Insurance
 

Do you all have insurance on your bike? Like if it was stolen at your house or apartment? I would assume homeowners or renters insurance might cover that.

But what if you get into a wreck and it was deemed your fault? Would your insurance cover the damage?

Or if your bike got stolen at the store, would you insurance cover it?

We are in the process of switching insurances since we just made the final move to NJ.

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

Theft, vandalism, fire, or being struck by a vehicle -- covered worldwide under my homeowners insurance, at replacement cost minus deductible. (Those are all standard perils covered by many homeowners packages in the U.S. Vehicle damage can be tricky -- if my negligence contributed to the loss, it may not be covered.)

Bike crash -- not covered by my insurance, but there are optional coverages available. You can buy stand-alone bicycle insurance, advertised in racing publications, that offers broader coverage than homeowners insurance. And there at least used to be separate policies available for bicycles, "floaters" or "inland marine" policies, underwritten by companies that specialize in things like that. I haven't been active in selling personal lines insurance for years, so I don't know if those are still readily available.

Specialized bicycle coverage tends to be more expensive than personal property coverage under a homeowners package. Who goes looking for specialized coverage? In general, people with expensive bikes who feel they're likely to need the coverage. In other words, people who are more likely to have a claim, and more likely to have a large claim. So the companies have to price it higher. But that higher price limits who wants to buy the policies -- only people who really feel the need for the coverage will pay the higher price. Which again means people more likely to have claims. It's a vicious cycle that affects many types of insurance -- that's why Obama's health care reform depends on an unprecedented mandate requiring almost everyone to buy private insurance, to eliminate this tendency for people to not buy insurance until they think they're likely to need it.

My wife was driving home one afternoon when a kid (about 15) on a bike is looking backwards at all the others he is outrunning comes out of side street and hits the wife's car in the door. Bike and kid go over the hood, bike hooks a hole in windshield. Kid goes over the hood, lands on his feet, and takes off running for home. My athletic, long-legged, ice skater wife takes off after him. She catches him in his front yard, kid's parents come out, kid just knows he is about to die in great pain. Cops come and assess the situation. Lots of pictures, first assumption was that wife had run over a kid on a bike and committed hit&run. Evidence showed otherwise. Anyway, long story short, kids parents' Homeowners insurance paid for it all on our car, I'm not sure about D-shaped front wheel on bike. "You're in Good Hands"

I figure insurance is to cover unexpected major financial crises that I would have trouble paying for otherwise. Replacing any of my bikes doesn't qualify as such a crisis. So I have high deductibles on my home owner's insurance to lower my premiums but this also means the bikes aren't covered for theft or damage (but if the house burns down then the bikes would be included in the damages and I'd just have to pay the deductible).

If I'm in an accident that's my fault, then my main concern would be my liability for damages to others - that's covered up to the policy limits by the home owner's insurance. But damage I do to myself is not covered (other than medical damage - covered under health insurance).

This assumes the proper standard coverage forms. You do have some responsibilities in the event of a theft. I'd bring this up with your agent.

Your standard homeowners insurance DOES NOT cover your bike if you wreck it regardless whose at fault. Only a floater or a rider for that bicycle would cover for such an event. If the wreck isn't your fault and the other person was driving a car their insurance would cover your bike, otherwise without a rider you're screwed. However read my previous post about why I don't have a rider on my bikes.

And yes you do have responsibilities to properly securing the bike in order for your standard homeowners policy to cover you for theft. Again read my earlier post.

I may put a rider on my touring bike when I do my trip across America, just to make sure the bike is covered in case something happens, but once I'm done touring I'll remove it. But I still have 8 to 10 years before I retire and do the trip.

I know my earlier post is long but there's good info in it. If something is not correct in it I'm sure someone will correct it, but I think to the best of my limited knowledge that is mostly correct.

I referred to "standard coverage forms." My mistake. If your homeowners/renters policy has "all risk" coverage for contents as opposed to "named perils" then yes, your bike will be covered if you crash it, subject to the deductible. This may not be "standard" in all areas.
Best advice is to talk to an agent.

All risk does not mean all risks. All policies, be it all risk or named perils have a list of exclusions, thus whatever is excluded is not covered regardless.

See this for more info: http://www.propertyinsurancecoverage...ver-all-risks/

Yes.. "All risk" is the abbreviated version of "all risk subject to policy exclusions". Since an insurance policy is a contract it will contain these exclusions. Rather than writing a thesis on the subject I condensed to the topic at hand, which does not involve war, nuclear hazard, etc.
Do you then agree that "crashing your bike" is not a specified exclusion on an all risk policy?
:deadhorse:

I couldn't answer that without reading a particular all risk policy. But I have a feeling they won't. Some policies cover your bike for stated perils subject to your deductible, and some of those will cover if you're hit by vehicle is a stated peril. so is fire theft and a few others, but just plain crashing by itself is not covered. That's why you need to read your policy to find out what the heck it says because each company changes the wording, and the wording changes from state to state.

While all risk policy does cover more then named peril, you still have to read it closely to figure out if it will cover you in a crash. It's a good idea to call your agent, and make sure he or she understands you are talking about your bicycle being destroyed in crash whether it's your fault or not, and whether it's a crash involving a car, or just a crash into something else.

You are covered if you're injured in an accident while riding a bike and struck by a car, then your medical payment coverage on your car insurance will cover that, but only if struck by a car, and you're covered regardless who's at fault, and then only up to the limits of your medical coverage.

9.9999 times out of ten, if a vehicle and bicycle collide, and the cyclist has half a head on their shoulders, the vehicle's insurance will pay (and more than likely, the cyclist gets their fair share of pain). Since I have more that half a head on my shoulders, I have no worries about "being at fault" in an accident. Pedistrians are another story, but in almost 18 years of cycling, I have never hit someone on my bike. If that were to be the case, I have an umbrella policy equal to my assets.

One should be cautious about filing such a relatively small claim on the homeowner's insurance. I am confident that they would "pay" for their claim many times over in the form of increased premiums. My most expensive bike (~$4000) isn't used for city riding and isn't left on the street locked up to a rack. My $300 motobecane does just fine on the streets and I have very little worries leaving it locked up anywhere.

All this said, have you talked to an agent to figure out the specifics of your policies? I've found the more I learn about insurance, the more "risks" I am willing to take in some areas, such as cycling. And that you are double covered in other areas like medical. And I certainly hope I don't ever have to make claim on my life insurance!

Right, that's why I don't fret over insurance on a bicycle, not only would I rarely if ever needed it and then have to pay premiums all those years for it, but submitting claims can get you cancelled in a hurry. I have a daughter who is mentally ill, she flooded the upstairs bathroom on purpose and the claim was around $2,800, then she tried to burn down the house (as a result of this she can no longer live with us), and the insurance company paid out around $500 for a hotel till the carpet was replaced but wouldn't pay for the damage due to my daughter being classified as a insured and she did willfully. The insurance company cancelled us even though they knew she was no longer in the house; the reasons stated for cancellation was two claims in 2 years, both claims totaled to $3,300. I wonder if you would get cancelled filing a $4000 claim on a stolen bike? Or maybe bad luck struck, you had a hot water heater blow causing $500 in damage, or high winds blow roof shingles off, then a bike stolen in a two year period, you would be cancelled for sure. Anyway now I have to pay more for insurance for the next 3 years with a different company. Since my original company cancelled my home I cancelled my auto and towing coverage's I had with them. I guarantee you if you file a claim for a $4000 dollar stolen bike all love for you is gone.