Bike Insurance

Thanks. Here's my code if anyone wants it.

https://laka.co.uk/r/ECC0P

So, interesting situation I find myself in.

I took out cover with Pedal Cover in 2019, and renewed in March 2020.

I am unfortunately going through the claims process right now, and I've discovered that the Pedal Cover business was sold to The Plan Group (who also own Yellow Jersey insurance) in November 2019.

There was no notification to customers of this change of ownership, and the policy wording that was agreed on at renewal time in March 2020 was a Pedal Cover policy with AXA as an underwriter.

I am now dealing with the Yellow Jersey claims team who are trying to enforce the Yellow Jersey policy wording on me, which is less generous than the Pedal Cover policy.

I'm having none of it and I'm about to escalate to the Ombudsman and FCA. Am I correct in assuming the policy wording that was agreed upon forms a binding contract which they cannot change in the middle of the policy (much less in the middle of a claim)?

do people normally cover bikes under your household policies? or is there a specific comapny to insure them?

Maybe check in your original contract for wording along those lines.... who knows what's in the small print.

I use Laka, you can use my code for £25 credit which will get you a couple of months for free if you're insuring one bike: https://laka.co.uk/r/IFWOZ

They settle claims really quickly and in my experience it's better have specific bike insurance rather than on home insurance. I have a couple of custom bikes insured which I'd struggle to insure on a home insurance policy.

I'm renewing my house insurance so same question. It seems to me that bunging 7k or so of bikes under halifax pedal bike insurance is much cheaper than getting Laka by an order of magnitude. (150 for halifax insurance, which includes house insurance, 24 pounds a month for Laka)

Laka probably a bit more user friendly and has no excess, but the difference in price is pretty stark.

Aye we put a lot of house insurance and it was far cheaper

I assume you've looked at the excess. I noticed that my John Lewis bike insurance (as part of my household insurance) has something like £500 excess so it would only really be worth it if all of my bikes were nicked at once.

Recent talk about insurance in the watch thread had me look at a Bikmo quote.

£1,324 per year for their cheapest cover.

This is 4 bikes, with the most expensive being £12k.

Works out to be £110 per month... but my existing Hiscox cover is only £135 per month and already covers the bikes in addition to everything in the house.

Stick with Hiscox I guess.

I guess what I would want is for all the bikes to be covered at home, in case someone kicks my front door in and robs them all, and then to have another bike specific insurance with a lower excess when out and about on any of my bikes. Ideally this would also come with personal injury/dental etc insurance for when someone eventually drives into me.

Do any of the bike specific insurances allow you to be insured on "whatever bike you're currently riding" (up to a fixed cost) ? Or do they all require you to specify a bike.

Laka allows you to add bikes (can be full custom) and accessories like a Wahoo or whatever. You're covered at home, in your car, or out and about and they cover racing too if you do that. As long as you're on a bike you've specified you're covered.

They also offer recovery insurance too now for medical/dental costs: https://laka.co/gb/#recovery-insurance

£25 off cover for you (and me!) if you use my code: https://laka.co.uk/r/IFWOZ

Do any of the bike specific insurances allow you to be insured on "whatever bike you're currently riding" (up to a fixed cost) ?

That is Bikmo.

Insurance for bikes in the home, and then for a max value for bikes in use outside the home.

It doesn't work for me only because the Seven is a bit bling.

Just tried Laka for a quote...

Comes out the same ballpark as Bikmo, and with a strange pricing that is comparable "Usually" but has a "Max" price that is £40 greater per month than Bikmo.

I already thought Bikmo was pricey!

Edit: Found the pricing explanation for Laka... they vary pricing per month according to the prior month claims. I don't buy their 25% cheaper argument as it was comparable to Bikmo at their Usually level (off-season) and the Max was way more expensive peak season. If the image is based on actual premiums for someone for a road bike, then my quick calculation would put it 20% more expensive than Bikmo over the course of a year... if it followed that pattern.

1 Attachment

It does vary from off peak to peak season but even then the peak may not hit max. It depends on the pool you're placed in and the number of claims. Not going to out Maths you though @Velocio because I'm well aware you're more numerate than me!

I'm also aware I'm doing calculations from a marketing image!

I just checked my Laka account.

For two bikes insured for a total of £5000 I've paid an average of £23.53 per month over the past 12 months.

Bikmo has 2 bikes for total of £5k down at £21 per month.

I think I'm concluding they are both in the same ballpark, but one is predictable throughout the year and the other has the potential to be cheaper but also the potential to be more expensive.

What I'm really learning is I should have cheaper bicycles.

I've always had bikes insured on home insurance as well, just due to the cost of bike specific cover. I don't do mass start races or anything like that. I've unfortunately had to claim once and been fairly pleased with the experience. If you are racing, cycling abroad a lot, crash a lot, or have very particular custom bikes you would want to have replaced exactly like for like then it seems like you just have to pay the premium for laka, bikmo, or similar.

Just echoing what has been said before - I am with Admiral * for my home insurance and I have 2x £3.5k bikes listed on the policy - the additional premium for those (covered at home & outside) was around £70 for the year.

You will be able to auto-refer yourself via Quido and get a decent amount of cashback

This, to me, was a better deal than bespoke bike insurance which came at around 5% of the value of the bikes corresponding to £350 per annum.
Personally, I thought it was utter madness / a license to print money as this is more than what I pay for 1x house, 1x motorbike, 1x car for the year.

I appreciate that not everyone is able to get insurance with the NFU (they traditionally like country addresses) but I have my bikes on my household policy with them and they are flawless. They've handled all my bike claims quickly and without any issue and value-wise they are incredible. I've got 5 bikes insured with them with the most expensive insured at £9,700. Including my household insurance, it's about £45 a month.

I think that's the difference explained really well, if you race custom bikes, sometimes abroad, the bike specific insurance is worth it.

£1 liability insurance for the rest of the year

https://laka.co/gb/club

I've just taken out contents cover with Admiral and listed my 2 bikes at £2k each, was going to ask if anyone had any experience in actually claiming with that sort of policy? Apparently the bike's are covered as long as they're either behind a locked door or locked to something secure (I think they list a railing or a bike stand as examples) with a sold secure gold lock. Both my bikes are made up of mostly second hand parts and didn't cost me anywhere near the £2k they're insured for but the policy needed the value of a new replacement. In the case that one of the bikes does get stolen whilst it's locked up, is it up to me to prove that it was locked with a sold secure gold lock to a secure object?
Also, for what it's worth, due to having car insurance through Admiral already and receiving a decent discount as a result, the cost of the contents insurance worked out at about £40 until the beginning of March when the car insurance expires.

When my bike was stolen, they (bikmo) wanted pictures to show where I was locked and pictures of the lock/key to show it was a gold sold secure lock, so they would pay out the total amount.
They also asked for a quote from my local bike shop to show how much a like for like replacement would cost, before they would settle, and we’re going to send a voucher to them so I could get a replacement bike sorted through them, but I opted to get the cash amount (minus excess) sent to me so I could buy the bits myself..

Ah ok, that's not too complicated! I suppose the only issue I can see with that would be if the lock was missing for whatever reason. I wonder if Admiral would handle it any differently, seeing as they're not bike specialists.