Sportives and Insurance

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Travs

Well-Known Member
Location
Surbiton
Hi all,

I know its not for the event purposes but Mrs Travs was looking at contents insurance for the bikes to check they were covered/not excluded and they stated that I wouldn't be covered for sportives as they include those as races.

So, I'm doing the obvious thing and looking at upgrading my (community) BC membership to either a to either a ride or race membership; partly for the insurance discount but also the other benefits could come in hand. I don't race and have no intention to although wouldn't rule it out completely. However, for less money, the Bronze Race gives me all the benefits and more of the Ride membership.

Sounds too good to be true so what's the catch?
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
Bronze Race includes no liability insurance or legal assistance and if your household insurance doesn't cover the bikes being stolen from sportives then presumably any liability and legal parts of it don't cover your participation in sportives either?

Other than that, I think a catch is BC helmet-pushing and e-bike/recumbent-banning, but there are other threads for that.
 
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Travs

Travs

Well-Known Member
Location
Surbiton
Thanks for that and thought that also but I read that Race Membership covers all aspects of Ride Membership plus etc. As here on the summary:
https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/membership so if I get it for Ride Membership I should for Bronze Race. I'm not racing, only covering Sportives/Charity Rides when I do them.

I'm probably being a little pedantic but I'd rather ask questions and make sure I'm getting the right product/cover. At the moment, its like a Sportive is utterly, definitely, positively not a race. Except from a legal/insurance aspect. I'll phone British Cycling and post back what they say.
 
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Travs

Travs

Well-Known Member
Location
Surbiton
OK - BC said that the page I mentioned was confusing - Bronze doesn't have ALL the benefits and therefore doesn't cover for Sportives; but Ride Membership does. So that was the one I was going to go for.

Note if you have an accident with another BC member during a sportive, you will not be covered...it's stated in several places on the BC website

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/thirdpartyliability

Ironically, I didn't read that before. Is there any other option aside from just ditching the whole thing and going for some other insurance? I'm assuming this reduces the value of the cover, especially on the bigger Sportives?
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
Thanks for that and thought that also but I read that Race Membership covers all aspects of Ride Membership plus etc. As here on the summary:
https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/membership so if I get it for Ride Membership I should for Bronze Race.
I'm pretty sure that page is wrong and Bronze Race doesn't include liability insurance or legal support. Those aren't shown as benefits on the detail page https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/membership/race/bronze and Bronze isn't listed as "available to" on https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/thirdpartyliability or https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/legalsupport - I've emailed BC in the past to point out this confusion but I may be on some sort of shoot list for challenging their irrational sportive policies as I had no reply.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
By the way, which insurer is it that no longer covers sportives? I'm wondering if it's a one-off thing or could be the first of many, as the Bad Attitude of many sportive operators means it wouldn't surprise me if insurers tried to cajole them into taking out insurance for their participants. Then insurers could demand organisers do something a bit more effective at improving safety than the current approach which seems to boil down to: ban some bikes and riders based on unrelated attributes; say a few words before the start; and then look the other way as their customers ride recklessly and illegally, harassing other innocent road users and so on.
 
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Travs

Travs

Well-Known Member
Location
Surbiton
Initially we were looking for cover against theft, accidental damage. Looked as to whether it was covered under contents insurance, but only up to £500 as standard. They wanted the details as its worth more; so I listed out the details and they want an additional £137 until next March with a particular lock etc.

That didn't seem that competitive to me as I was looking at specific Bike insurance which covers PL and Legal when out on the road as well. Looked at a couple of bits including Cycleguard, then looked at BC's discounts and so started the confusion over what it did or didn't cover.

Thanks for the link - not sure I'd need the Elite but Essential + Active looks better.
 
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Travs

Travs

Well-Known Member
Location
Surbiton
I'm pretty sure that page is wrong and Bronze Race doesn't include liability insurance or legal support.

You're right - I corrected that in my follow-up. And they're aware its confusing and its on their to-do list.

By the way, which insurer is it that no longer covers sportives?
It was part of the household insurance so I didn't expect it to be that comprehensive to cycling. I'll ask the Mrs as she's dealt with it all.
 
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Travs

Travs

Well-Known Member
Location
Surbiton
Household Insurance is with Legal and General (via Halifax as all arranged as part of the mortgage I think)
 
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