So, If I'm using this bike as a commuter, then I feel like I need some sort of insurance, just like I would have on my car.

What If I taco a wheel and cant get to work?Liability?FRP?

Does anyone have any idea how this is done and what options are available?

I just changed my insurance, and asked some of these questions of my agent. Mostly, it boils down to the bike going on your homeowner's/renter's policy rather than your automobile policy (if any). That's what covers it for theft, and for liability, and for medical. It's the same as your pedestrian coverage. That's what State Farm told me, anyway.

KeS

The guide for insurance is to insure the losses you cant afford to shoulder. If you ride a $500 bike and can put away $500 for emergency replacment, then you dont need to pay inurance companies to shoulder that burden. Use the money saved to buy a quality lock, a spare set of wheels, a backup bike and emergency taxi rides.
You cant afford the potential 3rd party damages so get covered for that. Some bike associations/clubs come with automatic 3rd party cover.

+1

If you taco a wheel and can't get to work call and say you'll be late. Any costs covered by insurance will be money wasted as you premiums will go up after such a claim.

Talk with your local insurance agent. Same with getting medical advice on the internet, talk to a doctor.

Sometimes a homeowner's or renter's insurance policy will cover a bicycle, sometimes you have to get a rider. In either case you need to look at the fine print and figure out exactly what is covered and how it is covered. For an example look at some lock manufacturer's disclaimers for what is covered and what you have to do to prove the lock failed to protect your bike, you might find that the company requires proof in the form of a broken or disabled lock, and if the thief takes the lock or chops it off and throws it away somewhere then you have no proof that the lock failed and therefore have no claim for recovery. Your renter's or homeowner's policy might have similar requirements.

A taco'd wheel would be from abuse or from a road hazzard or from lack of maintenance and probably wouldn't be covered unless you had a road hazard rider on a policy.

Good luck on getting a bicycle insured like a car.

This.

This too.

We talked to our insurance company about these things, and came away with the following:

Bike theft is covered under our homeowner's policy, but our deductible is $500 and that's the cost of the bike. Also, making a claim would raise our premium, so making a claim for theft would be dumb.
Personal liability coverage under homeowner's policy would cover in case of an accident if someone were to sue for damages.

If the wheel was damaged as a result of a road hazard that should have been fixed by the responsible municipality/county/state, then you might be able to get reimbursed by that agency. For example, locally we recently had a bridge where the road had settled on the approach leaving a sharp step that was hard to see. Several bicycle wheels were broken as a result before the road was repaired and the cyclists were paid for the damage. The same would apply to car damage that is a direct result of improper road maintenance.

As others have mentioned, home owners or renters insurance in the US generally covers cyclists for liability claims against them for damages they cause to others. And it frequently covers some bicycle theft and accident damage to the bicycle as well although that would be subject to deductible amounts and might be pretty limited in terms of bike value unless you have a specific rider added to the policy. Best to check with your insurance carrier and have them document your coverage.

BTW - I specifically asked about my bike being stolen from the bed of my pickup, where it can frequently be found (fork mount rack, thick cable through rear wheel/triangle, front wheel in locked trunk). It's still covered under my renter's policy, not my automobile, which surprised me.

KeS

...and you shouldn't be commuting on a bike you can't afford to shoulder.

There are two major types of insurance that people carry for their cars - liabiliy and casualty. Liability is for damage that you cause to other people or property with your vehicle, and the damage done by a bicycle is typically so small, that it is not really worth worrying about - your homeowners or renters insurance policy will generally cover you for this sort of damage.

In terms of casualty insurance, this would pay to repair or replace your bike if it were damaged in an accident - again, in most cases, the cost of a bicycle repair is so small, it wouldn't make sense to insure it.

If you are dependent on your bike to get to/from work (as I am), the best insurance is a spare bike. Need not cost much, and this way if you hop on your bike in the morning and find that it is not ridable for whatever reason, you just get on the spare bike. A spare bike can cost as little as the spare tire for an automobile.

My bike is covered against theft and damage via an extension of my home contents insurance, insuring it anywhere in the UK as well as from home. I also have a second bike which I can use instead. A second bike only needs to be a cheap 'beater' that you can keep in reserve and also use in circumstances where you'd be wary of using your primary bike.

This is what most cyclists in the road forum say. Apparently the uninsured motorist coverage you bought with your car insurance will cover you in a hit-and-run that wrecks your bike, hard as that can be to believe.

The idea that you should have insurance specific to your bike, because you do for your car, is a bit silly.