Bike Insurance

I used to work on an insurance account. The MD told me never to buy insurance unless the law said I had to have it.

It's the best racket ever. Basically, as an insurer you're just running a book and people are betting on something not happening. The best bit is that they are doing everything within their control to ensure that you don't have to pay out.

I mean, if you've bought home insurance, shouldn't the onus be on the insurer to come round and fit an alarm? Genius.

I don't want to tempt fate but in ten years of insuring bikes I've probably paid out £2500 in premiums and never made a claim. £2500 would buy me a very nice bike.

I have claimed on 4 bikes.

£1400 + £3000 + £2400 + £1000 (or something like that) so that's around £8000 (ish) over 10 years - I have just come out of a period of two years where (because of my previous claims) I could not get cover anywhere - but all is good now.

Has anyone ever had trouble making a claim on a bike? I would be pretty pissed about that.

I've had two MTBs, and two track wheels from a bike stolen (all in Toronto) in the last 10 years. Never had insurance. And London seems much worse for thieves. I'm not comfortable locking my bike up at school or the British library here in London, but I want to use my bike for more than just weekend and evening rides. And I don't have enough money to replace my bike. I guess I see insurance as a bit of a necessity for me, if not for legal reasons.

I have claimed on 4 bikes.

£1400 + £3000 + £2400 + £1000 (or something like that) so that's around £8000 (ish) over 10 years - I have just come out of a period of two years where (because of my previous claims) I could not get cover anywhere - but all is good now.
Fucking hell! You are shit at owning bikes.

Fucking hell! You are shit at owning bikes.

Indeedy doody !

All MTBs all nicked in London, let's just say the Pub+Bike=insurance claim.

I'm with justMouse on this.

You can do your research, buy the right lock, do this, do that, you'll still pay through the nose. I just don't think insurance is the smart option unless you ride something that you can't really afford.

It's lucky I don't want expensive bikes... because I'm skint.

I've claimed on house insurance in the past, depending on the value of the bike you might need to declare it as a special item. Btw you can usually claim for a mobile phone on house insurance, making the extortionate policies the phone companies offer a total scam.

Anyone insured their bikes since this last post? Had to make a claim etc.
I've read through it so far and reckon contents insurance at M&S might be my first choice.
Any more words of wisdom? Suggestions of fees?
I think it's time I got some insurance. Haven't had it for a year now...

Making a claim as we speak for stolen HHSB- see horror story yesterday....
Dont want details of claim and who it's with on teh interwebz til its done, let you know if it's the mindfuck I suspect it may be when it's over.

I went with Butterworths in the end - haven't had to claim though.

Can't emphasise enough what Lewis from Lewes said: take loads of photos of your bike. I got my photographer friend to take pictures of every single part on my bike - even down to the bottom bracket - ensuring that you can see clearly any branding, model numbers, serial numbers. Everything. And I've got a receipt for anything I bought, too.

All good with M&S!!!

I went with M&S home&contents insurance with extra 'away from home cover' after reading various posts here. It covers the 3 bikes of the household (a bob jackson & 2 condors). The day after I took out insurance the Bob Jackson was striped of his manhood to the value of 250 pounds. I hadn't even made the first payment when the claim was made - I wasn't sure they would pay out because it wasn't the whole bike that was stolen. But today I have received the cheque covering the
amount (minus the 50 pound excess I selected). It did help that we gave M&S all the receipts for the parts from when they were originally purchased.

Anyway I'm pretty happy with the whole thing, and they were great to deal with.

Nice one Hawkeye, I'm with them but haven't had to claim yet.

How long did it take to get your money?

As simple at the headline above: Can you get bike insurance?

Yes. Next?

Also, can you buy food ?

can you get car insurance?

Or even cars ? Can you get cars ?

can you get cheezeburger with it?

Can I get a 'Hallelujah'

Alright Smartarses! If it's so easy, might you tell me where to find this "Insurance for the Bike"? I dont know anyone in the US who has bike insurance unless it's part of their home contents insurance. So my appanrent ignorance of this is due to it not being very common where I'm from.

Oh yeah and....Halleuja!!

google bring up a couple of cycle only insurers they are mostly expensive for the amount of cover and wankers if you have to claim. you also need an approved lock.

those with lots of expensive bikes often use M&S home and contents insurance as they cover 2-3k bikes outside the home without having to specify the details of the bikes, you can't just insure a bike with them, it has to be contents and they don't do pikey students who live in shared accommodation

Search is your friend

They also have pretty strict requirements for door/window locks, too.

Hiscox cover pricey bikes, not sure how strict they are on locks etc.

Very expensive insurance though.

As clefty said, use the search. There's loads of quite detailed threads on it.