Had my home insurance renewal come through last week and it had gone up by a couple of £ a month so did a bit of searching:

My old Lloyds (B&C) came to £270/year without my bike covered or 2 Tag’s
Tried Amex Insurance (B&C) and came to £265 with £4k bike cover and 2 watches.

If you need to change they might be worth a look.

What’s the small print regarding approved locks, sheds, during hours of darkness and away from home please?

Not got the full details yet as not got policy booklet but didn’t see anything apart from ‘taking normal precautions’. Cover is ‘home and away’ too..

Policy details avalailable online (as is always the case)
https://www.brokerwebservice.co.uk/PolicyDocuments/hc/policy/CPW_Prestige.PDF

blinking flip – I wish I’d looked at that when renewing (and hope they still have the same terms when I next renew – don’t you lot go making loads of claims on this policy before that comes around). No significant limitations or exclusions for bicycles – the only exclusion appears to be “by theft of any unattended pedal cycle unless in a locked building or locked to a permanent structure or a motor vehicle” which is pretty much standard and fairly reasonable. No special locks required – not only that but it will even cover you for theft of a bicycle from inside a vehicle provided the bike is out of sight (which most policies don’t). Single item limit of £10,000 and given no mention of a limit for bicycles, that’s what you should be covered for each bicycle. Even more interesting for me is that it specifically includes model toys under the public liability section, so I wouldn’t need separate insurance for flying model aircraft – it gets so close to also covering me for kayaking, but my boats are longer than 5m which is their limit.

^ so that’s good then I take it….

It’s very good up to a point. I tried doing a quote, and found that you have to specify every single bicycle regardless of value. That’s a pain for me, as I have lots, most of which aren’t actually worth over £1000 (which is their limit for specifying anything else). A fair jump in price for specifying the first expensive bike, but pleasingly it didn’t go up much more when I added a couple more. Until that is I started adding in the <£1000 bikes and went over £10,000 of bikes in total, at which point the premium jumped from ~£300 to >£1000. If you have less than £10,000 total of bikes I think it’s probably the best value you can get (obviously that depends on your location etc. – it’s good for me). However I’d have to think carefully about whether it was worth having several less expensive (but still >£500) bikes uninsured.

I’d also be having an interesting conversation as it asks you to specify bicycles, but the dropdown category is “cycles” and I have a unicycle which would cost more than £1000 to replace (I only paid £300, but I’ve never even seen another one come up s/h for anywhere near that price). Given the apparent £10k limit it is of course possible I’ve already had that conversation as I tried to get a quote from somebody who wanted me to specify all cycles and may have had a £10k limit.

luckily (or not) I’ve only got the one bike. Never really thought about insurance until I built up the current one (Intense) but would be gutted if it was stolen as I wouldn’t be able to afford to replace it.
There have also been a lot of high-end thefts in Malvern lately.
I’m sure I’ve seen you up the hills on your uni…good effort 🙂

There have also been a lot of high-end thefts in Malvern lately.
I’m sure I’ve seen you up the hills on your uni…good effort

Aha – not in MCS by any chance? If not then I think it’s OK to share this as they say non-members are welcome, there’s a social on tonight (I think I’ll be there) – see https://www.facebook.com/groups/malverncyclesport/

I am indeed… 🙂 Prob not going to make the social as we normally ride on Thursdays and have got a new loop and downhill to throw at my buddies (and I’ve not done it on the new build)