(Home) insurance for bikes

It is that time of year again, when I have to think about home insurance.  My premium has jumped by 25% despite no claims or changes in the past year.

I am trying to get decent cover which cover the bikes.  This seems tricky, even large insurers such as Direct Line have a £5k limit for a bike.  While that is a crazy amount of cash for a bike, you would struggle to get an E bike for much less.

I have had a quote from Pedal cover, which as the name implies should cover the bikes! M and S also look like an option, but the comparison sites struggle with bike cover!  I also need them to be insured for accidental damage when riding them, having witnessed two club mates write off expensive bikes in a recent sportive, after an unexpected crash into a pot hole.

I queried why the policy had gone up by 25%, but just got the stock answer, I also queries why their claim limits hadn’t risen and again got a stock answer.

Help is much needed!

Mine also jumped about 25% this year but when looking around it looks like others have went up quite a bit more. I’m with Policy Expert but none of my bikes are over 5k and I’m not sure about damaging them when riding them although Im pretty sure they are covered when away from home. maybe that counts?

Only thing I had to have was a substantial lock on them when they are in the shed that was rated by some site I can’t remember the name of.

Try M&S insurance. 👍

Aviva are still good for us, despite a massive hike it’s still competitive…

You just tell them the retail cost of your most expensive bike.

Glad I did the yearly STW home insurance thread search.

Last years Esure policy with 4 named bikes went up by 42%! No claims last year and no details changed.
Tried Aviva and got the same cover for the £4 more than Esure last year. Result.

Aviva don’t cover bikes over £5k, (at least not from an online quote) a flag came up and said I would need to phone them!

John Lewis is also up to £5k for an individual bike.

Worth actually phoning PedalCover and discussing with one of their people. I do this every year on renewal and end up with a good deal, covering a few bikes, including 2 e-bikes, away from home cover and other bits and pieces.

Just had my renewal with Esure, up 20% with the bikes covered as specified items.

Not yet found anyone who is close to the premium though.

Stayed with Aviva dispite the jump. Pedal cover was another 30% though I think this was because they could only offer us the higher tier product which had more cover than Aviva. I did find having to value all the bikes a pain.

Try insuring the bikes separately with Laka

https://laka.co/gb

I have  a referral link which gets you a discount if you want to use it – just message me….

Was with Aviva. Renewal came through last month and they wanted 25% more.

Switched to admiral for the same as my expiring premium with full bike coverage, accidental damage, away from home etc. most expensive bike I have is worth 5k. 4 bikes in total

Wow Laka is crazy money! £47-57 a month ! To insure one £6k bike.

It looks like most insurers are capping individual bikes at a limit of £5k.

As I said to the renewal team on the phone, if you have put the premium up by 25% due to rising costs, why hasn’t the cover limit been increased by 25%?

I switched to Admiral, spoke to the agent and there’s no limit on bikes. I’ve one for £6500 for instance.

Wife has just bought a new EBike, shop have us an offer from a company called Sunday’s ? Wow reading the Ts and C’s regarding locks etc in the garage I reckon Fort Knox would be proud!

Phone Halifax who the others are insured with , £22.66 for a £3299 bike 👍

I’ve recently gone with Laka having had bikes nicked earlier this year and subsequently realising I wasn’t properly insured under my home policy. This was my fault, though Hastings default max value of £300 was particularly stingy I thought. Your quote range of £47 – £57 does seem high. I have £5k worth of bikes insured with Laka and have a monthly cap of £17. This is for 4 bikes so I’m guessing the lower cap reflects that the risk is spread, but still seems a large discrepancy! Laka also don’t have an excess as standard which most home insurance policies will apply. I don’t have the same options for home insurance as have a flat roof which limits choice, therefore was interested in separate bike insurance.

M&S this year has gone up 35% for no good reason. Previously with pedalcover but a lot of people left when they changed underwriter. Sounds like they might be worth considering again.

Halifax full home n contents with 10k added for bikes, is £36 a month

Laka are excellent with claims

I’ve got the bikes insured seperately, because whilst it is potentially/almost definitely more expensive, I am sure I have much better cover than otherwise possible – it covers events, damage while racing, legal cover and injury, new for old, being stolen during transport or out the back of the car etc etc, and the value is quite high, nearly 10k all in with the fancy one being 6k.

Yes, its a lot of money but my bikes are by a long long way the thing I worry about most, much more so than my cars.

None of the household insurers gave me the confidence that that would actually cover the bikes – for instance – if they get nicked from the car or van, your car insurers will doubtlessly have a (low) limit on the value of stolen possessions, and your home insurers will say “thats your car insurers problem”.

It also means i can freely purchase much simpler and cheaper home and contents insurance as there is nothing unusual otherwie to worry about, and the bikes are the only expensive thing owned.

Having them added to your contents cover may work for you, but check the cover and wording carefully…

I think Admiral have a £10k cap though. I’ve got 4 named bikes that qualify, with some lower values ones ‘unamed’ covered under the broader contents cover

M&S up from 310 to 397 here no obvious reason. Doubt I’ll get it much cheaper elsewhere though…