JaccoW

I guess it really depends on where you live.

Over here in Holland we deal with over 900.000 stolen bikes each year on a population of 16,8 million @ 1.1 bike per person.
So let's say 5% of the bikes get stolen each year. That is despite double heavy-duty locks and secure storage.

But I am glad I insure my bike.
My previous bike was something like €800 and got stolen within two years.

While I paid €250 for a 5-year coverage I got money for a new bike and got roughly €200 back. So in essence I paid €50 to have my bike replaced. Less than you would expect with depreciation.

If I bought a €1000 bike right now and insured it up to 5 years at full coverage I would pay €260 in total.
That would get me:
- Insurance against theft
- Insurance against partial damage as consequence of attempted theft
- Insurance against partial damage
- Legal coverage
- Insurance against harm to passengers
- No depreciation
- a maximum of 4% price increase per year due to inflation

The only thing I used it for on my current bike is because some jackasses decided it would be fun to trash all the bikes on a saturday night. I had to have some plastic parts and a rear wheel replaced.

If it's much more than 30% of the value of the bike I wouldn't bother and just save some money yourself.

If you don't use a proper lock (ART-approved) and secure the bike to something sturdy you are **** out of luck though. But that's called being stupid.

mtballday

Thanks , read more reviews on them and got a policy today.
My policy cost is 12.58$ / month for my 2000$ bike. I think like auto insurance it varies state by state, I am in Florida.

yayforebikes

Yes from what I read, because every state has different weather like snow or no snow etc, they will increase or decrease the price based on the weather patterns where you're at as well.

mtballday

Yes, also theft rate. New York City for example has a much greater bicycle theft rate than Saint Pete, FL, since nobody really leaves bikes outside.
A friend of mine , who lives in Brooklyn , had his bike stolen twice last year.

Stucky

Sounds cheap when you say "Per month"- but that's $175 a year- almost 10% of the value of the bike.... If there's a deduckbnill- err...a deductible and/or they depreciate the bike....it's even more of a gyp.

Gresp15C

A lot of consumer financial services are expensive. The problem is what happens when you don't have any money. If you don't have $2k in the bank to replace your bike, and it gets stolen, then you would have to borrow the money, and the interest on $2k of credit card debt is a whole lot more than $175/y.

To make matters worse, if you bought the bike on a credit card, and it gets stolen, then you're really going to be in the hole. This is why banks require mortgage borrowers to have homeowners insurance.

erig007

If you don't have the money to buy a $2k you can still buy a cheaper one. I bought a second hand one for 50$.

Gresp15C

Indeed. That's always an option. I'm definitely in the camp of not owning a bike that I can't afford to replace. I would ride a cheaper bike before I paid for insurance.

Phloom

This. Even with car insurance, I drop the collision coverage after 3 years. I have a friend that keeps collision way to long and he pays extra for a low deductible. He couldn't understand he was paying an extra $200 to lower his deductible from $500 to $100. He was paying $200 to protect $400.

My home owner insurance does not cover my bicycles. I think protecting a bicycle from theft is pretty easy. I use a beater if I have to leave it locked and unattended. My nice bicycles do not have much financial value, just a lot of sweat equity. Insurance companies do not recognize sweat equity in a bicycle. The nice ones only go out when I know I won't leave them unattended. If I get in a collision, getting compensation for my bicycle would the last thing on my mind.

CdaleNike21

More like $150.96 per year or 41 cents a day, not too bad for piece of mind. I haven't pulled the trigger yet, but am close. To each their own.

mtballday

They dont depreciate the bike. For me, cheap/expensive depends on how you look at risks. My record is : 2 totalled mid range MTB bikes in the last 3 years. With paying 10% of my bike in a year, I fee like a winner in this situation. My deductible is 200

Stucky

But then again, if someone weren't paying for various insurances and such, they would have the money in the bank.

Or, (as someone else already stated) if the $2K bike does get stolen, you could always get a $300 bike to ride until you could afford to replace the $2K one with something comparable.

By buying the insurance, you really end up paying for that $2K bike twice, even if it's never stolen.

The only time the insurance is a good deal, is if you lose the bike early-on in the policy.

I self-insure most of my things. Even if I were to have a loss, it'll likely only be one thing....and the money I've saved in just one year by not having a bunch of insurance policies, will more than likely cover it. Believe me, I make very little money- but by avoiding most insurance, and interest(debt) I make that money go so far, that people who don't know me think that I make 6 times what I actually do.

Just something to think about....'specially when it comes to toys. My motto with toys is: If I lose it, I either just buy another one, or don't replace it until such time as I can. When you start getting into expensive things...then it's a different story. I carry comp and collision on my truck 'cause it's still worth $10K- and the insurance is only $200 a year over liability- just a tiny fraction of the truck's value- but if the comp and collision were 10% of the truck's value per year, I'd drop it today!

Stucky

I'm surprised that they'll even insure mountain bikes! Heh, you did win on that deal. Me? I'm way ahead of the game by not getting insurance on most things. I'm 53 years old, and have never had anything stolen, nor crashed anything....so looking back, I'm WAY ahead compared to all the premiums I would have paid over the years for losses that never happened.

erig007

Another thing that can be done is to set aside this insurance money instead of paying the insurance company. 200$ after one year will become 400$ after 2 years + interests. So if the bike do get stolen it will require just part of the full price to get the same bike. And 400$ or even 200$ is enough to get a beater from Craigslist. Furthermore, if you get your bike stolen during the first year or 2... you will know that you are in a relatively high risk area and that a beater is probably a better option than having your expensive bike stolen again.
Plus there is to take into account the fact that insurance is likely to go up after the first time.

kennj123

so far no one directly talked about liability insurance. what if your at fault for a 1million dollar accident because of your biking? homeowners?

erig007

And how the insurance is going to help? I doubt the insurance will cover 1 million dollar.
Plus there may be ways to be partially covered even without one
https://www.insurancehotline.com/cyc...ot-know-about/

Anyway, if you're really worried then get covered for the liability and not for the lost bike.

Gresp15C

I agree on being self insured. My view is that if insurance is a profitable business, then I might as well pocket the profit on insuring myself. I also manage my risks by shopping for bargains on high risk items such as cell phones and notebook computers. I could replace my cell phone for 30 bucks, so I'm 100% insured by having 30 bucks in the bank.

An amusing story: I was in Best Buy, to purchase something, maybe it was a new computer monitor. The cashier asked me if I wanted to pay for a 3 year warranty. (The item was in a box that said: "3 year warranty" on it). I looked at her and said: "My bank provides me with a service that pays to replace any item I own if it breaks."

She asked: "What is that service called?"

I said: "It's called my bank account."

At least she had a good sense of humor about it.

But seriously, the money that I've saved over the years by declining those service contracts and small time insurance policies would pay for anything that might break today.

In my view, present company excepted of course, one reason why people are able to sell expensive consumer financial services, is that most consumers are as ignorant about money as they are about bike repair. This could be another one of those "kids these days" threads, but I think the root cause is that people are so afraid of numbers and math, they don't realize that they can figure out the true, total cost of something. The pricing of services is always broken up so that it seems like just a little bit each month, but when you add it all up, the total is often jaw-dropping.