My current year-round cover includes mountain biking as long as it meets the following:

“Downhill Grades 1 and 2 only (or the equivalent international grade used by the country
you are in), no freeriding, four-cross, dirt jumping or trials.”

Looks like this is standard boilerplate for just about every travel insurance policy out there, but does anyone have a clue what that actually means?  I can’t work out how that maps the the trail-grading system in France. Would it be Green and Blue DH runs in Morzine?  Is it deliberately vague?

no one ever does it’s a mystery…

I called HSBC on it sometime back and decided to just buy specialist insurance for peace of mind.

Is this just a standard travel policy and you’re looking at the list of sports you’re allowed to do? If so be wary that this is usually just cover for something you might have a go of when on holiday, not cover for going on a specific riding trip.

To answer the grading bit though, better phone them as it could mean anything.

The real answer is to get proper cover though

I had cover for one trip that specifically included mountain biking. I read the small print when I was thinking of going with the same insurer for the next years’ trip, and confusingly it specified that the mountain biking had to be on-road…

I can’t imagine something like the above would go in their favour, but I would be looking at specialist insurance and reading all the smallprint, including the bits that might contradict themselves, regardless.

I’ve asked too, no one knows (equally, it’s worth noting that Paramedics don’t really spent too much time filling in forms for insurance cos to help them decide if what you were riding was “grade 3”.)

If you find a good one, their dividing lines are if you’re competing, or if you’re a pro, but that’s not straight forward either – Passportes for example isn’t a race or competition at all, but I couldn’t get an straight answer from the Post Office Insurance whether it was covered, they didn’t like the sound of number boards.

Id assume that if you’ve taken a chairlift to the top, you aren’t covered, and get some specialist insurance to cover it just to be in the safe side.

Id assume

I don assume anything – these insurance companies in my experience look to obscure exact cover, and give themselves get out of paying out terms. In return, I have to be exactly clear and upfront – and again if not, they don’t cover me.

Call them, ask for it in writing.

I have avoided some of the big insurers in this because of silly statements – people like snowcard, sportscoverdirect etc. I had same with house insurers over last few years – mis-spellings, poor grammar, ambiguous statements etc, even downright lying (John Lewis insurance, that is you, so much so they gave me £100 to not complain any more).

I have used Columbus Direct again this year, who are clear on their terms, I nearly went with PedalCover travel insurance, as once again they are clear and put in email an answer to my enquiry.

Yep – previous trips have always been based around an event (PPdS, Mega), so have always got myself insurance which included “competition” just in case, but this is just a riding/mucking about holiday.

Oddly, I’m definitely covered for winter sports without any extra fee, but I’m far more of a liability on a snowboard than on a bike…

I don assume anything

Unless you you are assuming that you aren’t covered, like me?

Yep – previous trips have always been based around an event (PPdS, Mega), so have always got myself insurance which included “competition” just in case, but this is just a riding/mucking about holiday.

If it’s back country / alpine riding / anything off piste get specialist cover – trail centre stuff you should be fine. If bike park I’d get specialist cover.

As Matt says call them and get it in writing.

Probably referring to something like this…. https://www.mtblivigno.eu/en/single-track-scale-sts

We get questions like this at work (cycling holidays) all the time, and it seems like a particular underwriter must use this wording. I’d aim for cover for all mountain biking!!

I’ve not come across that – the annual policy we’ve got with our bank account obviously just covers family ‘leisure’ biking and very clearly doesn’t cover what most of us would call mountain biking.

it’s intresting looking at https://www.dogtag.co.uk/sports/ and seeing the other sports they include within the same ‘extreme’ category as Downhill MTB (and/or mech uplift) which presumably have a similar risk profile, and the things they consider riskier (not many)

We have just renewed again with Yellow Jersey. At least with them we know of someone who had a claim and was sorted out as expected.

Dogtag, snowcard and pedal cover, choose the 2nd to top cover (extreme or similar). That gets lift assisted mtb riding.

If you are racing (enduro or dh) it’s top cover.

@matt_outandabout : I just spoke to columbus, they advised me that they only provide cover for mountain biking if you are using “designated cycle paths”. So as soon as you go outside the trail centre or off the official cycle trails you’re not covered. Just FYI.

🙁

It’s all as clear as mud.

Having the same problem. We are going on a family holiday for two weeks to Morzine and possibly three days of those, maybe four, me and two of the kids would be riding the blues and greens via uplift.

Snowcard will only provide cover for the entire duration of the holiday…£££££££…rather than being able to specify days.

Annual cover with Tesco excludes mountain biking.

It’s all as clear as mud.

Don’t assume on the type of mud as some may be more opaque than others.

In NZ anyway, Grade 1 = Green, Grade 5 = Black???

I think the MTB cover I currently have is limited by altitude!

I’ve the added fun of finding cover for a 17 year old…