bike insurance

Michael Klontzas said:

Quoted message said:

If the cycle is left out in the open after 2300 and a theft occurs
the cycle will not be covered except whilst touring.

No drink-up for some of us then!

No problem. You're just doing a mini-tour to the pub and back. Who
thinks up this wording, anyway? What is a tour? What magically
happens at 2300 that doesn't at 2259?

It seems many insurance companies try to assess risks about which they
know absolutely nothing.

By the way, I hear ETA is good (no 1st hand experience, though).

PhilD

--
<><

Michael Klontzas said:

Quoted message said:

Approved security marking is when the insured cycle is fitted with an
electronic datatag ie., stoptheft, alpha dot etc., (micro chip is
fitted in the frame of the cycle).

They can't have thought about that very hard: the frame is about the
cheapest component on my bike, thanks to the munificence of Taiwanese
frames builders

Michael Klontzas said:

Lately, I've been shopping around for bike insurance and as I found out,
invariably the devil is in the details. I thought some of you might find
the following responses from Butterworth Insurance (the people behind
Cyclecover, the CTC/LCC recommended policy) enlightening. These selective
quotes come from an email reply to my request for clarifications:

<snip>

Load of bloody nonsense, and expensive too. Another interesting glitch
is that Roos' bike would not be covered when locked down at the
University (where she works) despite being in a cage with a limited
number of keys as well as locked to stands inside, but if it was idly
strapped to a lamp-post in a back street a few hundred meters away with
no passing folk then it would be.

<sigh>

We're now covered through our house contents insurance, which appears to
have a lot fewer strings attached and basically comes for free given
we've got the house contents anyway.

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/

Peter Clinch said:

We're now covered through our house contents insurance, which appears to
have a lot fewer strings attached and basically comes for free given
we've got the house contents anyway.

My bike isurance doesn't have any such restrictions. It will pay up
whenever whatever, no claims form or any such nonsense. It costs the
interest on the value of the new bike per year. Yup, my bikes are
'self-insured'. I see little point in paying 10% of the value to a
company when I can save that money and get a new bike. Not that I have
bought a new bike (for me) for the last 9 years..

In that time I would have spent in excess of 1000 GBP on insurance.

...d

David Martin wrote:

I see little point in paying 10% of the value to a

Quoted message said:

company when I can save that money and get a new bike. Not that I have
bought a new bike (for me) for the last 9 years..

My bikes are not covered away from the house either. I looked at
covering them under the house insurance but any policies including it
were more expensive.
Having never had a bike stolen. I'll take my chances. Having 100%
secure parking at work helps. The only bike that is ever parked in
higher risk areas is my commuter. I could easily replace it second hand
for £100 if it did get stolen.

Iain

PhilD said:

Michael Klontzas said:

Quoted message said:

If the cycle is left out in the open after 2300 and a theft occurs
the cycle will not be covered except whilst touring.

No drink-up for some of us then!

No problem. You're just doing a mini-tour to the pub and back.

They don't specify if this is GMT or BST either 😉

Quoted message said:

Who
thinks up this wording, anyway? What is a tour? What magically
happens at 2300 that doesn't at 2259?

Whichever way you look at it, this curfew is silly. The idea is we should
be in bed before midnight.

Quoted message said:

It seems many insurance companies try to assess risks about which they
know absolutely nothing.

By the way, I hear ETA is good (no 1st hand experience, though).

Yes, so I hear too. They don't have too many get-out closes either.

--
Michael Klontzas
'If everything seems to be coming your way,
you're probably in the wrong lane'
(Borstelmann's Rule)

sothach said:

Michael Klontzas said:

Quoted message said:

Approved security marking is when the insured cycle is fitted with an
electronic datatag ie., stoptheft, alpha dot etc., (micro chip is
fitted in the frame of the cycle).

They can't have thought about that very hard: the frame is about the
cheapest component on my bike, thanks to the munificence of Taiwanese
frames builders

The whole point is the stickers work as a deterrent. I would guess most
thieves don't know much about bikes anyway. Then again, the stickers may
attract attention to a bike I am trying to make look decisively naff by
covering it in electricians tape (which is not as easy as I thought).

--
Michael Klontzas
'If everything seems to be coming your way,
you're probably in the wrong lane'
(Borstelmann's Rule)

David Martin said:

Peter Clinch wrote:
Yup, my bikes are
'self-insured'. I see little point in paying 10% of the value to a
company when I can save that money and get a new bike. Not that I have
bought a new bike (for me) for the last 9 years..

In that time I would have spent in excess of 1000 GBP on insurance.

That was exactly my approach too until a month ago when someone damaged
my 4 months old bike beyond repair in an unsuccessful attempt to steal
it. Now, I simply can't take the risk with the new one. I can't stand the
thought of this happening again in another 4 months.

--
Michael Klontzas
'If everything seems to be coming your way,
you're probably in the wrong lane'
(Borstelmann's Rule)

Quoted message said:

David Martin wrote:
Having never had a bike stolen. I'll take my chances. Having 100%
secure parking at work helps. The only bike that is ever parked in
higher risk areas is my commuter. I could easily replace it second hand
for £100 if it did get stolen.

Another strategy is perhaps buying a Brompton as a lock-up-outside
commuter bike and recovering the investment over a number of years you
won't be paying for insurance.

--
Michael Klontzas
'If everything seems to be coming your way,
you're probably in the wrong lane'
(Borstelmann's Rule)

David Martin said:

My bike isurance doesn't have any such restrictions. It will pay up
whenever whatever, no claims form or any such nonsense. It costs the
interest on the value of the new bike per year. Yup, my bikes are
'self-insured'. I see little point in paying 10% of the value to a
company when I can save that money and get a new bike. Not that I have
bought a new bike (for me) for the last 9 years..

In that time I would have spent in excess of 1000 GBP on insurance.

Which is all well and good, but if the value of the bike(s) in
question is significantly in excess of 1000 (like, say, 5000), then
you may yet still turn out to have been better off if insured.
Admittedly, if teh bike was 5000, you'd have saved more than 1000 in 9
years.

Having said which, most of the time my bikes have been uninsured (or
so pitifully insured as to be effectively uninsured). FWIW, in my
recent shopping around, if you have high value bikes, M&S seem to be
the people to get your contents insurance with - they cover bikes with
no limit (or a very very high limit, I forget which). However, their
premium was about three times the cost of the insurance I've ended up
with, which is adequate for most of my bikes (will pay out up to 1000,
per bike, so only the trice is not fully insured). Co-op (previously
recommended hereabouts) had a very low limit by default, and an
inability to provide full cover regardless of premium.

A Lloyds name once told me never to insure anything you can afford to
replace ... but I do.

regards, Ian SMith
--
|\ /| no .sig
|o o|
|/ \|

Quoted message said:

What magically
happens at 2300 that doesn't at 2259?

You magically stagger out of the pub at 23:20 to find the bike has been
nicked. Insurance company then doesn't have to pay up.

They have 23:00 as the time 'cos they're not cyclists, and so drink
inferior beers that aren't worth taking the full drinking up time to
finish.

Ian Smith said:

FWIW, in my
recent shopping around, if you have high value bikes, M&S seem to be
the people to get your contents insurance with - they cover bikes with
no limit (or a very very high limit, I forget which).

£4K

Quoted message said:

However, their
premium was about three times the cost of the insurance I've ended up
with

These things are always a bit of a lottery: with us, M&S weren't
significantly more even before we took the bikes into account, and quite
a bit less than renewing our Direct Line policy which had shot up in
cost apropos of, errrr, nothing obvious at all.

So get your quotes in and see how they're doing today! It's almost as
much fun as getting an Inter City rail ticket by 'phoning them up and
multiple times and playing Double Or Quits on the variously cheap quotes
you get...

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/

Peter Clinch said:

So get your quotes in and see how they're doing today! It's almost as
much fun as getting an Inter City rail ticket by 'phoning them up and
multiple times and playing Double Or Quits on the variously cheap quotes
you get...

Another interesting alternative is here http://tinyurl.com/dr4c5

Vouchers? £169.99? Err, maybe not.

--
Michael Klontzas
'If everything seems to be coming your way,
you're probably in the wrong lane'
(Borstelmann's Rule)

Michael Klontzas said:

Peter Clinch said:

So get your quotes in and see how they're doing today! It's almost as
much fun as getting an Inter City rail ticket by 'phoning them up and
multiple times and playing Double Or Quits on the variously cheap quotes
you get...

Another interesting alternative is here http://tinyurl.com/dr4c5

Vouchers? £169.99? Err, maybe not.

I get the following error:

403 Forbidden
You may not view this page as your browser does not have the 12'
BARGEPOLE plugin.

...d

Quoted message said:

--
Michael Klontzas
'If everything seems to be coming your way,
you're probably in the wrong lane'
(Borstelmann's Rule)