Bicycle Insurance.

"TrailRat" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Considering getting bike insurance again, mainly because my planned
jaunt into Cornwall but for various other reasons too.

Any suggestions??

Looking at insuring not just the bike but everything attached.

Or does everyone insure their steeds and stuff on their houses
contents insurance.

DEFINATELY shop around and look at the extras you get. Adding it to my
house contents insurance would have cost more than the seperate policy I
have.
Last year putting it on household meant that insurance+excess+replacing
excluded items worked out almost as much as buying a new bike and refitting
it!

I'm with Pavilion because they were reasonably cheap, allowed me to add my
old bike to the policy for pennies, 3rd party insurance plus same for my
girlfriend in case she was riding it and I think they have a legal helpline
as well.

I must say though that I've not had to claim on it yet so I can't really
recommend them apart on how easy it was to buy and customise the policy to
suit me. Getting the insurance though did make me buy a decent lock as well
(as like most policies you have to use a decent lock and use it properly
otherwise they won't pay out).

--
peter

Cheap train tickets databse
http://www.petereverett.co.uk/tickets/

Email sent to this address is generally deleted upon arrival
Visit website if you want to contact me

TrailRat said:

Considering getting bike insurance again, mainly because my planned
jaunt into Cornwall but for various other reasons too.

Any suggestions??

Looking at insuring not just the bike but everything attached.

Or does everyone insure their steeds and stuff on their houses
contents insurance.

We have ours on our house contents, but note that you'll have to
look at the small print to see how good any particular one is. We
were fairly happy with Marks and Spencer's, which covers bikes up
to £4k and seems pretty easy-going about gotchas. Other HC
policies cover bikes up to lesser values, or may require them to be
named, or have various gotchas, but asking is the only way to be
sure. M&S gave us a very good premium quote anyway, others have
found them far more expensive than folks who gave us a higher
quote, so that'll depend on your postcode, demographic, if there's
a 'p' in the month etc. etc. Again, you've got to ask to find out.

For one year only we used CTC's insurance, but found it really
stupidly expensive and still with stupid gotchas. For example,
bikes aren't insured on University or college premises, and with
Roos working at a university and me working at a hospital attached
to one that was *not* really useful, and for our 'bents we'd have
needed to spend another small fortune on monster heavy "Sold
Secure: Gold" standard locks because of their basic value. There
is also no differentiation between bikes except purchase price (an
exception for tandems), so a Bling! MTB with neon "Steal Me!" signs
costs the same to insure as a freight bike with the same price tag:
just plain /dumb/, so we voted with our feet.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

naked_draughtsman said:

"TrailRat" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Considering getting bike insurance again, mainly because my planned
jaunt into Cornwall but for various other reasons too.

Any suggestions??

Looking at insuring not just the bike but everything attached.

Or does everyone insure their steeds and stuff on their houses
contents insurance.

DEFINATELY shop around and look at the extras you get. Adding it to
my house contents insurance would have cost more than the seperate
policy I have.

Which suggests you might do better looking for a different house insurer ?

Quoted message said:

Last year putting it on household meant that
insurance+excess+replacing excluded items worked out almost as much
as buying a new bike and refitting it!

I'm with Pavilion because they were reasonably cheap, allowed me to
add my old bike to the policy for pennies,

Assuming your policy is the one described here:
https://www.pavilioninsurance.com/payment/products/coversummary.asp?product=BritCyc&promCode=
Then your old bike is only covered for pennies.
Depreciation when applied to bicycles over three years is, in the absence of
other evidence, a license to insurers to value anything over 3yrs as worth
almost nothing.

Like Pete, I'm with M&S.
Not least because of a new-for-old clause which actually is new-for-old, and
a mature approach to storing bikes at home.

But I completely agree with your point about shopping around.

Quoted message said:

3rd party insurance plus
same for my girlfriend in case she was riding it and I think they
have a legal helpline as well.

Chances are that any home insurance covers 3rd party actions. Or CTC
membership.

Quoted message said:

I must say though that I've not had to claim on it yet so I can't
really recommend them apart on how easy it was to buy and customise
the policy to suit me. Getting the insurance though did make me buy
a decent lock as well (as like most policies you have to use a decent
lock and use it properly otherwise they won't pay out).

Many policies specify types of locks used. Some just expect you to behave
sensibly.

- Nigel

--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/

"Nigel Cliffe" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

naked_draughtsman said:

DEFINATELY shop around and look at the extras you get. Adding it to
my house contents insurance would have cost more than the seperate
policy I have.

Which suggests you might do better looking for a different house insurer ?

As a student there's already limited choice when looking for contents only
insurance especially when your belongings amount to very little in financial
terms. Several companies come up on google but many seem to be part of the
same parent company but offering different bells and whistles on their
products.
My bank (HSBC) wrote to me with information on their low price insurance
deals, which weren't particularly cheap and you had to take a policy to
cover several thousand pounds worth of belongings!

Quoted message said:

Assuming your policy is the one described here:
https://www.pavilioninsurance.com/payment/products/coversummary.asp?product=BritCyc&promCode=
Then your old bike is only covered for pennies.
Depreciation when applied to bicycles over three years is, in the absence
of other evidence, a license to insurers to value anything over 3yrs as
worth almost nothing.

When I say old, it's not *that* old, but probably won't be included when the
policy is renewed <g>

Quoted message said:

Chances are that any home insurance covers 3rd party actions. Or CTC
membership.

Mine doesn't unfortunately, which is why I was looking for it as part of the
bike policy. Although if it is included on another plicy then there's no
point paying for it twice from two different people.

Quoted message said:

Many policies specify types of locks used. Some just expect you to behave
sensibly.

Forgot to mention, if you buy a decent lock (e.g. a decent Kryptonite one)
it might include some level of theft protection, but as always it would be
advisable to read the small print.

--
peter

Cheap train tickets databse
http://www.petereverett.co.uk/tickets/

Email sent to this address is generally deleted upon arrival
Visit website if you want to contact me

naked_draughtsman said:

"Nigel Cliffe" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

naked_draughtsman said:

DEFINATELY shop around and look at the extras you get. Adding it to
my house contents insurance would have cost more than the seperate
policy I have.

Which suggests you might do better looking for a different house
insurer ?

As a student there's already limited choice when looking for contents
only insurance especially when your belongings amount to very little
in financial terms.

Ah, I remember being a student.
And insurance which insured not much for large premiums from a choice of one
insurer.
Hopefully you'll not suffer losses.

Once you have a home (and mortgage) then the options are wider.

Quoted message said:

Forgot to mention, if you buy a decent lock (e.g. a decent Kryptonite
one) it might include some level of theft protection, but as always
it would be advisable to read the small print.

Agreed.

- Nigel

--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/

Nigel Cliffe said:

naked_draughtsman said:

As a student there's already limited choice when looking for contents
only insurance especially when your belongings amount to very little
in financial terms.

Ah, I remember being a student.
And insurance which insured not much for large premiums from a choice of one
insurer.
Hopefully you'll not suffer losses.

IIRC that particular insurer specific to students, used to have a clause
in their bike cover that specifically excluded any higher education campus.

--
Don Whybrow

Sequi Bonum Non Time

Turn on, log in, fight spam.

"naked_draughtsman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"TrailRat" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Considering getting bike insurance again, mainly because my planned
jaunt into Cornwall but for various other reasons too.

Any suggestions??

Looking at insuring not just the bike but everything attached.

Or does everyone insure their steeds and stuff on their houses
contents insurance.

DEFINATELY shop around and look at the extras you get. Adding it to my
house contents insurance would have cost more than the seperate policy I
have.
Last year putting it on household meant that insurance+excess+replacing
excluded items worked out almost as much as buying a new bike and
refitting it!

I'm with Pavilion because they were reasonably cheap, allowed me to add my
old bike to the policy for pennies, 3rd party insurance plus same for my
girlfriend in case she was riding it and I think they have a legal
helpline as well.

I must say though that I've not had to claim on it yet so I can't really
recommend them apart on how easy it was to buy and customise the policy to
suit me. Getting the insurance though did make me buy a decent lock as
well (as like most policies you have to use a decent lock and use it
properly otherwise they won't pay out).

Looked at their site and it popped up Cycleguard,

All the Bicycle Specific insurance pollicies i could find when looking
insisted that the bikes be kept in a brick built storage with 5 lever locks.
Which knocks out just about every shed or garage (including youth hostel
bike storage) i have ever put my bike in.
They also insisted that when a bike be attached to a car or in a car, that
the car shoudl have a thatcham approved alarm and that if on the outside the
bike should be secured to the vehicle with a sold secure approved lock.

Don't think I saw a single Sold Secure lock which could possibly attach the
bike to a car in such a place that would mean that the act of nicking the
bike would involve much more than taking the carrier off, and you could
probably do any un bolting or cable snipping wthout setting off the sensors
on a car alarm if you were careful. And if you set it off while taking the
bike off the car you will probably be away by the time anyone has dragged
themselves out of bed to see whoes car it is waking them up. (Due to the
lack of any other point on my car I use a long cable lock to attach the bike
frame to the bar that mounts the tow bar on to the suspension towers) Then
theres the issue of my car only being worth £100 and Thatcham approved
security systems cosing aroudn 500 quid (fitted)

I used all this to convince dad that the best approach was to take the extra
17 quid a month hit on the house insurance which covers all of the bikes at
home not just my 4.

And gives a chance of actually being covered at palces other than the bike
shed at the Hospital.

Still amused by the fact that the local gadies haven't gone off with the
mountain bike that regularly sits there with a small cable lock round the
front wheel which is on a quick release. The ultimate in steal machines?

Niall

"Niall Wallace" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Still amused by the fact that the local gadies haven't gone off with the
mountain bike that regularly sits there with a small cable lock round the
front wheel which is on a quick release. The ultimate in steal machines?

Whenever I see people leave their bikes unlocked somewhere, I'm tempted to
move it somewhere else (not far, other side of the doorway for example) and
wait for the reation - from a distance!
Also tempting to move the bike racks at the university which aren't bolted
down (they're steel on tarmac on a slight slope so slide easily) but I can't
see a way to do it without damaging the bikes attached to it. Plus I'm sure
I'd get apprehended for such a prank given the number of cctv cameras in the
vicinity.

--
peter

Cheap train tickets database
http://www.petereverett.co.uk/tickets/

Email sent to this address is generally deleted upon arrival
Visit website if you want to contact me

Quoted message said:

TrailRat said:

Considering getting bike insurance again, mainly because my planned
jaunt into Cornwall but for various other reasons too.

Any suggestions??

I hate insurance. Its like gambling, the house always wins. If you take
better than average care of your bike you will win if uninsured, since the
premium will always be geared to the average. Plus the insurance companies
cut. It may be worth insuring if you could not stand the hit, but insurance
is a search for security in a world were security is not available.
Also, insurance for motorists is a way of minimising the consequences of
carelessness. I'd rather motorists had more, rather than less to loose by
hitting me. Instead, conventional wisdom is that being uninsured is in
itself a dangerous thing.
Policies always insist that you must take the best available
precautions. If you pay for all these, do you need insurance as well?
I've not insured any of my bikes for many years, and since all I have
had stolen is a pump and a water bottle, I'm well ahead of the bank. 10% of
value per year seems not unusual, but I've never botherered to work out how
much I've saved.

Mike Sales

Mike Sales said:

Quoted message said:

TrailRat said:

Considering getting bike insurance again, mainly because my planned
jaunt into Cornwall but for various other reasons too.

Any suggestions??

I hate insurance. Its like gambling, the house always wins. If you
take better than average care of your bike you will win if uninsured,
since the premium will always be geared to the average. Plus the
insurance companies cut. It may be worth insuring if you could not
stand the hit, but insurance is a search for security in a world were
security is not available.

I agree with the above.
With a proviso that sometimes (and that might work for Pete C and me with
M&S), the cover you'd buy for a rare but catestrophic loss (house burned
down) also covers more frequent but lower financial risks (over thousand
pound bike loss) for a modest extra.

Quoted message said:

Also, insurance for motorists is a way
of minimising the consequences of carelessness. I'd rather motorists
had more, rather than less to loose by hitting me. Instead,
conventional wisdom is that being uninsured is in itself a dangerous
thing.

Compulsory car insurance is there for a reason - I doubt that 99% of drivers
on the road have enough assets to cover the lifetime medical costs of
someone who is totally disabled by their actions, or any way of ever funding
such costs. The costs can run into millions. These are costs, not punitive
damages.

There used to be an option of depositing a bond with the authorities to
cover third party car risks, and thus avoid the need for insurance. I think
it was a few million pounds.

Quoted message said:

I've not insured any of my bikes for many years, and since all I
have had stolen is a pump and a water bottle, I'm well ahead of the
bank. 10% of value per year seems not unusual, but I've never
botherered to work out how much I've saved.

I'd take your view at 10% per year, particularly when you factor in the
other restrictions such as the "not new for old when over three years".
I'm paying considerably less on my house policy, and have full new-for-old.

- Nigel

--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/

Mike Sales said:

I hate insurance. Its like gambling, the house always wins. If you take
better than average care of your bike you will win if uninsured, since the
premium will always be geared to the average. Plus the insurance companies
cut. It may be worth insuring if you could not stand the hit, but insurance
is a search for security in a world were security is not available.

Well, yes, but having said that I wanty to insure my house contents
anyway because I really would be stuffed if they went up in smoke,
and the bike gets insured as a happy side effect: it would make no
difference to the premium if I wasn't covering the bikes, and the
premium was as good a quote as we got anywheer else anyway.

Quoted message said:

Policies always insist that you must take the best available
precautions. If you pay for all these, do you need insurance as well?

FSVO "best". Soem require stupid hoop-jumping, others simply
require require a vaguely Clueful degree of care.

Quoted message said:

I've not insured any of my bikes for many years, and since all I have
had stolen is a pump and a water bottle, I'm well ahead of the bank. 10% of
value per year seems not unusual, but I've never botherered to work out how
much I've saved.

10% seems about par for the course on cycle-specific ones, but with
ours it wouldn't be any less /not/ to cover the bikes.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

"Nigel Cliffe" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I agree with the above.
With a proviso that sometimes (and that might work for Pete C and me with
M&S), the cover you'd buy for a rare but catestrophic loss (house burned
down) also covers more frequent but lower financial risks (over thousand
pound bike loss) for a modest extra.

I believe it's done by the shipping industry as a regular premium on each
vessel would be far too expensive for them so they may as well set aside
enough money to pay for a new ship plus contents as it's quite unlikely to
happen (most damaged ships seem to get repaired).
I think there's lots of rules on how it's all arranged - the money might
have to be deposited safely with a bank or the government and I think the
company would still be required to have public liability insurance in the
conventional way.

--
peter

Cheap train tickets database
http://www.petereverett.co.uk/tickets/

Email sent to this address is generally deleted upon arrival
Visit website if you want to contact me

"naked_draughtsman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Nigel Cliffe" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I agree with the above.
With a proviso that sometimes (and that might work for Pete C and me with
M&S), the cover you'd buy for a rare but catestrophic loss (house burned
down) also covers more frequent but lower financial risks (over thousand
pound bike loss) for a modest extra.

I believe it's done by the shipping industry as a regular premium on each
vessel would be far too expensive for them so they may as well set aside
enough money to pay for a new ship plus contents as it's quite unlikely to
happen (most damaged ships seem to get repaired).
I think there's lots of rules on how it's all arranged - the money might
have to be deposited safely with a bank or the government and I think the
company would still be required to have public liability insurance in the
conventional way.

And I thought all ships had to be registered with Lloyds?

You can take out a £1 million bond to cover 3rd party motor insurance

Niall

"Niall Wallace" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

And I thought all ships had to be registered with Lloyds?

Maybe it's all done through Lloyds. It was 3 years ago now since we did
insurance and we didn't really focus on self insurance!

--
peter

Cheap train tickets database
http://www.petereverett.co.uk/tickets/

Email sent to this address is generally deleted upon arrival
Visit website if you want to contact me

"naked_draughtsman" <[email hidden]> writed in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

"Nigel Cliffe" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I agree with the above.
With a proviso that sometimes (and that might work for Pete C and me
with M&S), the cover you'd buy for a rare but catestrophic loss
(house burned down) also covers more frequent but lower financial
risks (over thousand pound bike loss) for a modest extra.

I believe it's done by the shipping industry as a regular premium on
each vessel would be far too expensive for them so they may as well
set aside enough money to pay for a new ship plus contents as it's
quite unlikely to happen (most damaged ships seem to get repaired).
I think there's lots of rules on how it's all arranged - the money
might have to be deposited safely with a bank or the government and I
think the company would still be required to have public liability
insurance in the conventional way.

I have a vague recollection that this used to be allowed as an
alternative to motor vehicle insurance in the UK - if my memory serves me
correctly, you had to be able to show assets greater than a set minimum.
(Heaven help us!!)