[Closed] Valuing bikes for insurances purposes

If it's a standard bike, current retail replacement cost. If non standard, current retail replacement plus uplift for the fancy additions. This leaves a bit of wriggle room if the insurer insists on using their own replacement company when we know we can get cheaper elsewhere.

Does that make sense?

Last time I got insurance they asked how much they were worth. I picked numbers that would allow me to replace like for like, at full rrp. No point in being out of pocket if you need to claim.

My road bike, for example, was built up from scratch with new bits. It's valued at a fair bit more than it cost me at the time to build, but it would cost me that to replace it.

RRP on all the bits, or RRP of the most similar complete bike in the current range, unless it's going to push the premium up too far in which case I might round down to a figure more like what it actualy cost me.

My LBS who I have a very good relationship with, kindly provided written valuations of all my bike FOC on company headed paper.

They listed all the components of each bike (including parts/frames they didnt supply) with a replacement cost associated with each.

Worth asking your LBS, even if they charge a small fee it would be worth it.

I've asked M&S about this recently (given the new £2k limit for unspecified bikes on renewals) - they said it is what it would cost you to replace it (so I've based it on best price I can get for each part - given that I want to minimise the value!)

As a general rule, keeping track of the RRPs is probably fine - it'll then depend on what price Wheelies can replace it (and if they can replace like-for-like).

I keep a spreadsheet of all bikes, all components, including accessories, then add RRP, current online price (say Evans), a hyperink and a photo. It made my recent very claim pretty easy. For my bespoke bikes, I've asked a couple of shops for a valuation for settlement.

Just having the discussion with M&S now.

If I say £4k for my main bike our premium goes from £160 to £220.

All they need is the frame/bike name and say 'custom'. No need to specify the full build.

Its not unusual for them to ask for two photos of you and the bike when making a claim also especially if its a special build

Full RRP on everything, custom tuned stuff RRP plus the extra labour & parts costs. They'll factor in depriciation as well I'd guess so you don't want to be left out of pocket.
Frightening working out what a lowly hardtail is actually worth at RRP if it's been custom built and tuned (you could by a nice car for that! etc etc) 😀

they'll factor in depriciation

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So would we say it's worth £x now or it cost me £y and would cost me £y to get another?
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Example, my race bike is rather expensive, and quite rare (eg, they brought 8 of those frames to the UK that year, and they only make 200 pairs of those hubs a year, the brakes are a rare pre-production set) It cost me £x but has depreciated (probably a lot as the frame has been broken and repaired) and is worth about £y now if I sold it. However, if anything happened I couldn't buy another for £y as I simply wouldn't be able to get hold of one. Would they cough up for the value or the replacement cost, two very different things?
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We insure cars for current value rather than RRP but they are much easier (and cheaper!) to replace.

(you could by a nice car for that! etc etc)

Now Dacia are here I'm sure afew of us could get a brand new car cheaper than our bikes!

As above, with M&S they only asked for the name, and my valuation (new for old). I asked whether they needed a spec list, and no.

Maybe they will for a claim, but as long as what is stolen matches the claim - no issue.

Would they cough up for the value or the replacement cost, two very different things?

Depends on your policy, but they should cough up enough to get as near as possible to what you had before, some will take an amount off for deprecation, others offer like for like.