Registered: Oct 2004
Location: Monterey Area
Posts: 3

Have any of you ever heard of bicycle insurance. I am curious, because of the investment that we all have and the liability these days if one of us were to hit someone or something, (God Forbid).
But I just bought a B.O.B Yak and have a total of about 3000 dollars invested now, if my bike were stolen it would sure take me a while to replace it.

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Hope to see you all out there!!

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Registered: Nov 2002
Location: Ga, for now
Posts: 502

"Insured by Smith & Wesson" comes to mind :-), but I think homeowners is the best bet.

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Registered: Aug 2004
Location:
Posts: 113

quote:

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Originally posted by Beezodog
Yes. It goes by the name of home owners policy.

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Registered: May 2004
Location: Vancouver Island BC
Posts: 71

I just checked my home owners policy and it only covers a bicycle to $500 Cdn. Might be enough to cover the fairing. I'm going to check into how much extra it would cost for a more realistic amount of coverage. In the mean time my bike is locked in my garage or with a cable lock at all times. But then again, I don't think recumbents are the most desired bikes for quick black market resale.

Norm

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Registered: Oct 2002
Location: Watsonville, CA
Posts: 328

Norm,

I would have agreed with you about stolen bikes until about six months ago when Gabe rode his TiRush aross the street to the little Mexican place for lunch. He left it right by the door, walked inside, there was no line, he placed his order, paid his money and went back to his bike to wait for his order to be ready. It was gone! We're talking mere seconds and the bike not 15 feet from him. He put posters and offered a reward to no avail.

A couple of months later a couple of young guys (gang-banger types) wheeled in a TiRush that needed a new tire. What's wrong with this picture?

Gardner got a tire and invited them and their bike into the office. He got to chatting with them about bikes and tires and such and asked where they got the bike. They said they bought it from a friend (yeah, right).

Gardner closed the office door, trapping them, and told them it was a stolen bike and he was confiscating it, but he did give them the $50.00 reward. One of them actually wanted to hold out for more money. So Gardner offered to call the police instead of giving them the reward.

They took the money and ran, literally.

The moral is: if something looks inviting and unattended, someone will steal it for some purpose.

I just couldn't resist telling this story.

Happy trails,
Sandra

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Registered: Aug 2004
Location:
Posts: 113

quote:

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Originally posted by easyadmin
Norm,

I would have agreed with you about stolen bikes until about six months ago when Gabe rode his TiRush aross the street to the little Mexican place for lunch. He left it right by the door, walked inside, there was no line, he placed his order, paid his money and went back to his bike to wait for his order to be ready. It was gone! We're talking mere seconds and the bike not 15 feet from him. He put posters and offered a reward to no avail.

A couple of months later a couple of young guys (gang-banger types) wheeled in a TiRush that needed a new tire. What's wrong with this picture?

Gardner got a tire and invited them and their bike into the office. He got to chatting with them about bikes and tires and such and asked where they got the bike. They said they bought it from a friend (yeah, right).

Gardner closed the office door, trapping them, and told them it was a stolen bike and he was confiscating it, but he did give them the $50.00 reward. One of them actually wanted to hold out for more money. So Gardner offered to call the police instead of giving them the reward.

They took the money and ran, literally.

The moral is: if something looks inviting and unattended, someone will steal it for some purpose.

I just couldn't resist telling this story.

Happy trails,
Sandra

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Registered: May 2004
Location: Vancouver Island BC
Posts: 71

Yeah I know you are right. Gabe was just lucky that they were dumb crooks. Can you imagine taking it right back to the same area for repair? Dumb. I will continue to lock but I am also going to investigate the cost of additional coverage. My wife has a new bike on the way so that doubles our chances of loosing an expensive bike.

Norm

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Registered: Aug 2004
Location:
Posts: 113

Yep taking it to the same area for repair was dumb. Good thing most crooks are dumb though.

What kind of chain do you use? Which bike do you own ?

If I had a Tour Easy or something even better I would insurance it because I wouldn't want to lose all that money if it got stolen.

Does bike insurance either you get with a lock or get from putting the bike with your house insurance go down any as the bike ages ?

Like will you get less money for it if the bike is 3 years old and gets stolen ?

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Registered: Nov 2002
Location: Stone Mountain, GA
Posts: 385

When I got my first recumbent I checked with State Farm that holds our homeowner's policy. I was assured that the bike was covered as long as I had a sales slip to show the price if it was stolen.

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Rich

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Registered: Jan 2004
Location: Boise, ID
Posts: 612

10 years ago we were selling our old house so we could buy the one where we now live. It wouldn't sell. We were running out of time, so we decided to have an open house on a Sunday. That Friday, I went to the carpet store and arranged to have 3000 feet of new carpet installed on Saturday. I was convinced new carpet would sell the house.
The carpet layers worked all day Saturday, and into the night. We went to bed Saturday night listening to them working into the wee hours of the morning, as we tried to sleep. They finished re-carpeting about 3 am Sunday morning.
As they re-carpeted, they left our garage doors open so they could haul stuff in and out. Sometime during the night my wife's and my mountain bikes were stolen (Specialized Stumpjumpers). I still think it was an inside job and the carpet layers did it, but we never did figure that one out.
My homeowners insurer wrote us a check immediately for $2000 (back then $1000 got you a pretty sweet mountain bike).
If you haven't done it, it's easy enough to read your policy to see if there is an exclusion or limitation with respect to bikes in your policy. You can also just flat out ask your insurance agent. I'd recommend doing both.
Oh yea- the new carpet did the job and the house sold immediately. The house looked so good after the re-carpet, that we were reluctant to sell it.
Tim

Last edited by tim walton on 11-15-2004 at 02:54 AM

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Registered: Jan 2003
Location:
Posts: 33

Bicycle insurance in many areas has changed substantially of late.

First of all, insurance companies have been mailing out exclusion declarations for acts of terrorism. That means that if Osama bin Laden steals your bike you are shit-outta-luck.

Secondly, insurers in areas where there are a lot of cyclists (and therefore a lot of bike thefts) are socking it to policyholders wether they have made a bike claim or not. You can thank careless weekend mountain-bikers for much higher insurance premiums (and people who leave bikes on balconies, in garages and on top of cars).

Here in Vancouver, British Columbia we have the highest rate of property crime in North America (more bike thefts than NYC!) and some of the most expensive bicycle insurance. Homeowners and tenants policies here typically have a $500 or $1000 limit on bicycle claims and a $500 deductable on bicycles.

This year in Vancouver the cost of insuring a bike through optionial insurance has gone up about 30%. Vancouver insurers are now charging $5 - $6 per $100 of bike value to schedule a bike into a policy. That means a $3500 bike will cost $175 per year to insure. If you make a claim, the cost of that insurance is substantially more.

The cost of bike insurance here is determined by "postal code" (that is a Canadian zip code eh). Here, some insurance companies will not sell tenants insurance (and therefore bike insurance) to people who live in ground-floor apartments in areas where the ambient humanoid population shows no respect for personal property.

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Registered: Nov 2002
Location: Strongsville, Ohio (Cleveland area)
Posts: 103

It turns out that moving to Ohio is great "insurance" against recumbent theft.

No one knows what they are! Many people look at me sympathetically, and if they stick around long enough, look rather shocked when I get off the bike with two good legs. And even more shocked when I speak to them in more than one syllable words.

Among knowledgeable cyclists, there seems to be a real fear of recumbents, as if they're some kind of threat to "real" bicycles.

So, the one of the silver linings of being a Mac using, Geo Metro driving, viola-playing outcast recumbent rider in NE Ohio is that, locked or unlocked, I can plan on my bike being where I left it.

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Don Palac
e-mail: Don@neorecumbents.com
home page: www.neorecumbents.com

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