Insurance

[z281982]

Should be getting my black M50 in a couple weeks. What king of coverage should I carry? I don't want to rip myself off if something should happen by getting the least amount of coverage. But then I don't want to overkill. Naturally cost is a factor.

[SDSUsnowboards]

Ask for the same kind of coverage a bank would require you to get if you were financing it. Mine required full coverage w/ $500 deductibles. I'd recommend full because bikes tend to get dropped and stolen so being covered for everything is probably worth your while in the long shot.

[KAOS]

yeah i would opt for FULL coverage. for the sole reason of: you just never know what will happen to your bike. for some reason it seems like anything that could happen to your bike, DOES!! i have full coverage with a $250 deductable. and i pay like $24 a month for it.

[Trapper]

I would suck to be making payments on a bike that you don't have, because it was stolen.

[md2lgyk]

I'm on my seventh bike in 32 years. It's the only one I've ever had full coverage on. It's also the only one I've ever financed. The first two or three I owned while I was in the military and fairly young - comp and collision would've been almost as much per year as I paid for the bike. Now that I'm old and theoretically safer, full coverage on my current bike is only $230 a year.

[Gixxerdale]

Full coverage, you never know what might happen or when. Get UM too. Saved my butt and kept me from killing the uninsured cager that hit my Gixxer when it was 3 months old! And it was just parked out front while I was working in the garage!

[jsvickers]

Guess I'll be the voice of dissention here...

If you're not financing the bike and have the choice to buy as much or as little insurance as you want, then I'd say it depends on how much the insurance is costing you and what your risk tolerance is.

Some people on this board have posted that they pay $1500 to $2000 a year for full coverage. I personally think that is outrageous. Keep in mind that if you have to replace the bike, the insurance company will pay you what the bike is worth, not what you paid for it. If your brand new $10K bike gets stolen, expect the insurance company to try to give you a check for around $8K. You might be able to talk them up if you can prove the bike is worth more than that, but it'll be up to you to get solid evidence of the value of the bike.

If your bike is two or three years old, expect to get maybe $5K or less for that $10K bike, but you'll still be paying that same insurance premium. If that premium is $1.5K per year, you're getting ripped off, IMHO.

So, find out how much insurance will cost you and decide if you can accept that cost for the amount that they will pay if your bike is totalled or stolen. If the insurance is more than $1K a year, I personally would just go with liability. If you want to go with full coverage, I'd recommend dropping full coverage and just carrying liability after the bike is three years old or so.

[md2lgyk]

That's pretty much always been my philosophy. Even for cars and trucks, I've usually dropped comp and collision after 3 years or as soon as they were paid off. Of course, back when I was young most cars weren't worth squat after 3 years anyway.

Now that cars are way more expensive and last much longer longer, and my insurance is dirt cheap, I've sort've re-thought the philosophy. I only recently dropped comp and collision on my '93 Nissan truck. Even 12 years old with almost 200K miles, blue book retail value was nearly $5,000.

If you do a lot of mods to your bike and want to recover the costs if it's wrecked or stolen, there is such a thing as "declared value" insurance. Don't know how it works, though, and I expect it's expensive.

[viper94bite]

depends on age, type of bike and your record.
i'm 22 and pay 45 a month for full coverage on my marauder. 500 deductable.
I could not afford full coverage on a crotch-rocket they just want to much to be worth it. Problem is do you want anything back if it is wrecked or stolen. Bikes are not really know for their theft resistance.

[mikesvsix50]

I gotta' $500 deductable on Full Coverage w/ state farm for $100/month.

[mikesvsix50]

* Plus I'm nineteen and have my truck insured with them *

[jsvickers]

I gotta' $500 deductable on Full Coverage w/ state farm for $100/month.

How old is your SV650? Is it paid for or is the bank requiring the insurance?

You're paying $1,200 a year for a bike that is worth less than $6,000 brand new. I think that is way too much. Part of that $1,200 is for liability, which is very smart to have regardless of the age of the bike. Probably $800 to $1,000 is for comprehensive and collision, which IMHO is a rip off.

Like I said earlier, it all goes back to what your risk tolerance is. Chances are, you won't need to get the bike completely replaced and if you damage the bike, the bulk of the repairs will be paid for out of your pocket because of the $500 deductible.

If your bike is a couple of years old, then the insurance company is going to say it is worth maybe $4,500 if it gets stolen or totalled. After your $500 deductible, they'll cut you a check for $4,000.

For me, paying $1,000 per year to protect myself against a $4,000 loss is not even remotely worth it, and the amount the insurance company will pay you goes down as the bike gets older, but your insurance premium generally doesn't. Even if your risk tolerance tells you to buy insurance on your brand new bike, each year you should find out what the insurance company will pay for your bike and reevaluate whether full coverage is worth the money.


*edit*
By the way, all of what I said changes some if you don't have medical insurance. Your collision coverage includes some medical insurance and if you have no other source of medical insurance, then you have to include that in your evaluation of whether you want to carry collision and comprehensive as well as liability on your bike.

[s40rider]

I have to chime in here as I am a claims adjuster and have been for over 5 years. When buying insurance on a bike there are many factors that you have to consider. First you have to find out what you can afford. Lets look at the liability part first. This is what is required by law. Depending on your state I highly recommend that you go at least one to two levels above the state minimum. On a car I recommend nothing less then 100/300/100 but on a bike 25/50/10 is ok because even if you hit something on a bike the likelyhood that you will cause even half as much damage as you would in a car is slim at best. Liability is very cheap. Next you need to absolutely by comprehensive insurance if you can affort it to protect yourself against theft in particular. Collision would be nice but is only necessary if your bike is worth a lot. If it is worth a lot then get comp and coll but get a very low ded between 100-250 as after the ded you want to make sure that you still get a good amount for the bike if it totals. These coverages depending on bike and age and area of the country should not run that high in price. I recommend Progressive or Geico for bike insurance. They are very cheap. Next we will move on to the medical coverages. You also need to be awar that UM does not always cover your bike if you are not at fault for an accident with a motorist that is uninsured. Some states have what you call UMPD which covers your property but most others have UMBI that only covers your injuries. If you can get UMPD I would definitely buy that. As far as the UMBI is concerned it will cover you for injuries caused by an uninsured motorist up to the limit you purchase similar to liability coverage. If your health insurance is a PPO then you will want UMBI to cover large injuries due to the fact that the lifetime limit is 1,000,000. If you have a HMO and just pay co-pays then you have no lifetime limit and you do not need umbi at all only umpd(if available in your state). The only other thing you can get is Medpay dependingon your state. Medpay just pays medical bills up to the limit you choose, usually between 2000-10000 and like umbi what type of health insurance you have dictates this as well. Anymore questions that you have just let me know and I will get back with you. I really am an expert on insurance as exciting as that sounds.

[tlwisner]

I am 41 yearts old with a clean record and I pay $236 / year to Markel American (www.bike-line.com) for full coverage liability, comprehensive and collision with a $500 deductable and $2000 accessory coverage on my 2005 C50 Boulevard.

Shop around, prices for bike insurance vary a lot - and just because you have car insurance with one company doesn't mean they will give you a good price for bike coverage. Try www.progressive.com, www.bike-line.com, whoever else you can get a quote from. The range of price you'll find is amazing.

[jasonA]

tlwisner...this is off topic but I saw in a previous post, you had a drink holder, where did you get it if you dont mind me asking. Thanks.

[ChicsterMG]

I suggest you just shop around and don't sell yourself short.
If you need to get the minimum, get most you can afford. If not, get all coverages.
I just shopped and left Progressive after I got my C50. I was paying $150/year on my Honda Shadow 600 with no uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage with a $250 deductable all around.
I am now paying $258 full coverage on both the Honda adn a financed C50. I am now including uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage and have $250 deductable with GEICO. My low rate does include a military reduced rate, safe driver discount, and MSF course.
Bottom line is I checked just about every insurer out there and this is obviously the best deal I could com up with.

[NorthDakotaRider]

geez, i must have gotten lucky...I am 18 years old, have a bad driving record (lost my license from point when I was 16 but got it back about 10 months ago), and drive a brand new C50.

I pay 500 per year for it (full coverage), but I live in North Dakota so I only insure it for 6 months. $250...pretty good I think. OH yeah, Im taking my MSF next week so that should lower it more.

[tlwisner]

Originally Posted by jasonA

tlwisner...this is off topic but I saw in a previous post, you had a drink holder, where did you get it if you dont mind me asking. Thanks.

I'm sorry, that was a poor joke. I do carry a water bottle in my hard bags, but I don't drink and ride.

[tlwisner]

I just got my renewal bill from www.bike-line.com and it went down to $193 for this year for full coverage (liability, collision, comp, UM, and a $2000 accessory rider) with roadside assistance. I got a 10% discount for renewing, a 10% dicount for training, and a 10% discount for a clean driving record. That seems OK for me, since the bike books for over $5000. On my GZ 250 and my '94 Concours I only carried liability insurance, they were both less than $40 / year.