Bicycle Insurance

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Bicycle Insurance

Bicycle Insurance isn’t as common in the UK as it is in some other countries and most price comparison websites haven’t really started comparing bicycle insurance deals so finding a good deal for your bicycle can be something of a challenge.

Some home insurance policies cover bicycles but most offer cover as an optional extra. One important thing to watch is whether your insurance policy covers your bicycle away from the home. As strange as this may sound, home insurance cover is fundamentally for items in the home. Any items being taken away from the home must be specified and may incur an additional premium.

Why is Bicycle Insurance Required?

With some bicycles costing up to £1000 or more it is perfectly understandable that some people want to insure them. Following the recent increase in terrorist attacks on public transport, the number of cyclists in the UK has increased by 40 percent and because of the higher number of cyclists there are a higher number of cycle thieves. Many people who don’t take out insurance policies on their bicycles regret it when savvy thieves steal their bike.

Two of the most popular insurance companies for bicycles are Endsleigh and Cycle Guard, the latter offer public liability insurance up to the value of £5 million on some of their policies. This is interesting because although the majority of cyclists don’t in fact have bicycle insurance a large number of cyclists are involved in crashes and accidents on the roads every single year and if they were partially to blame for the accident, unlike a car driver or motorcyclist they would usually have no public liability insurance to fall back on at all.

Public liability cover is an option with Cycle Guard and personal accident cover up to £10,000 could be payable if you died or became disabled in a road accident.

If keeping your cycle safe is more of a priority to you than accident liability be careful to check your home contents cover and/or call your insurance advisor to check that it isn’t already included in your home contents plan. If your bicycle is especially expensive it is a good idea to consider adding cycle cover to your home contents cover as an extra. Often this will cost in the region of £10 or £15 a month more but it can insure very expensive bicycles up to values in excess of £2,000.

Bicycle Insurance Coverage

Because this is something of an emerging market there can be a huge amount of difference between what one policy covers and what another policy will cover. For example, bicycle insurance from E & L Insurance is under £5 a month, but it doesn’t offer to pay any public liability costs in the event of an accident and it is really aimed at those worried about losing their bike or getting it stolen. Their typical plan includes a 5% discount when you apply online, cover for bikes up to the value of £5,000, cover for loss and theft all over the world and a special 5% discount for cyclists who are either 14 to 18 or over 50 years old.

Meanwhile, Cycle Guard offers all kinds of extras to policy holders such as Bicycle Roadside Recovery which may sound quirky at first but is just like roadside recovery for motor vehicles. The Cycle Guard website actually advertises this as: “a cycling version of those yellow or orange vans that help when your car breaks down!”

It also describes the service, saying: “If you became unable to complete a journey (anywhere in the UK) due to an accident, theft, vandalism or irreparable breakdown of your bike, Call Assist will take you and your bicycle … to a convenient location.”

Bicycle Insurance Benefits

There are numerous benefits to having bicycle insurance because so many thefts and accidents occur each year and cyclists without insurance policies are left in financial difficulty. If you choose the right insurer and you do get your bicycle stolen during your insured period you shouldn’t have to spend any money on a new replacement bike at all because your insurance policy should cover it.

As insuring a bicycle isn’t like insuring a car, premiums won’t go up if you cash in, because after the 12 month duration of your insurance contract has passed you can shop around for a better deal.

Finally, it’s a good idea to go for a bicycle insurance company who already insure a lot of other cyclists and have provable credentials. They should also ask you if you can prove the bicycle is yours and care quite strongly about what sort of lock you are using to lock it up when you grab a coffee with friends or leave it outside work.

Don’t take insuring your bicycle lightly, it could save you thousands of pounds if you have an accident and it could keep you from getting too upset if it ever gets stolen. Equally if your bike got stolen when you were on the road, assistance programs like the roadside recovery option which Cycle Guard offer, in conjunction with a shiny new bicycle, could really save your bacon and fix a stressful situation.