insurance?

My friend had his covered under his home owners insurance, not sure how he did it, just go to your insurance provider.

you won't get cover for your bike "whilst in use"...

Yeah I have all my bike gear on my home owners policy, but once I peddle my bike out of my front door and anything happens to any of my bikes then it's my problem.

You know it would be cool if you could get coverage from a private company that would insure against damage and theft outside the home. I have this for my saxophones with a private insurance that covers against damage and theft whenever I'm performing outside of my home it covers my horns no matter what happens and it's dirt cheap like $120 for $15,000 on my three horns.

I would be a nightmare if my race bike got stolen or damaged because I've got almost $8000 in that thing and that's a lot of cash, it's worth more than my car.

Not much help to the OP, but there is an insurance company in Australia that provides "full" bike insurance, including accidental damage, crash damage, etc. even if it occured during racing or competition.

www.cyclecover.com.au I think is the URL. It's packaged as an add-on to their normal house and contents policy.

A number of insurance companies offer to cover bicycles under "personal effects" sections of their existing house and contents policies. Some of these (but not all) have restrictions though, e.g. they'll only cover the bike if it was stolen in or around the house.

I went through all this (In California) with my Insurance Co, Met-Life when I bought a new Car in April, after I did all the details on the Car I asked about Bike insurance, so She put me through to the Home Owners dept, and yes, they cover Bikes, I asked her if the Bike was stolen outside would it be covered the Girl said "Yes"....I said "Good, because it's a rather expensive Bike"..she said "How much"? ..."around $7000" I told Her...

"Oh I need to put you back through to the Auto section then, you can't cover Motorcycles on your Homeowners"...

"No, it's a Bicycle" I said...

"WHAT!!???....$7000 for a BICYCLE"???!! She sounded kinda flaberghasted..it's covered if it's stolen from a Vehicle, or anywhere else apparently...I never thought to ask if it's covered if it gets ran over by a Hummer or whatever, hopefully when I'm not ON it...
:eek:

I'll give them a call and find out...

Grange quoted me $257 a year for $3000 coverage of my bike. Sounds high to me. What do you pay and how much are you covered under your regular coverage?

Ray

Some policies have exclusions such as terrorism,flood damage,earthquake damage,malicious mischief (vandalism) etc.
It pays to ask.

jhuskey said:

Some policies have exclusions such as terrorism,flood damage,earthquake damage,malicious mischief (vandalism) etc.
It pays to ask.

Most homeowners and renters policies have pretty high deductibles to keep the premiums down, and to minimize nuisance claims. Insurance is really to cover big losses, not piddly stuff. So if you claim $1500 losss for a bike and your deductible is $1000 then you only get $500 benefit and your premiums will go up because you made a claim. Probably worth it if you'll get a $2,000 benefit in a $3000 bike but hard to say. Definitely worth it if your bike gets stolen along with a household of other stuff - that's what the insurance is for.

Much smarter to not let it get stolen in the first place.

Yes-I agree-better safe than sorry, but due to convenience and no easy route to get my bike to basment in my house, the bikes are in the garage which is open most of the day because my daughter's bike, scooter, toys are in there as well.

Life..... 🙂

im an agent in california. your homeowners should cover your bicycle on or off your property. most likely it will NOT cover it if you crash. but under the contents section of your ho policy it should state that it covers your personal effects, not specifically excluded, for peril covered in the policy, on or away from your premises. check with your agent to make sure you have contents coverage on your policy and to see what perils are covered.
i agree with diabloscott though, dont let it get stolen in the first place. leaving the garage open because it is an inconvenience to close it or pull your bike in is asking for someone to ride away with it. at least get a lock and lock it to the workbench or something.

snaps10 said:

im an agent in california. your homeowners should cover your bicycle on or off your property. most likely it will NOT cover it if you crash. but under the contents section of your ho policy it should state that it covers your personal effects, not specifically excluded, for peril covered in the policy, on or away from your premises. check with your agent to make sure you have contents coverage on your policy and to see what perils are covered.
i agree with diabloscott though, dont let it get stolen in the first place. leaving the garage open because it is an inconvenience to close it or pull your bike in is asking for someone to ride away with it. at least get a lock and lock it to the workbench or something.

You may want to tell them about repalcement cost in comparison to actual cash value and of course if you have a collectors bike reproduction and restoration values.

jhuskey said:

You may want to tell them about repalcement cost in comparison to actual cash value and of course if you have a collectors bike reproduction and restoration values.

good point. i was just trying to hurry through. absolutely, positively, no questions asked always, always, always make sure youve got replacement cost on your personal contents coverage. replacement cost pays the actual cost to replace the claimed articles with NEW. acv coverage will pay out the depreciated value of your article (in this case bicycle). for example. that nice pretty indy fab you bought last year with full record and all they bells and whistles, tagging at right around $8500 will only be paid out at the current "street value". the company will value the used bicycle (call shops, check ebay, craigslist, etc.) to find the appropriate value. for examples purposes 3500 bucks. with replacement cost the company will write you a check for 3500 tell you to go buy a new one and present them with the invoice. they will then write you a check for the remainder of the balance.

if you have a collectors bicycle (or any article of decent value) you should schedule it under your policy. talk to your agent and give them an appraisal. they will schedule your article at the agreed upon value. this keeps the company from paying you $100 bucks for the 30 yr old bicycle hanging on the wall. well, that may be a mint nos merckx with full panto'd super record signed by the man himself.

I also would mention loss of consortium in cases where some consider bike riding is a sexual experience. 😄

The $257/yr from my agent covers theft and full replacement cost (no deductable) as described by Snaps10. They first pay the depreciated value, and then they pay the remainder when you buy a new bike. She also explained to me that my bike is now fully covered should it be stolen away from home (i.e. locked up in front of the gym, etc.).

I went ahead and did it. Now to safeguard my bikes better!!!

Ray