Bike Insurance

That Oak gonna be a bitch to insure.

It's uninsurable.

Hiscox just contacted me- they are aware of what their agent offered (they checked the recording of the call) but they will not be honouring that.

I've asked to finish the cover at the end of the month, and for a refund of the fees I have paid so far.

All you punks with expensive bikes and M&S contents insurance, taken out because they have a £4000 unspecified item limit, BEWARE!

You now have to tell them about any bikes worth over £2000 or you ARE NOT COVERED.

I've yet to hassle them about the specifics of this change of policy terms so I don't know what they expect (ie. if you have expensive wheels purchased separately) but it's a bit pissing annoying when items over £4000 still don't need to be specified at all, so my diamond-encrusted gimp suit is fine but my bikes are not.

Warning on this- the result of my call with Hiscox was that just as they would class a camera body+lense as a camera, they would class a bike+wheels as a bike.

So, for their purposes, if you insure the bike for £2,500 but have put your £1,500 race wheels on it you are shit out of luck if you think you can make an additional claim.

Might vary for others, but I doubt it.

Hiscox just contacted me- they are aware of what their agent offered (they checked the recording of the call) but they will not be honouring that.

I've asked to finish the cover at the end of the month, and for a refund of the fees I have paid so far.

What a bunch of wallies.

Remember kids, if it ain't in writing it don't mean shit*.

*fuck off with verbal agreement bollocks, I don't care, it's feeble.

Maybe we should start contacting car insurance companies.

Warning on this- the result of my call with Hiscox was that just as they would class a camera body+lense as a camera, they would class a bike+wheels as a bike.

So, for their purposes, if you insure the bike for £2,500 but have put your £1,500 race wheels on it you are shit out of luck if you think you can make an additional claim.

Might vary for others, but I doubt it.

I haven't called M&S yet so I'm not sure how they'll treat it. They're underwritten by AXA or something.

It's bollocks that camera lenses are separate items but race wheels are not.

Sorry- maybe I wasn't clear, Hiscox are saying that if your camera is stolen with a lense attached then the limit for the camera applies to the lense- it ceases to exist as a separate item for the purpose of insurance.

This applies to bikes- so a Garmin is counted as part of the bike, an If that pushes it over your limit then you cannot claim for it

So they totally miss-sold you?

pretty bad that

Hang on, that sounds like total horseshit.

Is a trailer considered part of a car?

What if your lens collection is stolen but not the camera body? WTF do they do then?

How do they work out your money? If it's receipts then they're fucked because lens and body are separate as are wheels and frame, etc.

Hiscox >>>

Wonder what M&S are gonna try..

Two separate things - one is the limit for the item.

My Hiscox policy limits me to £2,500 per bike when out of the home.

When I initially phoned up I told them that I had an SRM that I moved between the two bikes- my road bike and my cross bike.

Therefore the cross bike might one day be worth £2,500 and the next £5,000 depending if I'd put the SRM on it or not.

The agent I spoke to (and purchased the policy from) said that as the SRM was movable then it would count as "sports equipment" that could be claimed for in addition to the bike.

Hiscox have now confirmed to me that this was not within his remit to offer, as per the above camera/lense analogy that they came out with.

It doesn't matter what the stuff is worth, ultimately- Hiscox will limit what they pay.

So if my bike is worth £2,500 or £12,500 I still get £2,500 back.

I'll speak to M&S tomorrow, but they don't appear to be very cyclist friendly any longer.

Bikes- why are you so hard to insure?!

How much would it cost if you choose to have full value covered by Hiscox? I asked mainly cause Velocio got his custom bike covered under Hiscox (unless that have changed recently).

I'm slightly more worried about insurance for mine as the paint for the custom frame end up going a lots more than originally.

Why are insurance company think bike value stopped increasing in 1987?

To insure the SystemSix for it's replacement value was a crazy amount of money- thousands. That's why I didn't bother.

I just got a quote from M&S- £3,000/year.

Max payment is £3,000 or are they're asking £3,000 a year?

Does your bike have petrol in it or something?

Three grand a year premium, or £250 a month.

That's way more than the car insurance- but then the car is insured for it's market value, the bikes are insured for their replacement value.

Fuck.

I think I'm better off opening an another account just to put a certain amount in every month as a way to afford a replacement if it ever get stolen.

Still cheaper than paying £250 a month.

It's why I ended up with Hiscox before- from what I recall I had the conversation with M&S, a year or so ago, told them about the bikes, they came back with a huge quote, I said ok lets not insure them- they said that I had to.

Fuck.

I think I'm better off opening an another account just to put a certain amount in every month as a way to afford a replacement if it ever get stolen.

Still cheaper than paying £250 a month.

I have opened a separate savings account for exactly this purpose.

I compared several (10+) insurers and I decided that the £200+ a month was not worth it for a £4k and £2k bike. Especially seeing as only some give you a halfords voucher or only insure up to £1.5k etc. Getting cash value to spend yourself on a replacement is rare and requires a very high monthly premium.

Someone mentioned in this thread that insurance is a gamble and generally the house wins.

My alternative is to self insure: I pay a monthly standing order of £X into an easy access savings account set up for the purposes of bike replacement, car repairs or other emergency situations. Discipline is required so as not spend this on other things!

I also spent £300 on ground anchors and top Abus chainlocks to secure the bikes indoors.

Also, as Dammit has alluded to in this thread: if you live in a shared house and you have a bike over £1000-£1500, forget insuring it. The small print around these insurance policies makes if virtually impossible to get a claim through.

Insurance >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

What counts as a shared house?

I haven't called them yet but M&S also don't insure bicycles while racing.

Does anyone insure bicycles whilst racing?

What counts as a shared house?

Where you live with anyone other than your partner/spouse, and/or direct family.

I haven't called them yet but M&S also don't insure bicycles while racing.

Does anyone insure bicycles whilst racing?

I think my British Cycling membership offers race cover- I'd need to check.

When I did my M&S application online it wanted me to list any bikes worth over £1,000, so I would imagine that once you contract them they will wish to increase your premium inline with the bikes you identify.

Where you live with anyone other than your partner/spouse, and/or direct family.

I wonder what the reasoning behind that is? Other than trying to get out of paying.