Had an e-mail from Chain Reactions this morning about bike insurance so went online and got a quote. I couldn’t believe the price! We have 3 full suss MTB’S and my wife’s Raleigh e-bike. The quote would only allow me to add 3 bikes (I did 2 FS and the e-bike) and it came out at £46 per month! And that was just the bikes, no rider or 3rd party cover That’s considerably more than I pay for house (4 bed detached) and contents (which includes all 4 named bikes) insurance. I know bikes are relatively easy to steal and a lot of them are, but these prices seem excessive to me. Anyone work in the insurance industry and care to comment?

They’re just re-selling a product with a markup, would be cheaper to go to your own home & contents insurer or an actual specialist

It’s staggeringly expensive, a quote to cover mine came in at over a grand a year for four bikes. I might have thought that sounded reasonable if I lived in a high risk area but I don’t. I dead to think what it would have been with a city centre postcode.

At a guess I would say people who take out that insurance are far more likely to make a claim so it is priced accordingly.

At a guess I would say people who take out that insurance are far more likely to make a claim so it is priced accordingly.

A definite possibility, but also some home insurers are still in the dark ages when it comes to pedal cycle cover and claims limits are often too low for the cost of some folks precious steeds especially e-bikes!

With the hassle I’m currently going through with my home insurance I can see why people have this cover.

I got my trek rail it’s own policy after this mess started as it’s fear of losing it and not having any cover. My trek costs me £25 a month but that’s with public liability and health cover, also covers my accessories attached to the bike which as I’m finding out home insurance refuse to cover. I’ve lost a gopro and garmin there big outlays that you forget about until you have to replace both at the same time.

To cover my other bikes it was another £10 but will sort that once I get a resolution with the home insurance.

Expensive yes, but assuming it pays out and replaces a bike that is unfortunately stolen, then it is cheaper than the outlay to replace the bike. Depends on people’s appetite for potential loss and how easy it will be for them to replace it. If there is a readily available pot of cash that could be used to buy a replacement, then insurance might not seem such a tempting plan. If money is tight and the loss couldn’t be replaced easily, then insurance becomes more tempting as the outlay is lower for more ease of mind.

It is a gamble though, you may never have a bike stolen/damaged and never need to claim, so a load of money ‘wasted’, or you could go without any insurance and your bike get stolen and you can/can’t afford to replace it, or you get insured and your bike gets stolen…

Home insurance as a default. My insurer stopped doing ‘expensive’ bikes over £2k so I took out a ‘bike only’ extension with Barclays. Costs less than £10 a month and covers all bikes upto £5k each.

Yes – ferocious in cost.

See my post yesterday about getting new for old cover on our bikes, plus kit away from home, as part of our Nationwide home insurance.

Home insurance as a default. My insurer stopped doing ‘expensive’ bikes over £2k so I took out a ‘bike only’ extension with Barclays. Costs less than £10 a month and covers all bikes upto £5k each.

I took that Barclays cover out earlier in the year. Cheap as chips and covers what I need.

I’ve lost a gopro and garmin there big outlays that you forget about until you have to replace both at the same time.

Why are they anything to do with your bike claim, they’re separate distinct items which should be covered as such in your contents policy unless they’re over the basic value for consumer electronics outside the home (below 500-1000 usually), in which case they should be named (see also your mobile phone).

Expensive yes, but assuming it pays out

It only pays out if you claim! How many years have you been paying into bike insurance and getting nothing back for it? This is why I never go for stupidly priced insurance. It’s no better, it’s just money down the drain. Plenty of home contents insurers offer a decent policy if you shop around.

I had a look at Pedalsure yesterday. Put in a value of £4k (a small chunk over what my Pace RC529 build is costing me). Quoted £18.46 a month for theft, damage, third party liability, income, cover abroad (60 days) and accessories. Seemed OK. Will go through the full process over the weekend and see what they say then.

£15k of bikes specified for less than £100 a year with Esure.

Based on the service when I wrote off a frame last year, bloody excellent value.

Try Bikmo too, and theres a British Cycling Member discount.

Is it more expensive than adding them onto my home insurance? Yes.

Is it worth it? Personally, yes. The bikes are covered at home, away, when racing, if they get damaged, etc etc. Cover for my kit, helmets, clothing. Missed events an races, cover if an airline crunches my bike (and its box) etc. No home contents cover I’ve ever found comes anywhere close.

I’ve no vested interested and I’ve never claimed, but I’m happy with what I’ve paid for based on my experience.

How many years have you been paying into bike insurance and getting nothing back for it?

Every year I dont claim then I have had a year of fully covered cycling. Thats the ‘product’ and I’m happy to pay for it.

As they where attached to the bike they won’t pay out for these items even though under the limit for named items, having a tad bit of disagreement with the insurance company, effectively they are making it as difficult as possible.

Aviva contents insurance, £224 a year with accidental cover, legal cover, protected NCD, and all bikes covered up to £5k individually (13k over 3 bikes plus a few other £300 ones).

Those of you using Aviva/Barclays (same thing) just be sure never to phone them up and discuss the value of your bikes.

do you need it?

Bikmo – Theft map

I’m in an area with zero recorded bike thefts this year…

83 thefts within 2 miles of me in 2020. That’s reported thefts too so probably a lot higher. and I don’t exactly live in a bad area.

As they where attached to the bike they won’t pay out for these items even though under the limit for named items,

I’m guessing not nicked from your car or the like?

Left unattended and not secured I assume is the insurance co’s response? to be fair, would be the same if you left your phone or wallet lying around and it wasn’t there when you came back. I’d be wholly unsurprised to find the response from a specialist policy pretty much identical to be honest.

It’s a rip off until you need it – like all insurance.

I’ve been with bikmo for around 5 yrs. Not needed it yet, but when I do I’ll be thankful.

Quoted £18.46 a month for theft, damage, third party liability, income, cover abroad (60 days) and accessories. Seemed OK.

It does.

Except I have 8 bikes in the household.

And for less than half the £140 a month I was quoted yesterday for *just* bikes, I got full buildings & contents (unlimited and matching items cover), student away from home cover, £5k of sports kit away from home, etc etc. The bike cover was also better being new for old.

I think the issue here is that stand alone bike insurance is mainly only used by those who do not have contents insurance – ie short term renters, students, etc etc and then probably only those who have expensive bikes

this cohort will have higher risk profiles by a long way – so premiums are high

I too have excellent cover under my household insurance which is cheaper than stand alone bike insurance will be

It was a 4 on 1 assault and there wasn’t time to ask for my garmin and gopro back..

this cohort will have higher risk profiles by a long way – so premiums are high

What kind of high risk profiles? Slightly curious as I might fall in to that category, so would be good to know how dangerous I’ll be sounding!

separate / specialist bike insurance is expensive compared to insuring the bikes under your home insurance as specified items (rather than relying on low bicycle limits in most polices) as all the risk is concentrated into one item ie the bike.

unlike your home insurance that covers many risks for many policy holders, the majority of which don’t claim in a normal year across the pool of risk, bike insurance is essentially insuring one highly nickable often comparatively high value item against theft (yes it covers other things but theft is the key risk exposure) and the incidence off loss across the pool of risk (ie all the specialist bike insurance policy holders) is likely to be far higher than vs home insurance.

in other words, bike on your home insurance effectively dilutes the risk, specialist policy effectively concentrates the risk

there are other reasons such as broader cover, specialist policy extensions etc, but these are less impactful these days as many home policies catch on to the fact that people have very expensive bikes

It was a 4 on 1 assault and there wasn’t time to ask for my garmin and gopro back..

not exactly a bike theft (eg locked to a lamp post) then, rather you were mugged and to that extent they should have very little wiggle room to say its not valuables away from home. Have you pointed them towards the ombudsman yet?

That’s the next step, the policy appears to of not been set up correctly, so it’s at the 3rd and I’m guessing last stage of complaint/investigation there end, so far it’s been a week since it was levelled up. I’ve told them I’m prepared to go as far as I need to, and seeking some sort of apology for the service as the call handler when I first called pretty much cut me off stating I had no cover.

It’s a mess there end and tbh cheaper in the long run if they just settled.

Ours have always been covered on household insurance. Even when we had 6 different bikes with a rough new for old total of £30k and it didn’t add a lot to our existing insurance. We’ve had a few stolen over the years and never had a problem with getting the money for them.