atufft

Losing a tandem to airline screw up is an expensive and inconvenient lose. Vacation abroad folks, what do you do to hedge against catastrophic loss of tandem?

Tony Marley

My tandem (and other bikes) are covered in my household insurance (USAA). I had an extensive discussion with the company to ensure they were covered.

That said, a loss in transit for a vacation would ruin the vacation, simply as a result of the time to process the claim and buy/receive a new tandem.

zonatandem

Home insurance covers it.

Mistikka

This is very much a question of how much loss you can afford and how much it's worth to reduce your anxiety. We've decided that the risk of losing the tandem in a small prairie Canadian city is fairly low. (There are only a half dozen tandems in the community and we're always careful to lock the bike, don't use it at night, etc.) The best coverage we could find was on our home insurance, and even that was shockingly expensive.

Still, like you, we worry about having the bike nicked in transit when we fly it overseas on a holiday every two or three years. We arrived at a compromise with our insurance agent that fits us very well: we add the bike to the household insurance the week before we leave, then cancel it when we get home — for us the cost for a month or two of coverage is a worthwhile expense.

merlinextraligh

It's a very bad idea to put a bicycle on your homeowner's insurance. If you end up making a claim, it affects your future insurability, in many cases raises your rates, and may lead to your insurance coverage being cancelled or not renewed.

Better strategy is take the highest deductible on your homeowners that you can, invest the savings, cover your own small losses from the proceeds, and save the homeowner's insurance for catastrophic losses you can't afford to absorb.