[MTBikerJoe]

i am waiting for my Trance X2 to come in and i was wondering if i should buy insurance for it. i know if its in my car and it gets stolen its covered under my car insurance. and i know that if its in my shed/house/garage its covered under my house insurance. but i want to ride it to work and school. What if it gets stolen then?is it covered??or do i have to pay additional insurance on it? and if i do, is worth it??? or should i just buy a cheap bike for commuting and save the X2 for the trails???

thanks

 

[blooper]

Can you buy bike insurance?

 

[Lakerat_sr11]

Can you buy bike insurance?

You can buy insurance for anything.

 

[rail the trail]

I would buy a commuter bike for piece of mind. Plus you save wear and tear on your components.

 

[MTBikerJoe]

does any one have a ball park price per year??? just curious. but yea i was probably going to buy a bike for just commuting but if insurance is cheaper then i would go that route.

 

[Colonel Flagg]

Actually if it were stolen out of your car your auto insurance wouldn't cover it, you would still have to file a claim on your homeowners/renters insurance.

You should ask your agent about special coverage for bikes.

 

[kpomtb]

Actually if it were stolen out of your car your auto insurance wouldn't cover it, you would still have to file a claim on your homeowners/renters insurance.

You should ask your agent about special coverage for bikes.

That's right. Auto insurance only covers the car, and accessories permanently attached. (IE a speaker box that is just put inside the trunk, but not screwed down, not covered) Auto policies do not cover theft of any personal property in the vehicle. This might vary from state to state, but typically property in the car is not covered. Check with your agent and explain in detail what you want covered.

 

[wg]

The other thing to ask about is if there is an inside limit on sports equipment. Take a renters policy for example... if your total coverage is $30k, there still may be a specific limit for sports equipment of $1000 (or some such amount). Unless specifically declared.
Shouldn't add too much to the overall policy. You need to check w/ your agent to be sure. Each carrier is different.

 

[tao]

Make sure it covers "replacement cost" not just the value that they decide.

 

[ProfGumby]

Watch out with Insurance companies. They can be bad and screw you worse than the thief did.

I ran into my current agent last week and he was commenting on my bike. I told him I have two now and just bought another for my wife. He asked if I was going to add them to our insurance. I told him no, as if one or all of them were stolen, the company would screw me down below my deductible or not give me anywhere near what they were worth due to depreciation. If I did actually screw up and find a company stupid enough to actually pay to replace the bike, I shudder to think how much I would be paying them over the years for such a lucky privilege

Actually if I found such a company, I'd start thinking the sun shined out my ass and hurry up and go buy several lottery tickets as that had to be the luckiest day of my life!

As a real life example of an insurance company telling you to bend over and take it...We had what we thought was replacement coverage on my wife's bike. It and some tools were stolen out of our storage locker. If that wasn't bad enough, the insurance company told us that the coverage was only to replace the bike at it's current value, at the time it was stolen. As in the blue book value. And they refused to cover my tools as I had no receipts.....who keeps receipts for every tool in their tool box?

Nice to be raped 2x without Vaseline!

So, with my current agent, I will talk to him just to see what we are talking about here. But I suspect that by the time I pay for insurance, I could have just bought another bike and been done with it.

I suppose if I had a 2 or 3,000 dollar ride I would do it, but for a Ranier or a pair of Sedona's? What are the odds that all 3 would be jacked at one time?

My advice is to be absolutely clear, in real human terms (not insurance speak mumbo jumbo they use to confuse the hell out of the victim, I mean, client..)that if your 1,500 dollar bike is stolen, you will be repaid 1,500 dollars, less your deductible..which in my case is only 250 dollars using that scenario. But it is better than having them tell you that your bike was only worth 240, due to depreciation and since you have a 250 deductible..."oh, sorry...we can't help you."

And remember to save those receipts!

 

[jspharmd]

As a result of this thread, I called our insurance company to inquire about insurance that would replace the loss of a bike. The bikes total around $6000. The agent's secretary (never really get to talk to the agent) tells me that when she talked with the underwritter, that they are not in the business of insuring bikes. Her next words were "let us know if there is anything else we can do for you."

 

[dir-T]

We have our homeowner's policy set up to cover $30k of sporting equipment but we had to specifically ask about it.

It bought me a brand new Fox TALAS RLC ($650) to replace the low end Marzocchi ($300) that got busted in a "bike on car into garage" event. I even submitted the estimate to replace with the OEM part along with the bill for the new fork to them. Our insurance premium didn't change.

Glad I have a good insurance company.

 

[Razorfish]

Some things to think about:

- Non standard items tend to be insanely high premiums.
- If you file a claim (just 1 claim) for robbery on your home owners insurance your premium will go up a lot for several years. Will this be more than the big originally cost? Likely yes.

Insurance is only for life alerting deviation. i.e. Your car is stolen or major damage. Your home burns down. Filing a claim for every little thing will cost you more in the end in higher premiums. I wouldn't insure a $3,000 bike or make a home owners claim unless it's over $10,000. Ask me how I learned this sad lesson.

 

[grungePoodle]

I am calling my insurance right now. I am getting conflicting information...

 

[MemphisR32]

I just got an insurance policy on my Cannondale Rush and added my Trek 930 also. I have a zero deductable and coverage for $4,000 at the cost of $320 a year. This covers anything that can happen to it at any location. So if my bike is lost in shipping or gets damaged while out, its covered for full value.

The reason I went with a Bike policy is because the bike is only covered by home insurance or car insurance if the bike were IN those places when its stolen. If its in my office and someone steals it it would not be covered.

 

[grungePoodle]

If I insure my Ellsworth for $5k the policy is $448 a year, no deductible. That's a lot! I think I might insure it for less. Maybe just frame and fork? I travel and race with my bike so I think a policy for it is a good idea.

My husband had a 3-day old camera and lens stolen at a job he was doing. State Farm replaced it 100%. Policies for cameras are a LOT cheaper than bike policies, $120 a year for $10k in coverage. I asked State Farm to find out why that is when I called a few minutes ago.

 

[AscentCanada]

Its pretty limited in Canada. And they have a list of reasons not to payout.

It doesn't matter where my bike is its my home insurance and not my auto insurance that covers it. The only exception is if its damaged in a car accident. ie its on a rear rack and you get rear ended.

They insure the building and then the contents, lets say 100K for contents. Then that gets broken up 30K for sporting goods. But the intent is to insure it in case of a fire or something major. When I pushed about specifically my bike being stolen they have a limit of $2000 for bike regardless of what you paid. I could then take out specific ryder on it but it was something like $5/$100/year. so a $4000 bike is $200/year.

I've always, ALWAYS had storage inside my house for my bike. Its too easy to leave your garage open or break into it. Then when I go riding, its locked to the car and I only park where its visible. I stripped all the stickers off so its a plain black bike. I'm tempted to buy a set of CCM stickers for it...

If I need to lock it up anywhere else I take my commuter.

 

[Apex]

I'm an insurance broker (sadly) so I can chime in here. Most any company will add the bike as a scheduled item meaning you pay extra to have the bike covered under a 'valued' policy. In my case I have my GF Hifi covered to $1900CAN incl tax and pay only $38/yr for it, also when you schedule it there is no deductible to pay. If you choose not to schedule it its automatically covered on your home/tenants insurance policy, subject to deductible and as mention subect to the special limits of insurance, meaning specifically if its stolen your policy may have a limit of $500, $1000, or $2000 etc on bicycles.

If you guys are paying a couple $100 for a $3-5000 bike then your insurance company sucks, thats way too much cash.


Do you need insurance? You need to ask yourself if it was stolen, etc can you afford to buy another one? How much would it cost to insure it for a year and are you comfortable paying that much money year after year?

 

[AnthemRider]

Vast majority of auto insurance coverage (full, obviously not if you just have liability) will cover damaged or stolen personal property that was IN the car (of course, your provider may ask for proof if they have gotten tired of every stolen car having a 52" TV that was just purchased from Best Buy stuffed in the trunk). Though your policy may also have a limit.

Likewise, your homeowner/renter's policy will cover many situations. Most companies will give you an option of actual cash value policy or full replacement value policy with the replacement cost having a higher premium.

If you have a high value item (whether a bike, jewelry, camera equipment, whatever) you should check into getting a rider added to your policy. In other words, the regular HO-3 policy may cover your bike, but only to a few hundred dollars so you add on additional coverage for the $6,000.00 bike.

Whether you'll suffer an increase in premiums that will outweigh the costs will depend on your company, some are better than others. Some will have only a small increase, and some won't even renew at the end of your policy if you make any claim.

 

[Bodhi3]

Regardless of what you get or how it is covered, SAVE all your receipts somewhere safe. Proof of what things cost and what you spent will remove all doubt in the event you need it.