72andsunny

How many of you that have bought expensive custom tandems carry bicycle insurance? I’m waiting on a call back from my homeowner’s insurance, but I’m guessing my policy has some reasonable limit that covers most single bike riders. Markel appears to be the standalone bicycle insurer in my state. Their premiums appear to be 10% of the Nike value per year. That’s pretty expensive.

Tom M

We have Markel for our Seven tandem. It's replacement-value coverage. If our tandem were stolen and we didn't have insurance, I don't think we'd replace it with an identical model. From time to time I weigh the cost of the insurance against the cost of replacing the bike. Having the bike covered when flying and traveling internationally was a consideration. Airline coverage is limited, and I don't know if homeowner's applies when traveling with the bike.

base2 

For my Cervelo R5 the bicycle insurance company wanted $1300 per year. So about 22% of full new price.

I reasoned that if I could go 4 or 5 years with out it getting stolen I'd come out ahead. So it remains uninsured to this day.

I have the receipts, & plenty of current photos. I figure homeowners insurance will replace about $50 of it if I make a theft claim...So that's better than nuthin' IMO

The R5 is not even my favorite bike. It's not even my fastest bike. Those honors belong to a $600 store branded 5 year old aluminum Fuji. A claim on that bike wouldn't be worth the phone call.

Edit: Sorry, I stumbled into the tandem sub. Neither are tandems, but high dollar is high dollar. At last count I've got about $19-20,000 between just 3 of my bikes & about $14,000 between 2 of my wifes. None of it insured. The premium would be ridiculously high for very little actual negative effect on my quality of life if any (one) got stolen. Unless they all got stolen, I'd still have really cool bikes left over that I really enjoy. So, no big loss, IMO.

Russ Roth

I just added my bikes to my homeowner's insurance which didn't have additional cost to do so. Funny enough only 2 weeks after adding them I had a DeRosa stolen from the church I was interning at. Homeowner's paid 4500 after deductable with a police report. 8 months later it was recovered ; insurance company after calling 5 times in 6 months told me to stop trying to give them the bike.

act0fgod

I had a bike stolen and was given full replacement value (price of current model with similar specs) with police report. Was told if it was over a certain dollar amount they had a depreciation formula. My bike was just under $2k.

Chancy

Folks,
Our homeowners policy (State Farm) covers our tandem for theft as part of our homeowners contents. I asked them if it was stolen in Europe and told they said yes, I also told them our tandem cost well over $10,000 and they still said yes. Now that is only for theft. If we wanted to cover "all risks" that would be extra. So far we have chosen not to get the rider or policy for "all risks."

Tailwinds,
Charlie
2016 S&S Santana Beyond

Chancy

Folks,

My wife informed me that beyond theft, our homeowners would also cover the tandem for other named perils (hazards) such fire, damaged in a storm, etc. Still at no extra cost. We have replacement coverage with our insurance.
Good to know.

Tailwinds,
2016 S&S Santana Beyond

riceowls

For those who use Homeowners insurance, how large is your deductible? Where I am deductibles ran 1+% (of the house value) on typical policy. These are in my understanding for both house and content so reduction is very pricey. And I don't own a bike with resale value above that... Am I missing something?

act0fgod

That would be a very different setup than our current insurance policy. We were able to set a value for the structure, other structures, personal belongings, liability and medical payments for others. For reference, our deductible is bit less than 1% of our selected personal belongings value (it does have a higher deductible for things like earthquake, hail and other acts of god). Maybe you are mixing up the value of the structure with the selected value for personal belongings because our deductible is nowhere near 1% of the home value.

We also have some high value property insurance that has no deductible. To insure a $7k item costs roughtly $50 with our insurer.

Chancy

Riceowls,

Our deductible is $1,500. I think we can get it lower, for a higher premium. We have replacement coverage, thus if our S&S Santana Beyond were stolen we would be covered for ~$14,000 (minus the deductible). We had our Santana Arriva stolen in 2001, out the back of my truck ( while on a road trip in another state). It was a 2000 model and our insurance paid $3,700 (and change) minus our $1,000 deductible (at the time). We live on the Gulf Coast, outside New Orleans and after Katrina our deductible increased 3 times over several years for "named storms." Bike stolen or fire, they pay replacement - $1,500; Huricanne, they pay replacement - 5% of policy value.

Tailwinds,
Charlie

geoffs

We had a look at specific insurance for our 2 Seven road bikes, our tandem and various other bikes and it was going to cost us around $3000 per annum. We're covered to a certain extent through our homeowners insurance and that's going to be as far as we go. We always transport the bikes inside our wagon. We never leave our bikes unattended. If I can't see my bike from where I'm sitting in a cafe or restaurant, I find another place to eat. When we are travelling, we make sure that we book a room that is big enough to fit the tandem as well.

merlinextraligh

I would suggest that if you are paying for insurance for a bicycle, that perhaps you spent too much on the bicycle.

A primary rule of insurance is: do not pay to insure risks you can afford to absorb. Some risks you can’t afford to absorb, or you are legally or contractually obligated to insure against. Thus you buy liability insurance and Homeowners insurance.

But insurance costs money. You’re paying someone else to take a portion of your risk. Insurance companies need to make money to be induced to undertake that risk. Thus, on balance the insurance company will always take in more money from premiums and investment earnings than they pay out in claims and operating expenses. If this were not true, they would not stay in business.

the implication of this is that if you “self insure” against risks you can afford to absorb, and invest what you would otherwise pay in premiums, you will in the long run come out ahead because you’re capturing what would otherwise go to insurance company profit and operating expenses.

merlinextraligh

Continuing the thought, you should certainly be able to afford to assume the risk of losing a bicycle, by either paying to replace it, doing without for awhile, riding a spare, or buying a used replacement.

If the loss of a bicycle would have a material effect on your finances, you paid too much for the bicycle, in relation to your overall finances

merlinextraligh

And as to putting the bicycle on your Homeowners, if there is no additional cost, that may not be a terrible idea, but there are some considerations to keep in mind.

Making relatively small claims against your Homeowners can significantly affect you future premiums, result in non renewal of your policy and even make your property uninsurable.

A better course of action may well be to assume the highest deductible you can afford. This allows to to capture the benefit of insuring against the first level of risk yourself, and avoids the downside of hurting your claims history with small claims.

72andsunny

Finally had some free time to call my insurer while they were open. The bicycle will be covered under our existing policy (at replacement cost) minus a $1000 deductible.

I don’t disagree with anything you’ve written, though you are undervaluing the value of peace of mind. When I buy a set of tires, I could afford to go back and buy a second set if I drove through the wrong way over a set of tire spikes on my way home, but I prefer to spend the $9 a tire and be covered against that happening.

Same with comp and collision on my automobiles (all of which are currently worth less than this bicycle—-or maybe not worth less, but would cost less to replace). The few hundred a year is worth it to me to not have to worry about where I’m parking my car.

Can I afford this bicycle? That’s debatable. I have the money, but I also have a mortgage...and a job. If I calculated how much longer I’ll have to work at the end of my career because I didn’t funnel the money into the house or retirement savings, I might be a little more hesitant to throw down this much cash. But I figure since I drive cheap cars (relative to my income), sail only on other people’s boats and cycling (and associated travel) is my only expensive hobby, I can splurge a little here.

merlinextraligh

I’ll grant you that everyone’s risk tolerance is different.

For me, money
in the bank gives me more peace of
mind than road hazard insurance against the small risk of picking up a nail in a new tire.

I would simply suggest if you don’t spend money insuring against small risks, i.e, road hazard insurance, extended warranties, low deductible homeowners insurance, riders for jewelry and bikes, etc. you might find that mortgage paid off sooner.

$36 for your car tires , $5 a month for your smartphone. $500-1000 your paying by not carrying high deductible insurance. $100 rider on the wife’s engagement ring. Several extended warranties, etc.

Overtime, it all adds up.

if it gives peace of mind, fine, just realize protecting yourself from all the insundry risks of life isn’t free.