Bike Insurance

[Maizie]

I am looking at insurance at the moment. I’ve had the following thoughts/considerations with regard to using my home contents insurance:

1) Excess
2) Accidental cover
3) Cover away from home
4) New for old

In my case:
1) We have a £150 excess on our home contents insurance. A number of the bike-specific policies I’ve seen have no excess.
2) We have accidental cover for our home contents, but this was an extra. By default both our buildings and contents insurances did not include accidental damage. So I would have been insured for theft but not accident by default. Though even with this, it seems that pedal cycles are excluded from accidental damage in the home (only away from home).
3) We have a vast amount of cover for away from home that we added as an extra – mainly to cover photographic equipment when we go on hols (in the UK). Much cheaper to do that stuff the home contents than with a photo-specialised insurer (who wanted pretty much the same price over again). If I’m out on the bike, my camera gear will be at home. Therefore, I won’t lose all of that stuff away from home at once. So that’s OK, the bike comes under the value of away from home stuff.
4) New for Old – my home contents policy specifically excludes pedal cycles (among other things) from the new for old. I would get back the value of my bike reduce for wear and tear based on its age.

An additional point is accessories. My home contents insurance is very specific that it will cover the bicycle outside of the home, but not accessories. This is fair enough in the case of, say, having your bike lights nicked. But for even for fixed accessories, I’d be quite annoyed that I’d get the value of my bike back, but nothing for my rack, my pedals, my bottle cage etc. Bike policies seem to include fixed accessories by default – and a lot of their websites seem to remind you to include the value of the lock in the insurance as well! So in the event of theft, you get back the value of the bike, the fixed accessories, and the lock that the thieving bar-steward must have got past (because no insurer is ever going to pay if you haven’t securely attached the bike to an appropriate fixed point. Most seem to say a gold-standard lock is needed for bikes over £1000, with silver needed for bikes up to that).

Just some things that might be useful for other people to consider.

 

[colinr]

Some good points. The lock thing is curious, my understanding is that most professional bike thieves tend to take locks from the scene (to prevent cuts being matched to tools), so how do you prove it was locked?

My more expensive bike is either inside the house or being ridden, my other bikes are in my house, office or locked somewhere I can see from the cafe/pub. So my main concern is theft from the home, which seems to make home insurance the better deal in my case.

 

[Maizie]

One of the policies I've just read (I'm having a thrilling afternoon) requires you to produce the lock key and - if there are any - any remaining bits of lock, in order to make a claim for theft. So apparently just having the key is enough.

Having said that, most of the specific policies say that the bicycle has to be kept indoors with a 5-lever mortice lock OR be fixed to an immovable object with an approved lock (one policy I've found specifies both!) Given that my bicycle lives in the garage, 5-lever mortices aren't an option. So will have to fit an immovable object!

Actually, have found one who just say that it is covered if stolen from a building where there was 'forcible/violent entry'. Will probably need to double check anyway since our garage is not attached to our house so they might decide it doesn't count anyway. I hate insurance!

 

[HLaB]

Looking at M&S insurance, I can't find anything in policy documents about bike cover away from home (or at home for that matter). Can anyone point me in the right direction?

I can't remember if it specifically mentions the bike but the 'away from home cover' covers any item outside the home up to 4k, be that a bike or laptop, etc.

 

[taxing]

Our contents insurance covers bikes up to £500 anyway, as long as they're on our property or if away from the home, locked up (with any type of lock). It also offers third party accident insurance (this isn't just for bikes, it's for any accidents), so if I caused an accident and someone sued me they'd cover that too. Might be something to consider.

 

[Willie Behave]

i understand the need for insurance incase the bike gets stolen, but what if you have an accident would house insurance cover you for repairs/replacement

We wrote our tandem off in a coming together with a car.

M&S coughed up within about two weeks.

Impressed.

Ian

 

[phil_hg_uk]

I had to look at this the other day as my contents and buildings insurance came up for renewal.

About 4 months ago I had a discusion with my home insurance company in which they said that I was covered for pedal cycles up the value of £500, I then pointed out that while that covered my mountain bike it didnt cover my Dawes Ultra Galaxy that would cost nearly £2000 to replace. After much thought they told me that in order to cover the Galaxy I would need to lock it to an inmovable object in a secure outbuilding using a Gold Sold Secure lock, they said that the shed I have it in was not secure enough unless I fixed something like this -->

to a concrete floor to secure it to. I pointed out that my shed had a wooden floor but they were not interested. So I left it at that while I had a think.

So this week I started looking at this problem again as the insurance was up for renewal, I looked at the insurance that the CTC and others advertise, which would have cost me around £300 for all three bikes I have, then armed with the facts I tackled the insurance company again. They now told me that they have re-vamped the policy I have and that I am now covered for pedal cycles upto £2000 with none of the special requirements they wanted before and futhermore outbuilding contents insurance had risen to cover upto £5000 to technically it could cover any bikes upto £5000 ............. RESULT

 

[Will1985]

I'm trying to insure my TT and track bikes at the moment, both of which share a Zipp disc and carbon front wheel. Insurers won't do it unless I declare the extra £1700 on the second bike. Crazy or what?!

I tried going the M&S route, but it wasn't accepted on the basis that the house is too old and has too many bedrooms.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

I'm trying to insure my TT and track bikes at the moment, both of which share a Zipp disc and carbon front wheel. Insurers won't do it unless I declare the extra £1700 on the second bike. Crazy or what?!

Thats what mine said to me first of all they said that unless the Galaxy was a named item then no dice. But then they upgraded all the limits on the policy I have and now it is covered and so is the new bike I just bought..........weird