Bicycle Insurance?

Does anyone have experience insuring their bike? Looking at Velosurance, quote seems high. They are quoting me $76/mo to insure $8k worth of kit. I waived the medical and liability, my healthcare and homeowners should cover that. The $8k is just for a used Pinarello I picked up, really would love to insure the whole fleet. However, cost from this particular company seems steep. My monthly premium for a 2018 Chevy Equinox is only $100 for crying out loud!!

Thanks.

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My velosurance quote was ~$35/mo for $6500. I pay it.

I’ve never taken out insurance on a bike specifically, but have had a few friends use homeowner’s or renter’s insurance to cover the theft or loss of a high end bike and had good results. I only pay $9/mo for renter’s with $25,000 of coverage for personal items.

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Home/contents insurance here in the UK generally covers items like bikes although most will require you to specify it over a certain limit value.

Mine covers my bike and other possessions (even when out of the house) although there are rules about how to store it so read the fine print.

Also, I tend to get some form of sports event insurance if doing sportives etc as the organisers insurance generally doesn’t cover everything and the cost is reasonable.

Do you use that to race crits?

“I race crits” - Velosurance is a deal
“I don’t race crits” - might skip it

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Is your bike specified in the policy? Often there are (low) limits for item categories like jewelry and sports equipment.

Good point. Likelihood of crashing in a crit is far greater than my vehicle commute, ha.

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Which plays into my financial planning story problem. I do have my 2013 Venge, which I am debating keeping and using for crits. Cost to carry is basically 2k-3k, as I could probably sell it today for that amount (has rim brake 404s and a Zipp cockpit). That is 2-3 years insurance. I think I may have answered my question, and it results in N+1, hahaha.

I believe my homeowners deductible would apply, which is a hefty $1,500-$2,000. Although I’d probably be willing to pay that to replace a stolen Pinarello Dogma on Enve’s.

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Don’t race what you can’t replace. If you think you’re likely to break your bike racing, have a couple grand ‘bike repair/replacement’ fund in the bank.

However… the chances of destroying a frame in a crash are relatively low. My worst crash involved a concussion, broken bones, and a lot of time in the hospital and off work. My bike was basically pristine and untouched. I can tell you, I did not give a shit about the bike at that point and snarky ‘but how’s the bike’ facebook comments ended up with me blocking a few people.

Don’t worry about breaking your bike. I would never buy bike insurance. Carbon can be repaired, often stronger than the original build, and the biggest risk you take racing bikes is to your own health, not to your equipment.

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Over here in the UK insurance companies will generally cover the cost of a carbon repair if you ask for it.

Just get a rider on your homeowners policy, that is the cheapest way to insure anything.

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My renters insurance covers my bikes and the deductible is $250. The policy including all our household goods is less than $50 a month. So, I’d say Velosurance is ripping you off with those rates :grimacing:

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@bolithoa This article covers the overall topic of insuring your bike. In short, there are 6 things you should get more familiar with on the topic:

  1. Should you purchase a separate insurance policy
  2. Homeowners or renters may cover a damaged or stolen bike
  3. If you’re in an accident with another car, the driver’s car insurance should cover your bike’s damage and your medical expenses.
  4. Health insurance may cover you if you’re injured in a bicycle accident
  5. The liability portion of your renters or homeowners insurance may cover if you injure someone
  6. Disability insurance may cover you if you’re in an accident and unable to work

:asterisk: :asterisk: Full disclosure: I work for the company that wrote this article I am not trying to position this as an ad what so ever. It’s just good info and I wanted to share it with you.

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DUDE!!! INSURE YOU BIKES!!!

Wile on the way to an omnium weekend this past friday we had a (borrowed) decked out Trek Speed Concept, (my room mate/ team mate) Etap Felt FR race bike, my supersix, and my caad on top of my honda fit. This is a set up we’ve used for almost a decade of racing, and thousands of miles of too, and from race transportation. Well, wile on the interstate a huge gust of wind hit the car. Jonas and i felt the shake, heard the thump, and looked in the rear view mirror, to see roughly $25,000 dollars worth of soon to be useless carbon race bikes floating over the interstate, still attached to the yakima rack, about to crash down to earth. There’s no worse feeling that seeing almost a years worth of salary about to be put in a blender. I thought “well, this is why i keep full coverage on my beat up 09 honda fit. At least this will be covered.” NOPE. The roof rack and its contents are not considered part of my car and thereby are not covered by my full coverage car insurance. Jonas and i rent, so i don’t have homeowners insurance (what I’m told it would be covered under) and i didn’t know you could buy insurance on something i didn’t own (my apartment) much less that my renters insurance would cover my bikes which fell off my CAR an hour south of my apartment. Fighting to get what i can but things at this point are looking grim.

LEARN YOUR LESSON FROM ME!!! DONT LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!!! FIND A WAY TO INSURE YOUR BIKES!!!

haha love you guys/wish me luck

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I had a couple bikes stolen out of my storage unit a couple years ago. Luckily one was nearly worthless, but the other was my XC race bike. I had never intended on putting that bike in storage but did it at the end of the season when I was running low on space. I had the required minimum insurance that storage facility requires and it fortunately just barely covered the costs (little less, but close enough).

This thread did remind me, at a convenient time (I always remember when it is inconvenient), to get a renters policy. $250 a year for $15000 coverage, which should cover the loss from theft, which I am most worried about. I went through my auto company, Geico, and didn’t shop around because I was more worried about just getting it started instead of putting it off and forgetting again.

I find the concept of bike insurance strange. I’ve been riding road and mountain bikes for 40 years or so and would have needed to make a claim zero times. That includes 8 years of road racing.

Financially, it’s basically a rip-off to buy small time insurance or extended warranties on individual items.

Of course, you have to be able to financially survive a total loss. But in my book, if you have bought so much bike (say that $15000 S-Works SL7) and you cannot afford to replace it, then you bought too much bike for your budget. You can buy nice carbon bikes for $3000-5000.

The other thing to consider is that carbon bikes can be repaired for relatively little money, especially if you are willing to live with a black carbon “band-aid” rather than a full repaint. Or, often some creative spot painting and blending can be done for a couple hundred extra.

To sum it up:

Get renters or homeowner’s insurance because it’s cheap and covers the biggies for many events

Don’t buy too much bike for your budget

Repair your frame if you crash it

My parents had bought me an expensive bike for my birthday, as a gift. I drove it to school every day. And one day, I let it like I usually do. And a student's car bumped right into it and completely crashed it. What was I supposed to do then? Buy another one? Or perhaps I should have asked my parents to get me another one? That's why after I repaired it, I got bicycle insurance from https://sundaysinsurance.co.uk/bicycle-insurance. If you say it like this, everyone owning a car should never get insurance. Should they buy one for their budget if they can't pay to replace it?

My parents had bought me an expensive bike for my birthday, as a gift. I drove it to school every day. And one day, I let it like I usually do. And a student’s car bumped right into it and completely crashed it. What was I supposed to do then? Buy another one? Or perhaps I should have asked my parents to get me another one? That’s why after I repaired it, I got bicycle insurance from https://sundaysinsurance.co.uk/bicycle-insurance. If you say it like this, everyone owning a car should never get insurance. Should they buy one for their budget if they can’t pay to replace it?

I used Velosurance for a few years after I had my commuter e-bike stolen from the pool I was swimming at. Of course, getting insurance after you have something stolen is always the way!
I did look into claiming from the homeowners insurance, but our deducible was basically the same cost as the bike.
I’m not commuting anymore and only ride to train/race, so I don’t have a separate insurance policy just on my bikes. Maybe I should, but there’s much less risk of loss when you are not leaving it locked up around town.
It is the same with all insurance. It sounds like a scam… until you need it…