ojaiyo

All joking aside, I'm crushed and so is my Merckx!

I finished my lunch time ride, leaned it against the back of my truck, leaving it hidden from my mirrors and after changing, backed up over it. As you can see by the photos below, it's toast and I almost cried like a baby. I will have to replace everything but the front wheel. Do you know if car or home owner's insurance typically covers this?

It took place away from home, but I could easily stage photos in my driveway if that would help.

Other than smart-#@$ comments about my idiocy, does someone have any suggestions to remedy this?

joeyduck

I would guess homeowners would cover it. They may put dollar limit on replacement value unless you have a specific rider to cover expensive articles

I have no experience this is just speculation.

Little Darwin

More speculation...

Definitely check out both insurance policies, but if the deductible is close to the value of the bike, then I would skip the aggravation, and potential higher rates.

This may not be as easy as it sounds, because based on the policy you will probably only get a depreciated value for the bike, not the cost of a new one... and determining what they will use as a depreciated value is probably a mystery unless you file a claim, then it is probably too late to change your mind.

Nightshade

Your bike and you backed over it? My .02 is that ins co will reject your claim due to "Negligence" on your part.

Negligence | Wex Legal Dictionary / Encyclopedia | LII / Legal Information Institute

Good luck............

JimPz

been there, done that (MTB bike) home owners covered it.

Nightshade

Added......... Negligence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Unless the bike is very expensive it might be better not to file a claim since ins co's keep track of claim dollars so they can cancel you.

JimPz

While I somewhat agree w/ Nightshade, isn't the reason we pay for insurance to cover damage when something happens?
Unless you are in the habit of making claims, this (at least in my case) will have no affect. If you have a deductible, weigh that
against what you will claim.

mulveyr 

Like most things, it depends.

I look at insurance as something to fall back on when fixing the problem will cause great financial hardship. Since insurance companies can and do cancel policies for making too many claims, something like this would definitely fall into my "Eh, that was dumb of me" category and I'd eat the cost of my own negligence so I can save the insurance for when it's REALLY a problem.

Since my homeowners policy hasn't gone up more than $30 since I got it 20+ years ago I figure I must be doing something right. ;-)

Johnny Mullet

Man that sucks about your bike. All you can do is call and ask.

ojaiyo

JimPz: Thx for the 'been there done that' comment. I eased the pain a bit.

Everyone else, thanks for the input! I have yet to get home to check the home owners policy, but I'll do it as soon as I get there.

Unfortunately I just started cycling in July and had been saving up for over a year to purchase the bike for a steal from a good friend of mine. The bike was his pride and joy and he passed it on to me as an almost 'right of passage thing.' I'm reluctant to even tell him about it until I have the details figured out. Anywho, end of sob story and time for me to put my Sherlock Holmes on. I'll update you guys when I learn something.

achoo

What components were on the bike? That makes a huge difference.

Before you inform your insurance company, check your deductible. If your deductible isn't significantly less than what you think your bike was worth, a claim won't be worth it as it's likely to make your rates go up.

ojaiyo

The components are all Campy Record and the wheelset is Xero-Lite XR-1.

jputnam

I am not your insurance agent unless you see my name on your declarations page. (And if you do, your policy has probably lapsed... haven't sold personally since 2008.)

A standard homeowners policy will cover personal property for perils including vehicle impact. Negligence is fine, but you would probably not be covered if you ran over it intentionally.

Policies may cover personal property at actual cash value (what it was worth used) or replacement cost (what it costs to buy an equivalent new bike.) There can be a huge difference even if it's a fairly new bike.

Your payment will be reduced by your deductible. Insurance really is designed for financial crises you couldn't handle on your own, so it's not unusual to have deductibles of $1,000 or higher on homeowners these days.

Depending on your company and state, you might find your rates increase significantly for filing a claim. Statistically, people who've had one recent claim are more likely to have a claim in the future, so the company charges more for the higher risk. That's another reason to consider not filing smaller claims that you can handle yourself.

Out of luck with car insurance, damage to something your car hits is covered by liability insurance, and you can't be liable to yourself.