I own a home so my homeowners insurance covers the bike against theft or fire but not a wreck. You can get a floater policy attached to your renter or homeowners policy that will cover a specific bike for the appraised value at time of the floater purchase. This floater will protect the bike no matter what happens to it (except damage caused on purpose by the owner of course) including accidents and there's no deductible. BUT, and this is a BIG BUT, I think those policies are a rip off especially for bikes and here's why. In 40 plus years of riding I've only had one wreck that destroyed a bike and that was about 28 years ago. A floater for a bike cost an average of $75 a year, that means for one of my bikes it would have cost me $2,100 dollars over the last 28 years...I could have bought a nice bike for the money I spent on a floater!! And I continue to gamble that I won't have an accident that destroys a bike for the rest of my life. But the odds are on my side that I won't crash and burn a bike.

Theft coverage is automatically included with your homeowners or renters policy, you just have to pay a deductible, and that theft can occur off premise; so if you ride your bike to Walmart, lock it up, go inside for 15 minutes or so, come out and your bike is gone your covered minus your deductible. And the bike is covered for replacement value, meaning lets assume your bike right now is worth $500 used, but to buy another one similar to what you had stolen it may cost you $2,000, the insurance company will pay you the $2,000 minus whatever your deductible is. In order for this theft part of the contents policy to work you must prove you had the bike secured with a adequate lock, thus keep the defeated lock and file a police report because the insurance company needs a report also but a report is not necessary as long as you have the person you spoke to and a reference number at the police station because some cities won't send out a cop for a simple bike theft.

A word about lock theft warranties: Some locks come with theft protection, but a word of warning, I haven't ever meant anyone who was successful getting their money out of a lock that had such protection, and this is includes people on forums over the years that lost bikes due to theft with a lock that had a warranty! These lock companies make it all but impossible to get the money out of them, because the require all of this stuff: First at the time of purchase of the lock you need to fill out the form and send the key registration separately, then the warranty validation form along with a copy of the receipt, bicycle bill of sale or a dated appraisal within 15 days of the purchase of the lock and follow the instructions in the package to the letter or no coverage...which they will not inform you that you made a mistake, they will inform you of any mistake upon receipt of a claim!!! If you are renewing the coverage you have to repeat all of the above with a new apprasal and a check for the renewal cost within 15 days of the original expiration of the initial coverage. At the time of theft you must get a police report, if the city you live in won't send a cop out to take a report you're screwed. Next they want the pictures of the entire crime scene including lighting, what the bike lock was locked to, and photos of the undisturbed lock showing details of how it was defeated, if the pics are not sent and/or the lock is gone no coverage. If they determine by looking at the pics that there was inadequate lighting no coverage, or the lock was attached to an inadequate stationary object no coverage, or if they determine the bike wasn't locked in an area with adequate visibility to the general public no coverage. Then they need the original receipt of the lock and the original package the lock came in including the upc code, and the lock in question, one of those items are missing no coverage; then they need a receipt for the purchase of the bike or no coverage; then they need an appraisal of the bike done by an LBS on company letterhead no more then 12 months old or no coverage; they only will cover the base price of the bike and not taxes or extra equipment attached to the bike. If the lock is more then 2 years old and you didn't renewal the protection for an additional year no coverage; if the lock is older then 3 years no coverage. (this forces you to pay for the 1 year renewal protection and then forces you to buy a new lock every 3 years) And you have to send in proof you renewed the protection or no coverage. They also need the address of the location the bike was stolen from or no coverage, they need the address to establish if the location was a area prone to bike thefts, if they determine that to be the case no coverage.

Why do you need to resend all the information you initially sent in when you bought the lock and registered it...to assist them in not paying your claim!

If for some highly impossible happening you do get covered and you have homeowners insurance the lock company will only pay the deductible, not the cost of the bike.

Lock theft warranties are designed so the lock company can find any excuse to wiggle out of covering you. Here's one such forum discussing such a problem: http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/in.../t-539424.html