Yes, its that time again but this isn’t a which-one’s-the-current-best thread.

Suspect I’m not the only one here with quite a few bikes in the family, nearly all of which were either bought second-hand or built up from bits and are mostly >5 years old. In fact, that’s all of them, don’t think I’ve ever bought a brand new bike for the ticket price.

Always puzzles me how to insure them using home insurance. We do have a couple of high-value ones (both newer and older), several are used for racing, but most of them would be difficult to go out and buy a straight replacement for tomorrow. Plus, for most of them, having to replace in the first place would be a pain. For instance, my ‘good’ road bike – given it’s age – probably has little value on paper but an equivalent ‘insurance value’ replacement wouldn’t be that great (if that makes sense).

So how do you do it?

Last time round, I went with Pedalcover and listed them all, which led to a pretty expensive policy which has – predictably – jumped again this year, despite zero changes.

Can’t help feeling that by going with an insurer that would pay out – say – 500 per bike unless those worth more were listed, I’d lose out significantly if the garage got cleaned out.

Or does it make sense to insure the high-value, newer ones with someone like Laka and leave the rest on the house insurance. How do you even guess at the value of bikes you’ve built over the years?

Is there a provider that stands out for this type of situation?

God, its boring.

list the ones with higher value as specified items on your policy which you will pay a small additional premium for (for example i think i pay an additional £80 p/a to insure c £12K of bikes this way). for the rest, just ensure that the sub limit for bikes is reasonable enough – many seem to be c £1,500 now which if you’ve got lots of old bikes with limited value should be ok, unless you are looking for new for old cover?

Would you buy new replacements if you did get burgled?

Or would you go secondhand bargain hunting again?

with the insurance I have I only have to list them if over £2000 in value. what I have is detailed pictures of all the bikes so I can prove the spec – and in the one claim I made I was offered far more than I bought it for secondhand. the claim was based on the spec I had.

Would you buy new replacements if you did get burgled?

Or would you go secondhand bargain hunting again?

I guess this is the key question – I’ve never claimed on insurance before, is it as simple as they give you the cash you’ve insured for and then it’s up to you to replace?

AvivaPlus Home

New for Old.

What would it cost you to replace them if they were stolen? That’s your insurance value.

With the caveat that the last time I had a contents claim was 20 years ago and it likely depends entirely on what it says on your policy,

is it as simple as they give you the cash you’ve insured for and then it’s up to you to replace?

This is what happened with me. I claimed for amongst other things a stolen hifi stack. They went “we’ve found this similar [piece of shit] stereo we can supply,” I said bugger off, they said “fair enough, here’s your money.”

My experience of claiming was a common one I believe. My insures contract to wheelies to provide a new replacement. wheelies make an assessment of the bikes value and offer you one out of their stock. If you accept that the bike offered is a suitable replacement you either get the bike or if you want cash 80% of the RRP of that bike. If you dispute the bike offered is a suitable replacement and have that accepted or if the bike stolen is a custom bike or a specific one wheelies do not supply you get 100% of what wheelies value it / the new cost as as a cash payout

Mine was a 20 yr old marin upgraded with a much nicer fork and xtr gears. worth IMO a couple of hundred. I got to pick from wheelies lineup of bikes to the value of £1000

I just self insure…

Every year I just Confused.com it for home insurance. Bikes over a certain amount are Specified Items.
Many insurance companies do the same thing, currently with Sheila’s Wheels. Previously Admiral, Lloyds, Churchill and Hastings have covered them in the same way.

Every year I just Confused.com it for home insurance. Bikes over a certain amount are Specified Items.

This. Once you have an account with Confused.com or GoCompare or MoneySuperMarket or whomever, it remembers all your details so you only have to do all the Specified Items once.

And then they get locked up with pretty much the minimum required by whichever company I’m with each year. I’m firmly of the opinion that if a scrote wants your bike, the scrote will either get your bike, or every bit of your bike they can get, so I’m not that interested in trying to stop them, just in ensuring that I can make an insurance claim

AvivaPlus Home

+1

Thanks all – it’s really the how-to-value them bit I’m never sure of, partly from never having made a claim before so don’t really get how it works in reality. This is useful, cheers!

Looks like some providers cater for high-value bikes being specified, others less so.

I’m mid-claim at the moment on my home insurance (Admiral).

I’ll be using Laka from now on for all bikes. Speed of claim is hugely important to me, lockdown without a bike is depressing me no end.

Palming you off to a bike shop in order to get a replacement is not good.different if they just value it.id like to have more of a choice and not giving 100 percent cash is bad practice.

it’s really the how-to-value them bit I’m never sure of

Mine are insured for however much it would cost to replace them new.
I remember 20 odd years ago Zurich insisting on a bike shop estimate, but they ripped me off for a good few years before I discovered how expensive they were, so I don’t use them anymore.

Not aware that you need to list individually with PedalCover regardless of value, unless something has changed. They seem to be competitive unless bikes are sorted in an outbuilding or the likes.

Did have to pre-warn the nice lady in the Halifax Home Insurance call centre, before I insured a Cove Handjob once 😀

An insurance company that just covers bikes sounds good until you think it through: claims are fairly likely so your premium will be high. A policy which covers home, contents and bikes spreads the risk over lots of folk who never claim for anything as well as the five figure sums paid out for burst water mains or the house burning down.
Security wise I have cctv, an alarm, a thick ply bike cage within a shed and five locks that need a grinder to cut that have repulsed several visits from the local scroats.