Bike Insurance

thing to remember is that they will ask for receipts. As I understand they define the bike as the frame. I called them and asked if I can insure one of my bikes. told them the frame is second hand and I don't have receipts. But the parts were all new and I have receipts for those. They said that would not work and they won't insure it.

Home insurances often attempt to 'replace' the bike with a 'comparable model'. But what in Evans is reperable to a personal build bike? Laughable. But the pay up if you give them pressure and refuse the 'comparable model'.

Personal accident insurances are great. I had one from Germany which I almost forgot and which cost me very little. When I broke my sholder 2 years ago they paid some serious cash. You have to wait a year and they assess the remaining damage but it makes up for the suffering. Not suggesting you should crash for making a living out of it.

So far my experience with insurances.

forgot: that first comment was referring to cycleguard

Yeah, punkpixel is right about receipts. I've got a draw absolutely loaded with them, just for my bike.

The comparable model thing is absolutely awful - they'll probably just give you Halfords vouchers.

M&S are happy with photos, I checked with them other day and that goes for anything below their £4k item threshold. I got my laptop off Ebay which is why I asked them and the woman said that was cool, if your house burns to the ground your gonna be hard pushed to show em receipts. Take a load of pix and make a CD then send a few copies around to parents, mates, whatever.

Endsleigh also do insurance with special bike coverage for a reasonable amount (obviously depends where you live). Never used it so I have no first hand knowledge of what is covered etc

The only weird thing about them is that if your bike is nicked at night (11pm-7am) you have to proved you removed your saddle or wheel (so its not ridable). Removing your saddles a pain and taking yer wheel into a pubs a bit of a non-starter. But it might work for some.

Removing a saddle doesn't really make is unrideable :S Bet some moron in an office came up with that bright idea!

I'll probably just invest in another big lock. I've got a krypto evo mini, and ny 3000. Add a Krypto Fahgettaboudit chain to it and I don't think any thief could be arsed to put that much effort in.

I've done a quick search and haven't pulled up anything on here about CycleGuard (http://www.cycleguard.co.uk).

As I'm about to purchase a new bike at £500+, I was looking at insuring it for theft, as I'll be paying for it for the next year and ride in central London. CycleScheme recommend CycleGuard to cover me.

It's a little expensive, but does cover you for 3rd party liability, which might be useful.

Anyone used them, needed to claim with them or used any other companies other than their house insurance to cover their bike?

I've got the LCC insurance but haven't had to claim on it yet...

http://www.lcc.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=146

I used ETA a couple of years ago for a lone bike policy, had to claim, they were a little slow but they paid up. It is by far cheaper to get yourself home insurance with someone like M&S who don't ask for you to specify bikes or high value stuff (up to £4k) on the policy. This is good because elsewhere they hike up the premium when good bikes are involved because of the theft risks attached.

I'm going to check through my house insurance and see what it covers! Was asking, because the bike will be in London at my brother flat 100% of the time, so it's actually not my house insurance, it's his! I live outside London, so I doubt I could claim on mine!

Luckily the lock I have covers me on bikes upto and over £1500, so at least I don't need to buy another lock!

whats that lock ?

is their insurance that insurces you for liable in the event of a crash? damn i sound like a lawyer that cant spell.

if you become a ctc member they offer a third party liability cover and that's relatively cheap (£34/year i think, cheaper if you're student) - that would allow you to buy a cheaper insurance than the one you noted.

I've got a Abus Granit Lock 1000/100.

I've just called up DirectLine who do my brothers contents insurance. I've just added my bike (£800) and his (£400) to the policy for theft away from the flat for £5.30 extra a month. Bike needs to be locked to something and they don't need any special locks.

So that's not bad. Might look into the third party liability cover, as I nearly got done last year!

Got clipped by a limo firm car with two passengers in it. Stop, picked up my smashed light, checked damage to car/bike, exchange details and was off! When I request insurance details off the limo firm, they sent me a letter claiming £4,000 of damage and replacement vehicle hire! It also said if I paid within 28 days, they would only charge me £800!

Bollocks to that!!! So I asked for all the details they had, including quotes for the work! A firm called Wonway UK Ltd, based in Luton who were sorting the claim out for the Limo firm (Tristar Cars Limited) sent me a quote for fixing the Merc, which was actually a quote from the Limo company (idiots) and a quote for hiring a replacement limo at about £300 a day.

The damage quoted wasn't anything like where I came together with the car, so I queried this with Wonway. They said that I had 'lost it' with the driver after the accident and kicked and punched the car! They also said they had a witness who was in the car at the time! They sent me the witness statement, supposedly from a very 'well-to-do' businessman travelling in a large Merc, who couldn't spell bicycle!!!! It was obviously a mate of the driver who filled it in!

So now it was a 'criminal' case they were bringing against me! I couldn't get them to deal with my claim, which was for barely £100 (lights & damage to bike). They still wanted me to settle 'out of court' for a reduced amount! Being pissed off at this time, I told them I'd see them in court!

Worrying about the state of the justice system in this country and as they had a witness (lying or not) that I might actually get done for something I hadn't done! I went back to the scene of the accident and went into the Estate Agents opposite, as I remembered quite a few people standing watching after I got hit! Luckily one guy remembered and said his mate was there at the time too. They both gave me witness statements saying that they didn't see me damage the Merc at any other time (they actually miss me getting clipped).

After another call from Wonway, I said I had witnesses and would see them in court. Not even a week later, I got a letter from them, saying if I dropped my insurance claim, they would drop the criminal claim! I agreed, as I wanted the whole mess to go away. If I'd had more faith in the British Justice System, I would have fought it, but in the end it wasn't worth it.

I now believe that this company uses this tactic on most claims, to make them go away! Employing a firm to send letters out claiming for large sum, to scare off justifed claims from victims of their drivers! Bastards! I got clipped and knocked off and I'm treated like the criminal!

In future I will be making sure I get names and address of any witness at the scene, take pictures of both vehicles (had my camera phone on me at the time) and call the police to get a crime number! Seems you really need to cover yourself these days!

Jesus, what a bunch of cnuts!

If you join the London Cycling Campaign you get similar levels of cover to CTC but it's cheaper and deals only with London issues, not sure if that's preferable to you or not. They do seem to make a difference though, they were a big force behind organising mass emailing to Ken about the proposed cycle number plate bullshit.

I've been looking for an excuse to take revenge on ETA for a while, here's my chance to make a small difference by SLAGGIN' EM OFF! I had my beautiful goregeous bike 'Hadrian' (may he rest in peace) insured with those guys for two years, but when he got nicked they refused to pay up on a technicality. I suppose all insurance companies try this bullsh*t but let me take this opportunity to ask you NOT TO DEAL WITH THEM! Consumer power, ha.

I agree with previous comments too, membership of LCC is cheap and worth it just for the 3rd-party insurance alone, never mind all the other benefits.

Tarka, can I ask what the technicality was?

If you have home contents I've found it cheaper to do it through that. I have a 600 quid bike, a 400 quid bike and a 1250 one all insured for under £100 per year (with £100 excess).

In any event there are two important facets to insurance: cost of cover, but also what happens when you make a claim.

taking the road bike with me on holidays

anyone used a particularly cheap insurer they would recommend?

ta.

ive bumped up my houshold to cover over seas, but it still only covers it if its locked up in a locked building/garage.....which luck or not for me when my bike was stolen i was covered! but then they wanted to up the cost of the insurence next time round, so i changed insurence. to be honest id like to see what other people say and reccomend because it all seems to be fooking expencive for next to no 'useful' cover!

at home M&S offer really good insurance deals, I think the max claim on a single bike is about 3k and the premiums are not bonkers

Travel insurance seems harder to get on single value items tho

I know that Cyclecover through the CTC does worldwide cycle insurance on top of their normal policy - don't know how cheap it is though.

Wayne - you're going to Perth, aren't you?

Pleased you reminded me....
Just moved and need to get some home insurance + personal belongings 'carriage' sorted.

Speak to your insurers and ask them if you can pay extra for personal belongings insurance whilst out and about.
That should cover you and everything with you - laptop, bikes, locks, phone, ipod, clothing, beard etc!!! ha ha.
You can name personal items and costs.
Then cut it back down to regular insurance when necessary.

Any recomendations for good home insurance (cheapest)? Marks and Sparks?
Best to insure bikes seperately?

home insurance - Marks and sparks, covers your bike while you're out and about and no silly value limit