Bike Insurance

My mate's bike that got nicked and was replaced by his new single-speed has just confirmed that they insure with Direct Line and that it was indeed them who paid for his new bike. It's house contents insurance with the bikes listed as separate extra items, you know like your jewellery and stuff. No receipts needed. They have 3 bikes listed at the moment but will be upping it to 6 or so soon (to cover mine and g/f's spare bikes that we leave round theirs) if they can.

Try again and speak to an anti-muppet, or maybe they've dropped that as a policy they can sell you now but existing customers can continue with what they've already got. You sure she didn't think you were talking about a motorbike?

Is he sure that they're aware he's living in shared house? I tried Direct Line for insurance this week, and it was the same story as Dammit, wouldn't cover unless you're the sole tenant, a couple, or a family.

I've sorted my situation out in the end by resorting to insuring my home contents and '09 MTB (as a named item) with Endsleigh (suddenly changed their mind about our victorian terrace being too old to insure when I tried them again) , and my road bikes and track bike are going seperately with Butterworth.

Got this email from road cycling uk...

Your bike

Bikes are expensive. Having bought one once, the last thing you want to have to do is to buy it again. But that's just what could happen if your bike gets stolen.

Obviously it's best to avoid getting it nicked in the first place, so keeping it somewhere secure and making sure it's locked if you ever leave it anywhere (and that includes on the roof of your car) is an excellent idea. But it's also a good idea to have a backup plan, and that's where insurance comes in.

Where to start? Adding bikes to a household contents policy is a popular option, although getting insurers to cover high-value bikes (and many consider anything over £200 to be "high value") can be a challenge. Specialist bike insurers ought to be able to do a better job. Some will insure your bike against accidental damage while riding or even racing.

Make sure you check all the policy conditions before taking out any insurance, though. You may find that your bike's covered while it's inside your house, but not in an outbuilding, or in your car, or on a roof rack. And if you like to travel, ensure that your bike is covered in foreign parts. Which brings us to:

You

Insuring your bike is a good idea. Insuring yourself is vital, especially if you're riding abroad. In the UK, charitable organisations like the Air Ambulance or Mountain Rescue will scrape you off the trail and then the NHS will patch you up. In many other countries in the world, you'll end up staring down the barrel of a huge bill - helicopter rescue, hospital admission, treatment, possibly repatriation to the UK. It can easily run to thousands. So travel insurance to cover that eventuality is a must.

Choose with care, though. There's no point having insurance if it doesn't cover your particular circumstances. While most travel policies cover you for "cycling", many specifically exclude mountain biking. Or the policy conditions will have excitingly ambiguous descriptions like "stunt riding" or "extreme mountain biking". Speak to the insurers, tell them exactly what you'll be doing and make sure you're covered. And if they don't understand what you're talking about, go elsewhere.

Mike Davis
Editor of Bikemagic.com on behalf of RCUK

We aim to offer more benefits than our competitors at a lower price. From as little as 33p a week, every policy includes

Cover for theft, accidental damage and vandalism (new-for-old and race cover included).
Personal accident cover up to £20,000.
Third party cover up to £1m.
Breakdown cover for you and your bicycle (worth £34).
90 days' European cover.
60 days' worldwide cover.
'Get you home' -a taxi home should your bike be stolen or damaged.
Covers custom bikes.
No claims discount up to 40%.
Discount of 40% for folding bikes.
Hire bike should your bike be stolen or damaged.
www.ilovemybike.co.uk

Since 1982 Butterworth Insurance Services have been providing quality insurance cover for all kinds of cyclists, with affordable premiums, superb claims handling service and the reassurance of specialist underwriters.

Approved by CTC, LCC, Sustrans and BTF.
'New for Old' insurance cover.
Leisure and competition use available.
Includes Public Liability and Personal Accident options.
No Claims Discounts available.

Since 1982 Butterworth Insurance Services...
...'New for Old' insurance cover...

That is the important really important bit for anyone insuring a bike that's more than 3 years old.

I got that same email earlier!

If this is Butterworth then they said that they would not pay out the full value of my bikes, so a bit of a no go for me. They have a depreciation clause that applies to their new for old policy (as it was explained to me on the phone), but that may have been to do with the total value.

I didnt read it as there was no apparent fighting or mention of baklava.

Having lurked here for a while and read through this, and many of the insurance threads, it seems that insurance is only worth it for the more valuable, newer bikes. I had my Mercian tourer stolen, which was my first experience of owning a bike in London, so it wasn't insured, and what I thought was a strong enough lock (Abus Centuro 860) obviously wasn't, but I dealt with it and I have a new bike arriving tomorrow. However, it's a 1975 Colnago frame, with full Campag, and from what i've found reading through this forum is that, as a co-renter, even if I could get it insured, my frame wouldn't be worth in insurance terms what it is in the eyes of a cyclist. And even then the accessories are rarely taken into account.

I bought the Colnago for just over £200 and, to me, it seems that the best decision is to just spend £130 on a Kryptonite Fah D-lock and an Abus Granit X-PLus 1050, and hope that it doesn't get stolen. The bike will be worth more to me than to the insurance companies, so prevention would be better than recuperation considering the cost I got the bike for in the first place. Instead of sending £30 a month just incase, I could save the money and in a year have more than the bike cost me.

I've looked into the Kryptonite anti-theft protection policy and it seems difficult to get anything back, but if I got lucky and the thief left a bit of the lock, then prevention might end up coming with recuperation too. If anyone has any information otherwise to this it'd be very helpful considering my bike's arrival tomorrow, but pessimism surrounding insurance seems to be justified to a certain extent.

I'm Alex by the way, and this forum has proven very helpful since I lost my Mercian, from finding a new bike to learning what to lock it up with.

I bought the Colnago for just over £200 and, to me, it seems that the best decision is to just spend £130 on a Kryptonite Fah D-lock and an Abus Granit X-PLus 1050, and hope that it doesn't get stolen. The bike will be worth more to me than to the insurance companies, so prevention would be better than recuperation considering the cost I got the bike for in the first place. Instead of sending £30 a month just incase, I could save the money and in a year have more than the bike cost me.

i fully agree with this. i use a minimum of 2 locks at all times - sometimes up to 4 (when i'm locking in conjunction with my girlfriend: we both have 2 locks)! i always try to use 2 different types of lock (e.g. cable and d-lock) and to make sure at least one of them is highly rated (i.e. costs about 80-150 quid). additionally, i try to always park near/under cctv if i can, i take my bike into shops with me wherever possible (e.g. stopping off to get some groceries on the way home) and i don't leave it outside overnight ever.

and, welcome to the forum :)

Right,

I'm new here (all of 16 posts!!) and I'm building my first fixed gear and it's almost done and I got thinking, do people actually insure these, I haven't spent a huge amount but everything apart from the frame / forks (although significantly modified) has been bought new, it's cost me in the region of 4-500 quid.

I know people have spent a hell of a lot more than that, but do people insure their bikes?

If so any good companies..?

Cheers

Simon

ffsutfsmf!

To translate,

For fucks sake use the fucking search mother fucker!

I figured I'd get something like that... I'd love to have the time to trawl through the forum. Cheers.

And I'm sure everyone else would like to have the time to do your research for you precious. So use the fucking search, it takes 2 minutes.....

No trawling required, use the little search button at the top of the page and a vast array of useful threads will be revealed. This is the best one, read it, then come back here and be nice to me.

https://www.londonfgss.com/thread16232.html

Bannerman Rendell Ltd run a household insurance binder scheme on behalf of Brit Insurance which gives cover for pedal cycles up to GBP5,000 any one cycle anywhere in the world at nil AP.

.

I wasnt' trying to be a cunt, I'd just got bored of reading and not finding anything specific, that thread is awesome, thanks Andy :)

Who would have thought it - I just renewed my home contents insurance, and it covers all of my bicycles both inside and outside the house.

Don't sweat it - no cuntery not inferred.

Not too much, at any rate.

Outside the house i.e in the gadren though I'm guessing?

Also, from what I got from reading you only get 10% of the bike, which is 40-50.. I'll buy a rat and train it to guard it for that :)

Yup, when I was a yoof my bike got stolen twice (poorly locked, and shitty locks) covered on parents house insurance both times :) Just had to have proof of ownership. A photo of you with the bike is good for this, or frame numbers.

Has anyone got their home insurance through More Than? I just did a quick quote thing that came up a lot cheaper than M&S and covers bikes off site up to 1500 (I think you can add it as a high value item if its's over 1500 though)...

Any More Than experiences appreciated!

that doesn't sound too bad! i've wanted to get insurance for ages, don't know what i'd do if my bike were nicked.

Worth looking back through this thread, but in general Hiscox and M&S get good reviews, but bear in mind that if you live with anyone other than close family or your partner then you are, and I cannot really put this politely, fucked.

@dammit I just live with my girlfriend, so the co-habiting thing isn't an issue for us, but when I checked out M&S they were double what More Th>n have quoted, and I understand that Hiscox are usually more expensive again. It just seems like too big a difference to pass up, but thought I'd better check if anyone's had any experience with them...

From memory (I have not checked this for a while, so you might want to) Hiscox and M&S do a full new for old policy.

I don't know about More Than, but a lot of other companies have a depreciation function- so for example if the bike is over 2 years old they only pay 75%, and it's a sliding scale so as age increases value goes down.

Also check out what excess they will charge you- there is an unavoidable £50-£75ish, but often there will be £200 on top of that.