[55418]

WHat the HELL???



(eh?)



That is one of the most absurd things I've ever heard! Is Insurance regulated by the government there? If not, then shut the hell up and charge the people RIDING THE STATISTICALLY AT RISK BIKES FOR THE MONEY YOU ARE LOOSING! Or simply refuse to insure them! What about people who buy one cash and only carry liability?



This goofy bastard needs a quick slap back to planet earth......



As always, in my humble opinion.....

 

[5117]

Yah.. sounds like they have government regulated insurance.



The guy should just get out of business if it's so bad.

 

[fugusaurus]

it sounds like the insurance industry is just pulling the chains of the legislators to whom they have given money, making a renewed bid to try to influence future vehicle safety legislation. these things take years (sometimes decades) to work their way through the process, so this sounds like just part of the insurance industry's long-term process of trying to define the terms of debate. sometimes that doesn't work so well e.g. - remember john danforth and the failed us anti-big-sportbike proposals from the '80's - and sometimes it's more effective - e.g the successful helmet laws in many states.



bid low, and then negotiate your way back up - works at the swap meet, works in the legislature too...and certainly simple size restrictions have been shown to "work" in japan and europe.

 

[55182]

Nah, Canucks had their guns taken away already. Not long and they'll be on 400cc bikes.

 

[55182]

Is it still legal to have a **** in Canada?

or do you need a permit for that too?

 

[Chango]

So the insuirance companies are going broke insuring sportbikes? I'll believe that when the CEO's give up their multi-million dollar homes and cars...



Chango

 

[38436]

I used to email back and forth with a guy in Canada who rode a KZ400 because of the outrageous, government mandated extra cost to insure anything bigger. I don't recall the amounts he said, but he paid way more for his one 30-year-old bike than I pay for three, including a 400cc Yamaha and a 650 and 900 KZ. If the insurance companies are really losing money (I seriously doubt that), the Canadian government must be pocketing most of the ridiculous premiums.

Insurance companies lose money like any other industry heavily tied-in with government: for their own convenience, and not in real life.

 

[47867]

Fair trade

I'll give up my sportbike if Canada takes back Celine Deion.

 

[30575]

Ok, this is a little silly. In Ontario, with State Farm, they charge based ont eh displacement of your engine. Thus making a 600cc sportbike prettry much the checpest "real" bike you can insure. This is likely one single insurance company that somehow got hold of a megaphone and a soap box.

 

[39743]

Re: Fair trade

I'll give up my wife's sportbike if Canada takes back Celine Deion !

 

[acecycleins]

REALITY CHECH TIME: I insure motorcyclist for my living so excuse me for being blunt and insensitive here.



Because of the fact that most modern sportbikes have a power-to-weight ratio that out-strips passenger vehicles you can truly say that the motorcycle industry is digging their own grave. I have watched for the last six years as EVERY manufacturer tries to go for the gold in the horsepower war.



Because of this and the fact that MOST of the a$$es on sportbikes have neither the experience or the brains to ride these bikes they crash.



Tell me this: If you are one of the fortunate to pay reasonable rates on you sportbike (say under $1000 annually) and you wreck and the bike becomes a total loss (say $9500) then where does the money come from? All you have invested is the grand. Now multiply that by say 5000 customers. The insurance company is making $5,000,000 on coverage but they pay out $47,500,000. Think it's still possible that they AREN'T losing money?



Motorcycle insurance is a "loss-leader". For those unfamiliar- They know that they will lose money selling the coverage. The companies are looking at it like this: if an agent can keep his loss raitio under 70% of the written premium then they can sell. I sell $650,000 annually in motorcycle coverage and the company is hoping that if I can keep the losses down to 70% then they will make $195,000 in off my company annually. Take that money and split it up in commission (usually 15% for agents), customer service goons, managers, adjusters, and executives. Then suddenly you in the hole.



So, quityer*****in' as they say in the south. They will never make it illegal to own the bikes and put them on the road. But the insurance companies will Stop offering theft/fire/collision coverage on the bikes so they don't have to keep replacing them.



I've been telling you this stuff for three and a half years and you're still not listening.

 

[acecycleins]

BTW- I wasn't inferring that all sportbike riders were a$$es but they sure don't help themselves somestimes.....

 

[m_t_yeo]

Insurance in Canada is a provincial affair and has nothing to do with the federal government. Quebec and Saskatchewan, IIRC, are government insured but every other province is private insurance. I have very inexpensive rates for my bike here in Alberta.

 

[m_t_yeo]

Re: Fair trade

Dear God No!!!!!!

You should have seen the party we had when Celine left. Send her back and we'll need national therapy.

 

[m_t_yeo]

"Tell me this: If you are one of the fortunate to pay reasonable rates on you sportbike (say under $1000 annually) and you wreck and the bike becomes a total loss (say $9500) then where does the money come from? All you have invested is the grand. Now multiply that by say 5000 customers. The insurance company is making $5,000,000 on coverage but they pay out $47,500,000. Think it's still possible that they AREN'T losing money?"



Sure I do.



Where are the riders in your example that didn't wreck their bike in the given year? Each one paid 1K for their insurance and didn't cost the insurance company a penny. If you get enough of those, then you can offset the losses incurred by the a$$es and then some.

 

[acecycleins]

How do you figure that? If I insure 100 new customers a month and of those 100 70% make a claim within a year using a simple $500 premium per year and an average of $3000 in losses per vehicle then do the math. You're losing money on the product. Can you think of another industry that can survive on the hope that 30% of all the money they take in will pay all the expenses in that company annually? And that's just the hope of 30%.

When I started this company my loss ratio was between 90-120% annually for the first two years in business. I was making commissions but the comanies were paying out more money than I was collecting. Now 6 years later I can bank on a 70-75% loss rate including renewal customers. That's a fairly low margin of return for a company that is supposed to make a profit.



Oh, You don't need to use quote marks for a re-butt I know what I said.



Can you name a corperation that can bank on a margin of 30% (of all revenue collected) or less annually and still pay employees? Most companies will pay employees based on total revenue then bank on margins for the profit. In the insurance industry it's not that way.

 

[03zx12r]

Good luck with that crap. It will NEVER happen.

 

[MikeJesse]

I'm 53 yrs. old and pay $278/yr. FULL coverage on the Hayabusa. $298/yr. on the ZRX 1200.



Shop around.

Stop being a squid with a few tickets on your license.

 

[Kipio]

I don't think this argument really makes sense. As long as insurance companies can quantify their risks, they will offer the insurance. The point isn't that companies will stop offering the insurance, but that it might get even more expensive than it is now. (And maybe a LOT more.)



It is interesting that you say that high-risk motorcycle insurance is a loss leader for the insurance companies, but you don't say what it is a loss leader for. Presumably the insurance companies use it to sell you other types of insurance which are then profitable. If this is the case, nothing you have said indicates that this loss leader would cease being profitable for the insurance companies at some point in the future.



So, the reasons that motorcycle insurance in this class would get more expensive would be higher risk (even more crashes, more expensive crashes), or end of it being a loss leader (eg. marketing study shows that GSXR owners don't buy term life insurance.) But I don't see any of this indicating that insurance companies would stop offering insurance in this area. (At least in the United States, where the rates for these things are relatively unregulated.)

 

[acecycleins]

Tickets are everything in this business. There are only a couple of companies (State Farm is one) that rate based on cc size. All others tier bikes in categories. At 53 you ARE the target customer. If you're under 30 bend over and take it like a man. Life's full of tough choices. The insurance industry done playing games on Hi-Prof bikes and any one under 30 eat the cost.