Bicycle Insurance

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Alex321

Veteran
Location
South Wales
I have house insurance that covers my bike and 3rd party insurance from membership of a national cycling club. Having recently brought a new bike I looked into the cost of insuring it against theft on my regular bike rides. The quoted cost was 3 times greater than my car insurance and my car is 5 times more expensive than the bike I now own and even if I took out that bicycle policy, I would need to carry a weighty Gold Standard lock on my rides and provide photographic evidence of using it each time it was used. Can any members suggest an affordable provider for insurance against theft ?
Our household contents insurance (from Aviva) includes my bike (up to £2500 value) for an additional cost of £17.28. This covers theft or damage away from home, provided that when out of your sight it is either inside a securely locked vehicle or is securely locked to an immovable object - they don't specify a particular standard of lock for "securely". We are also coved for up to £5,000,000 of personal liability arising from our activities (including cycling). And that insurance also covers the parts, spares and accessories with the bike. At home, to be covered for theft, it must be in a locked building or securely locked to an immovable object.

Our previous insurer (More>than) wanted an additional premium of just under £100 for similar cover. Which was similar to the price of stand alone cover.
 

rivers

How far can I go?
Location
Bristol
My bikes are insured with Bikmo. Paid out when I had a claim (for 2 bikes stolen from my shed) without issue. They also don't have a ridiculous policy on making sure the bikes are locked to something in the shed. It costs me about £200/year for over £6k worth of bikes. Which reminds me, need to change my address with them. Might actually bring my premium down.
 

PaulSB

Legendary Member
Although I'm currently with Hastings Direct I would agree with @Archie_tect that Halifax are very good. I can't recall why but a few years ago I switched to Hastings Direct who I'm very happy with.

Using the named items feature I have world-wide, new for old, all risks on each of my bikes. The only slight quirk is the bikes must be secured to a fixed object but no lock standard is required. Bizarrely if my bike is mounted on and locked to a car bike carrier it's covered. Inside the car but not locked to the car it's uninsured! Go figure.

Total cost for 2021/22 for Buildings and Contents +/- £250. I don't understand why one would use a specialist insurer which in my experience will be +/-15% of the bike value. Add to this I would only insure with a well established company and other than ocassional threads on cycle forums one never hears of these companies.
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
It's all right saying 'take it on the chin', but if I wanted to replace most of my bikes, I'm looking £2.5-£3k for the MTB's each, one road bike would be £5k plus and the other another couple of K to get something similar. MY sons/daughter's bikes were about £300, and MrsF's Hybrid £600, her MTB is worth about £2.5k (I didn't pay that - mates rates).

Our home policy cover increased this year from £1k a bike to £3k, so I already had in place the Barclay's add on to protect the others.

Yellow Jersey, and similar policies were about £400 per year to cover my best bike, which is ground anchored and get's used about 20 times a year.
 

Alex321

Veteran
Location
South Wales
It's all right saying 'take it on the chin', but if I wanted to replace most of my bikes, I'm looking £2.5-£3k for the MTB's each, one road bike would be £5k plus and the other another couple of K to get something similar. MY sons/daughter's bikes were about £300, and MrsF's Hybrid £600, her MTB is worth about £2.5k (I didn't pay that - mates rates).
That is the thing with insurance. It is basically a gamble - and one you generally hope you lose. You can afford the "stake" but couldn't readily afford the cost of a "win". Which is all about disposable income. Most of us don't have the disposable income to just immediately buy a new bike if the worst happens.

In the long term, you would usually be better off without the insurance (maybe putting what the insurance would have cost into a "bike fund" account), and just "taking it on the chin". But that long-term may well be longer than your life, and will frequently (in this case) be longer than the expected lifespan of your bike. If they are charging £100 to insure a £2500 bike, then they are expecting claims for the full value to happen on average less than once every 25 years.
 

Mike_P

Guru
Location
Harrogate
ETA offer their recovery service on its own, although either way it's not necessarily to home but to the nearest bike shop, train station etc. Far cheaper on IME to have the recovery service on its own and to cover the bike (s) on the home insurance, also on its own it's not tied to a particular bike.
 
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harlechjoe

Guest
The insurance company will of course have the point of view that your bike is 100 times easier to steal than your car, and also much easier to conceal after theft, and dispose of.
Don't know if you saw this recent thread, but it shows how easy it is to steal a bike even with a D lock....


Good point - thank you
 
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harlechjoe

Guest
Just been through this... AA contents part of their renewal quote had increased from £218 last year to £282 so rang to run through it. Agent asked what the new for old price was for our e-assist tandem which was originally covered under their £5000 limit for a single bike- as it is now £5600 new he said they couldn't renew and the cheapest policy the AA could do would be £520!

Went on-line to check other insurers and all seemed to have this same £5000 limit on any one bike.
Tried Halifax Home Insurance and they have a £10,000 limit so we went with them- £270 for combined building and contents, with all the bikes individually specified under the cover. Thoroughly recommend you give them a call.
Thank you - I think you have given me the solution !
 
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harlechjoe

Guest
Although I'm currently with Hastings Direct I would agree with @Archie_tect that Halifax are very good. I can't recall why but a few years ago I switched to Hastings Direct who I'm very happy with.

Using the named items feature I have world-wide, new for old, all risks on each of my bikes. The only slight quirk is the bikes must be secured to a fixed object but no lock standard is required. Bizarrely if my bike is mounted on and locked to a car bike carrier it's covered. Inside the car but not locked to the car it's uninsured! Go figure.

Total cost for 2021/22 for Buildings and Contents +/- £250. I don't understand why one would use a specialist insurer which in my experience will be +/-15% of the bike value. Add to this I would only insure with a well established company and other than ocassional threads on cycle forums one never hears of these companies.
Sound advice, thank you
 

youngoldbloke

The older I get, the faster I used to be ...
Barclays. £17.42 up to £3K, and covers all other bikes too. Worth checking house insurance too - recently saved around £125 on quote from current insurer.
 

SkipdiverJohn

Deplorable Brexiteer
Location
London
I'll assume you don't insure your cars for theft, for the same reasons you advocate not insuring your bikes. After all if they get pinched, whilst out of your sight, your head needs examining.

I do insure my cars, but the difference is my car insurance annual premium is only a small percentage of the value of the cars whereas bike insurance can easily be more than a tenth of the insured sum. Bike insurance is simply very poor value for money, and the amounts covered are relatively trivial compared to a car or property.
 

classic33

Leg End Member
I do insure my cars, but the difference is my car insurance annual premium is only a small percentage of the value of the cars whereas bike insurance can easily be more than a tenth of the insured sum. Bike insurance is simply very poor value for money, and the amounts covered are relatively trivial compared to a car or property.
But you do insure your cars against theft?
 
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