Bike insurance?

alison_b said:

Hi Folks! I am wondering if anybody has had experiences (good, bad,
indifferent) with Middlemitch, the insurers that have the deal with
Bicycle Victoria. It is that time of the year - insurance is due - and
I got a quote from them. They seem to be a *lot* more expensive than
who I'm currently with, but of course they actually cover the numerous
bikes in and around the house and garage...
Ali

--
alison_b

Hi alison_b,

I haven't dealt with them, but here's my view on insuring bikes:

Originally I just had my bikes covered by my contents insurance, through
Suncorp. This was more expensive than some other places but offered good
cover. You can get extra cover on personal effects that you would
travel with, set the amount per item and amount total. So I had up the
$1000 per item, up to $8000 total, so if my bike got stolen from my
car/hotel room, I'd get that back. My roadie/mtb were not heaps over
the $1000 mark so I wasn't too worried about not getting back fully what
they're worth.

My racing bike was well over the $1000 so I listed it as a specified
effect for its replacement value. This cost me an extra $4 per month or
something ridiculously small like that. It was then covered in the
house, garage, car, hotel room, locked up at a shop, etc., without crazy
rules that most of the bicycle cover places require you to follow. So
it was covered for theft and accidental damage (nice to know when I'm
travelling with it in my car) and everything except for when I'm riding
it.

The reason I didn't go with cover when riding it at that stage is that
basic insurance for a racing bike through the only qld provider was
about $270 a year. I figured that, if I'm in an accident that's bad
enough to write off my bike, I'm probably more concerned about the
medical expenses, so I spent the extra money on private health insurance
instead (cheap version, Defence Health, etc blah blah). And if I write
off my bike because some <insert expletive> person hits me, I should get
some money out of that to replace the bike.

However when I moved back home, my folks were insured with RACQ/GIO, who
don't offer cover on bikes. So I went for the private insurance on my
racing bike, mostly because I'm worried about theft. I think it's with
Cyclecover Qld, who go through whatever insurance broker they are with
at the time, and I can't remember its name. They have all sorts of
silly restrictions on how you lock up your bike (you have to send in the
brand and model of bike chain you use), that it's not insured if it's
within a certain distance of home at night but not at home, etc.

Hope this helps.

Tam

alison_b said:

Hi Folks! I am wondering if anybody has had experiences (good, bad,
indifferent) with Middlemitch, the insurers that have the deal with
Bicycle Victoria. It is that time of the year - insurance is due - and
I got a quote from them. They seem to be a *lot* more expensive than
who I'm currently with, but of course they actually cover the numerous
bikes in and around the house and garage...

For what it's worth, the BV crash insurance has a $1000 excess! I'm
trying to see if the BV/middleditch insurance covers this crash I
had the other day with a lower excess. The woman at BV said "see
if it's covered under your public liability insurance, that may have a
$100 excess instead".

-right-

Carl Brewer said:

alison_b said:

Hi Folks! I am wondering if anybody has had experiences (good, bad,
indifferent) with Middlemitch, the insurers that have the deal with
Bicycle Victoria. It is that time of the year - insurance is due - and
I got a quote from them. They seem to be a *lot* more expensive than
who I'm currently with, but of course they actually cover the numerous
bikes in and around the house and garage...

For what it's worth, the BV crash insurance has a $1000 excess! I'm
trying to see if the BV/middleditch insurance covers this crash I
had the other day with a lower excess. The woman at BV said "see
if it's covered under your public liability insurance, that may have a
$100 excess instead".

-right-

I'm with Middleditch. I've claimed once and they paid out quickly and
easily. The excess was $100 (years ago).

A guy at work has just had his claim paid for $5K+ and the excess was
definitely only a hundred and something dollars.

--
Nick

Carl Brewer said:

For what it's worth, the BV crash insurance has a $1000 excess!

$1000????:eek:
*looks at my well-loved commuter and mumbles something about buying a new one for half of that*

The quote I got from Middlemitch has a $100 excess, which sounds a bit more comfortable. That was their 'standard' excess, so you might be in luck.

I spoke with my current insurance about the bikes and I can apparently get some special u-beaut deal (price unknown!) which will insure the bikes, but not while we are ... wait for it... riding them. I guess theft is better than nothing, but since you can insure jewellry when you are *wearing* it outside the home (apparently...) and cameras when you are *using* them outside the home, it seems a tad weird that you can't insure a bike when you are, well, using it.

The killer though is that the whole kaboodle with Middlemitch was nearly $1000 more than what I now have. 🙁 (Which would make a nice deposit on that sweet machine I saw this evening when trying to find some screws to reattach the panniers to the well-loved but somewhat neglected commuter.)

Thanks to all for the responses...
Ali

Carl Brewer said:

just to make you jealous...

snipparge!

In Amsterdam (this one time, in band camp...) you can claim almost any injury/damage (apart form stolen bike. refer my holiday stories...) and the gov pay up pronto. And cos they are so dared civilised, nobody scams it