Insurance

Rather than having it covered by the house contents (My parents want me to insure it seperately) I
was wondering if anyone could recomend any companies to insure my bike ?

It's a 3 year old BobCat Trail which I have spent a lot of money putting decent wheels and Deore
kit on. Aparently E&L will only replace it with a similar bike, so all the extra bits I put on
would be lost.

Any suggestions ?

"Graham John Wakley" <**ihatespam**grimbly@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:9EEia.3834652$TJ.531920@post-02.news.easynews.com...
> Rather than having it covered by the house contents (My parents want me to insure it seperately) I
> was wondering if anyone could recomend any companies to insure my bike ?
>
> It's a 3 year old BobCat Trail which I have spent a lot of money putting decent wheels and Deore
> kit on. Aparently E&L will only replace it with a similar bike, so all the extra bits I put on
> would be lost.
>
> Any suggestions ?
>
>

I suspect your parents want it insured on its own because of the very very high cost of bunging it
on the insurance. Even then there's usually a limit on value and you may even have to keep the bike
in the house to qualify.

I think the CTC have insurance options so try them.

"Graham John Wakley" <**ihatespam**grimbly@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:9EEia.3834652$TJ.531920@post-02.news.easynews.com...
> Rather than having it covered by the house contents (My parents want me to insure it seperately) I
> was wondering if anyone could recomend any companies to insure my bike ?

Have another word ith them, it's generally far cheaper to include bikes on contents insurance. For
instance my policy covers bikes up to £500 as standard, IIRC it costs another £26ish each to cover
my other bikes at £1300.

Pete

"Graham John Wakley" **ihatespam**grimbly@btinternet.com said:

>Rather than having it covered by the house contents (My parents want me to insure it seperately) I
>was wondering if anyone could recomend any companies to insure my bike ?

Every time this comes up, the recommendation is to put it on the house insurance, either as a named
item under an all-risks extension or under a pedal cycle extension. Some of these can be poor value
(though I've had good experiences with Royal Sun Alliance, now MoreThan), but almost all are a lot
cheaper than standalone cycle policies, especially if you are insuring multiple bikes.

Why don't your parents want it on the house insurance? Afraid of jeopardising a no-claims bonus?
I've got no arguments to convince them really, but have always found standalone policies deeply
uncompetitive on price and cover.

>It's a 3 year old BobCat Trail which I have spent a lot of money putting decent wheels and Deore
>kit on. Aparently E&L will only replace it with a similar bike, so all the extra bits I put on
>would be lost.

Dunno who E&L are. However, any decent insurer will take note of what you already have, and be able
to replace like for like - in our case, this meant RSA giving me a cheque so I could build a new
bike from a bare frame. Similar, in other words, should mean 'equivalent frame, equivalent wheels,
equivalent bits' not simply 'new Bobcat Trail.'

Shop around, and work on your folks - if it help to convince them, RSA didn't hike our premiums even
after two claims in two years, one bike, one not.

John

"Peter B" <peter28@btinternet.com> wrote in message news:b6f626$cij$1@hercules.btinternet.com...

> ....... For instance my policy covers bikes up to £500 as standard, IIRC it costs another £26ish
> each to cover my other bikes at £1300.

If the annual premium is 1/50th the replacement value would this mean that an actuary would have
calculated that the risk of having a bike stolen or completely written off in any one year must be
just 2%? If you were to do a survey of 100 cyclists and find out how often they have had a bike lost
or destroyed I'm sure it would be more often than every 50 years!

"Peter B" <peter28@btinternet.com> wrote in message news:b6f626$cij$1@hercules.btinternet.com...
>
> "Graham John Wakley" <**ihatespam**grimbly@btinternet.com> wrote in
message
> news:9EEia.3834652$TJ.531920@post-02.news.easynews.com...
> > Rather than having it covered by the house contents (My parents want me
to
> > insure it seperately) I was wondering if anyone could recomend any companies to insure my bike
?
>
> Have another word ith them, it's generally far cheaper to include bikes on contents insurance.

They may not want to lose their "no claims bonus".

F A

"Graham John Wakley" <**ihatespam**grimbly@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:9EEia.3834652$TJ.531920@post-02.news.easynews.com...
> Rather than having it covered by the house contents (My parents want me to insure it seperately) I
> was wondering if anyone could recomend any companies to insure my bike ?
>
> It's a 3 year old BobCat Trail which I have spent a lot of money putting decent wheels and Deore
> kit on. Aparently E&L will only replace it with a similar bike, so all the extra bits I put on
> would be lost.
>
> Any suggestions ?
>

Get a complete home and contents quote from Marks and Spencers and compare that to your parents
current deal. M&S cover all items (including bikes) up to £4K per item without having to name them.
Bikes are covered in the house/garage/shed, don't have to be locked and also covered away from home.

I changed to M&S the other month and now sleep safely :-)

"Adrian Boliston" <adrian@boliston.co.uk> wrote in message
news:b6f79v$4pjjq$1@ID-111900.news.dfncis.de...
> "Peter B" <peter28@btinternet.com> wrote in message news:b6f626$cij$1@hercules.btinternet.com...
>
> > ....... For instance my policy covers bikes up to £500 as standard, IIRC it
costs
> > another £26ish each to cover my other bikes at £1300.
>
> If the annual premium is 1/50th the replacement value would this mean that an actuary would have
> calculated that the risk of having a bike stolen or completely written off in any one year must be
> just 2%? If you were to
do
> a survey of 100 cyclists and find out how often they have had a bike lost
or
> destroyed I'm sure it would be more often than every 50 years!

Ssh, don't let the insurance company hear :-)

Pete

"Adrian Boliston" <adrian@boliston.co.uk> wrote in news:b6f79v$4pjjq$1@ID-111900.news.dfncis.de:

<snip>
> If the annual premium is 1/50th the replacement value would this mean that an actuary would have
> calculated that the risk of having a bike stolen or completely written off in any one year must be
> just 2%? If you were to do a survey of 100 cyclists and find out how often they have had a bike
> lost or destroyed I'm sure it would be more often than every 50 years!

Maybe the insurance companies factor in all those bikes buried at the back of sheds. Chances of them
being nicked are pretty low. Mind you, who'd bother to insure something the never used?

Graeme

Graham John Wakley says:

> It's a 3 year old BobCat Trail which I have spent a lot of money putting decent wheels and Deore
> kit on. Aparently E&L will only replace it with a similar bike, so all the extra bits I put on
> would be lost.
>
> Any suggestions ?
>
When you do finally insure it, take a photograph of the bike, preferably with a date on the photo,
in order to be able to show what "similar" means. Don't give your only copy of that photo to the
insurance company.

Jeremy Parker

"Jeremy Parker" <JeremyParker@compuserve.com> wrote in message news:3E8DD796.3999@compuserve.com...
> > Any suggestions ?
> >
> When you do finally insure it, take a photograph of the bike, preferably with a date on the photo,
> in order to be able to show what "similar" means. Don't give your only copy of that photo to the
> insurance company.

I do that. Also with a bike that's been upgraded or for which you don't have a receipt it's worth
asking your LBS for a valuation. I did this for a bike that subsequently got written off in an RTA
and it was extra ammunition when making a claim.

Pete