Just spoken to M&S about renewing and the new T&C’s around bikes over £2k. Apparently anything would be replaced new for old, so it’s the value of the a new equivalent bike that matters.

So my 9 year old Cannondale CAAD with DA 7800 groupset and assorted other upgrades is probably worth around about £2k to buy something new to replace it (like a CAAD10 ultegra and some upgrades, a custom build). But could they be picky and say like for like is dura ace 9000 at RRP (which is almost £2k alone!) which would put it significantly over £2k, and therefore uninsured (as arguably more desirable to thieves?).

Basically, would they pay out £2k as the maximum or nothing at all?

I claimed for a LOT more than 2K last year on my home contents for bikes. There were no issues as the theft was treated as a burglary. It’s like for like. If it has Dura Ace, the replacement will also require Dura Ace. I had a custom Ti bike with Campag groupset. I listed all the parts and with a valuation from a bike shop. The total was the settlement,

Not insured with M&S, and my renewal is errrr not cheap 😯 . Are you sure that if taken from the home, they are still treated as “bikes”? There may not be a single item limit from the house.

Coop assessed my bike as being more than their limit but paid out that amount rather than not paying out at all. I got the impression they would normally have sourced the replacement if possible

I have just renewed insurance with M&S and had this same situation 7 year old Orange 5 with xt etc and Scott scale 10 also likely to be well over 2k to replace with new. I phoned M&S to discuss as I would accept a maximum payout of 2k if I was unlucky enough to have the bikes stolen but was told that valuation needs to be ‘replacement value’ and if that is over 2k the bikes need to be specified on the policy otherwise they are not insured at all. I think it was about £30 a year extra to add a £3.5k bike to the policy which can be done at any time during the cover period

That’s what I was worried about, kinda annoying as I probably only paid ~£1200 for it in bits over time and lots 2nd hand, so even having to buy everything there and then rather than waiting fro sales etc £2k would cover me.

S’pose I’d better get spreadsheeting and adding up RRP’s.

I guess if you could persuade your LBS to do an estimate for £2k, the insurance company would accept that?

I’m in a similar situation, the RRP of my bikes was probably around £2k when they were new, but has gone up considerably since then.

Since they’ve no actually evidence of the bike stolen, ie it’s been stolen and since you don’t have to define <£2k bikes – if stolen you could claim what it would cost to replace and keep it below £2k?

That’s what I’ll be doing, as the additional premiums would’ve quickly added up.

Are there any insurers still offering cover on expensive bikes withiout having to specify them?