Bike insurance good idea or bad

[Germany_chris]

Originally Posted by Tony Edwards

If you are eligible for USAA, change your homeowner's to them (and, while you're at it, change your auto insurance to them). I have dealt with them on a bike theft and a car theft, and in both cases they were incredibly easy and more than fair (for example, when my first new car was stolen and stripped after a year and 13,000 miles, they gave me $200 less than I paid for it brand new). USAA people know what I'm talking about - they really are unbeatable both on price and service.

Yea..I'm not a big fan of USAA for any form of insurance they always manage to be at least 30% higher on what ever typ of insurance I ask about on my Jeep it was double.

[Tony Edwards]

Originally Posted by Germany_chris

Yea..I'm not a big fan of USAA for any form of insurance they always manage to be at least 30% higher on what ever typ of insurance I ask about on my Jeep it was double.

Interesting. I have always found them to be both the cheapest and the best in terms of service. A family friend is an insurance agent (I believe for State Farm), and even he told me that he couldn't compete with USAA's pricing and that I should always stick with them. They are certainly always the highest-rated in terms of customer satisfaction, and my experience with them on claims has always been amazing. (In the incident that was directly germane to this thread, I had an 11-year-old Serotta ATi stolen some years ago and they paid me, if memory serves, $5,700 for it despite my never having purchased any special coverage for bikes on my homeowner's policy.) I use USAA for all of my insurance and banking and some of my investments as well. I consider USAA a more valuable benefit than any of the actual government-issued benefits I received by virtue of my military service.

[pitonpat]

That's what it cost me to add my Seven Axiom to my existing homeowner's policy. I had 2 Maseratis (bikes) stolen from my unlocked barn many years ago. Put me off riding for years.

After acquiring the Seven I notified my agent and she added it as a listed item valued at 2500 bucks ( it's a year 2000)- I gave the serial number for reference and noted that it is stored in a locked room.

[d_douglas]

Its tough to insure the really expensive ones. I have a Speedvagen and a ti Desalvo (location withheld ) that would cost $600 per year each to insure completely. I cannot justify that.

I have a policy (in Canada, mind you) that covers all of my bikes to a max of $5000 each. Most of them are worth way less, so I have just rolled the dice and hope I don't lose the two that cost more. If I lose a my commuter, it is fully insured, but if I lose my Speedvagen, I am out a few thousand towards its replacement cost.

It's like investing/gambling - you need to identify your risk tolerance!

[Highpowernut]

Looks like I have some research to do.
I agree that insurance is hard to find for high end bikes. And the $6-1000 a year is way to much.

I bought above my pay grade, worked hard to get them , would really suck to loose one since I probably couldn't replace for a couple years , if ever. Serotta aero Carbon tri frame might never see another one.

How would I begin to estimate there value? I bought a lot of parts second hand.

[shovelhd]

Insure for replacement cost, new.