This. I called my insurance broker, and faxed him all my receipts. He said I'll be covered, and I don't think there was an extra charge. (if there was, it's small.)

If you get the coverage for free that's a good thing.

However, there is still a better way to play this.

You don't want to be making minor claims against your homeowner's insurance. It can raise your rates, lead to the cancellation of your policy, and even result in your property becoming unisurable due to your loss history.

Now, people will object that I paid for the insurance, I'm going to use it. So the answer is don't pay for the insurance at that level.

Raise your deductible, as high as you can handle, $5,000, or even $10,000. This reduces your premium (which you can save and invest, taking the sting out of future self funded losses) and you avoid the catch 22 of paying for a low deductible, and not wanting to file small claims against your homeowners.

By carrying the highest deductible you can handle, you're self insuring the portion of the loss you can absorb, and pocketing that much of the profit for yourself.

Of course, exactly where you set your deductible should depend on your own circumstances and the pricing particulars.

Make sure you price the difference on these things. You may be willing to absorb $10k, but if the difference in premium between a $1k deductible and a $10k deductible is $60 a year you may decide to go with a $1k deductible but only file claims beyond your threshold. That way, you don't have the small claims working against you, and if you do have a large event, you are only out the $1k deductible.

I could. I probably wouldn't, but I could. I don't have 1 $5k bike, I have 3 $1-$2k bikes.

Take whatever you would be willing to pay an insurance company and put it in a savings account. Then, be really careful while it build up

Agreed. You alaways have to look at the details of the particular situation. In general however, the people that underwrite insurance policies are pretty good at what they do, and they are going to set the premium to take a $5,000 deductible down to a $1,000 deductible at a price where they make money.

So you start with the presumption that buying more coverage (i.e. lower deductibles) costs more than you'll get out of it.

That said, I'm involved with the insurance buy for our company, and our Self Funded Retention (essentially a deductible ) fluctuates in arange from $250,000 to $2,000,000 each renewal depending on how hard or soft the insurance market is that year.