put the same amount of cash into a savings account (after buying a decent lock).

Once we've separated the sensible people from the bottom-feeder insurance companies and their chancer customers, we're into National Lottery territory. You pays your entry fee (premium) and then when your ticket gets drawn (bike nicked) you see if you have a winner (not denied due to myriad exclusions). Fun for all!

You might get some decent insurance relatively cheaply through CTC or another cycling org - mostly valuable for legal cover.

BTW - pet insurance makes little sense either in this "lightly regulated" UK financial world

Where insurance is highly competitive and has good statistical backing (e.g. motor or life) it's possible to calculate a premium effectively. It's cost of risk + profit margin - investment income on fund.

"cost of risk" is essentially the probability of a claim event happening x the cost of the event. So if you have a portfolio of life policies, the cost of risk on a policy is the sum assured x the probability of that person dying. Not that this only works when you have a large number of people insured.

Motor insurance is so competitive that insurers quite often make a loss on certain lines - e.g. young men. They do this in the hope of making it up on other lines.

Specialist bicycle insurance is still fairly new. I take my bike out and I might be riding with my winter wheels or with my nice wheels or with my Powertap G3C wheel. My son uses different wheels depending upon whether he's racing with gear restrictions or time-trialling without. Insurers aren't currently geared up to consider this sort of thing. Insurers are also going to price policies on the high side for things they don't understand or have a stastical basis for.

Hopefully the market will sort itself out over the next few years as the number of people riding more expensive bikes increases.

Why can't insurance companies just insure your bike based on its replacement value rather than it's make and model. As already stated previously many bikes are upgraded. Also having to carry a gold standard lock that weighs more than the bike is a total non starter. Its just a get out clause for the insurance companies. Surely as long as you make some attempt to lock it using for example a lightweight cafe lock that should be sufficient.

I don't insure my bikes except on my house contents insurance which only cover them for theft from the house. This is because of the absurd premiums quoted -£3,000 pa the last time I looked. This is for six bikes.

The people I've talked to in insurance don't have a clue about bikes and cycling. They have really stupid terms and conditions, one of which is that you can't, apparently, insure a bike for just accident damage and/or theft by mugging, which are the only real risks for me. I wouldn't want insurance for theft outside the home, I never leave a bike anywhere out of sight, I'm either riding or sitting nearby in a café when out on a ride. I haven't had a bike stolen in 40 years of regular cycling.

So what I want to ask is: why can't I pick what I insure against, in my case just crash damage, theft by mugging, third party and legal expenses insurance? (Excluding theft while left unattended, which is presumably the highest risk and the reason the premiums are astronomical).

The irony is that the most expensive bikes are in a way at least risk of theft, because they're only used to ride, not to leave unattended locked up. Yet the cost of insuring them means they're not realistically insurable.

Also, why should I have to insure every bike I own, at absurd cost, when only one is at (minimal) risk at any one time?

I'm insured through Bikmo, costs about £35 a month for coverage of my bikes - total value around 7k.

i crashed and broke my frame and various components/wheels etc. made a claim that afternoon (after returning from hospital) sent off receipt and quotes for repair and replacement

they had the money in my account a week later.

They also cover for racing, theft, travel abroad, and do it on the original purchase cost, not on depreciation.

Seems like money well spent to me.

(they also stumped up the cash for the clothing, glasses, and helmet i broke - all without any fuss - in fact i originally forgot to tell them about this part, but they added it on a few days later with no issues!)

I think levermonkey ^ is right, why do you need bike insurance separately? What is in it for you?
Most home insurance does or can be extended to cover your bikes while at home. Joining an organisation such as CTC gives you third party cover while using them, and specialist legal advice, not to mention other interesting things to do with promoting cycling and news etc. Surely one uses a hack bike if one is going to leave it locked up around town?
As levermonkey also says it obviates loads of form filling and often protracted arguing. It also side steps the issue that people like myself (and probably levermonkey) have, that we build our own bike to suit our particularities, which insurance companies, I believe fully understand, but use to complicate and forestall any payout. While trying to infer that you are the criminal.
That only leaves foreign travel and that is attached to my bank a/c for a small fee.
So my request is; please explain why bike insurance is worth having?

Any bicycle insurance greater than 5% is a joke and around 10% is frankly insulting, because just like a car the value of the original bicycle parts will depreciate fast in the first year or so and at least part of the design dates fast too, so a replacement bicycle will likely be even more expensive, so better to invest what would be the insurance fee.

How about a section of Road C.C. where cyclists post some detail of good insurance cover versus bad, perhaps give an indication which home or arranged insurance offers the best protection, best replacement scheme and is best value for money with an indication of cover and cost. For example I once got a quote from M & S home insurance who were willing to cover pushbikes up to a value of £5000, this was a few years back so I don't know if that level of cover still exists. I recently had a long punishing nightmare dealing with a shit company called Wheelies who are commissioned by insurance companies to replace your stolen bikes, they were completely incompetent even after numerous phone calls, spread sheets, photographs and diagrams, i'm sure a stolen car is replaced quicker and with much less pain. I was more or less treated like a con artist for having my bikes and bike equipment stolen, all for a monthly premium to my home insurance company who I will be dumping for that very reason. Are there any home insurance companies out there that just issue a cheque or allow replacement purchase from your local dealer?

How much does a typical bike insurance policy REALLY cost? What is the mark up for the insurer? I've never had a specific policy for my bicycles as the premiums I have been quoted are for silly money so have self insured and more recently had them named on my house insurance. I have never made a claim on them and still the premiums are extortionate. I smell the smell of a rip-off. Better to self insure and buy some really good locks and be careful when and where you leave your bike(s).

1. What do they actually cover?!

Not the fine print of what don't they cover. Like going outside, or having a crash, or getting stolen from my car, or any of that.

What is actually covered beyond my what my house insurance covers?

2. When you do come to pay out, why do you try and pay out in vouchers for a specific site, pretending that those vouchers are worth more than cash (by 50-100%) but then locking them to using a specific site which has an even bigger mark-up (well over 100%)?

3. What evidence are you going to accept that I had locked my bike in an approved manner? The receipt for the lock and the police report weren't enough. Do I actually have to take a photograph every time I lock my bike up?

morethan insurance have a decent separate bike policy which you can add onto contents for about £40 and covers up to 6 bikes up to the value of £1500 each and also covers accidental damage too.

What insurers cover component theft? That's the main thing that could attract me to specialist insurance over house add ons but seems usually excluded.

What's the most cost effective way of insuring your bike when travelling and riding abroad, particularly if you have to fly to get there?

Is it possible to have a policy where you can insure all bikes you own through paying the premium for the just the most valuable e.g. you pay for your top end Pinarello but the policy covers all your lower value machines?

I've looked at insuring all my bikes before and it's prohibitively expensive. After all normally there's only one bike away from the security of the home base at a time, which is when you want the best cover.

Although it would be interesting to hear what insurers say, they will give self-serving answers and I think we might get better answers to the general questions about pricing etc from an independent expert - perhaps an economist.

I think they have to take into account the fact a lot of us have nice bikes that never really leave or arse when not locked up at home. I've a hack bike that gets used if I going be leaving it somewhere public and even then the lock is work more than the bike.

All great questions guys, keep em coming and I'll wrap them up at the end of the day and send them over.

Instead of feathering the nests of the bike insurers, something that would really make a difference is if you could find a house insurer who is happy to add a good bike to the home policy and cover it for riding and holidays.

I suspect that the additional premium would be a lot less than a stand-alone policy and that we as cyclists would flock to them if publicised.

I'm uninsured, but keen to find out why the people I know with bike insurance seem to crash and write off their bikes a lot more than I do.

Hey thanks for the opportunity to ask this question! What insurance do I need for a very small hobby bike repair initiative? Income is just a few hundred pounds a year. I'm a fully qualified and experienced mechanic and I work from home - people bring their bikes to me.

Why should I insure my bike through an Insurance Company anyway?

Liability is covered by Household Insurance and my LCC membership; the cost of replacing my bike(s) can be covered by 'self-insurance'.

Insurance Companies need me more than I need them so what's in it for me?

My question for insurance companies is, "Why should I bother with bike insurance at all?" When I am out on my bike, I'm riding it and it's unlikely to be nicked. When it's at home there are locked doors between it and the world and it's unlikely it will be nicked. An incident on the road, there is no such thing as cost effective comprehensive bicycle insurance. I surely would be better off saving the premium and using that to buy a new bike when I need one. Go I dare you - prove me wrong!