[dodogenocide]

If the bike is worth less than three grand and is a first-bike beater, is full coverage really necessary? It seems like if I destroy it to the point where I can't ride it, there's no use in fixing it. I'm checking my insurance stuff before I buy a used Kawa EX500, and was wondering what I really need. I'm pretty sure I don't need $10,000 full coverage, since the bike isn't worth a third of that. There's an orgy of options (and stupid ones like towing, pssh), and I'm not sure what it appropriate.

Also, has anybody tried online insurance, like Geico? Again, I have no idea the merit nor utility of these online insurers.

 

[ejis]

I've never carried anything but liability on my bikes, but then I've only bought used bikes not worth a whole lot anyway. On the other hand, cosmetic damage is expensive to fix, and low speed drops can cause quite a bit of it.

Towing coverage may actually be worth it, depending on where you are and what kind of friends you have around. Dropping the bike can make it unrideable, even if the damage is minor (broken clutch lever, for example).

Can't say about the "online" insurers, but Geico is a reputable company - definitely not a fly-by-night operation, and they're primarily not online anyway...

Goodl luck!

 

[longride]

"If the bike is worth less than three grand and is a first-bike beater, is full coverage really necessary? "

No, especially if you aren't worried about taking the hit if it's stolen or totalled.

 

[62822]

Last night I purchased insurance from State Farm in PA for the 2002 Ninja 250 I am buying.
Com/Coll/Liability $152.43 for a year with a $250.00 deductable.
Geico, who insures my car wanted $450.- for less coverage and higher deductables.
Can you guess which company is insuring my car now?
Saved over $300-. a year through State Farm with much better coverage.
No, I don't work for State Farm.
LOL
My girl friend turned me on to them. She uses them to insure her 1000cc Aprillia.

 

[acecycleins]

"If the bike is worth less than three grand and is a first-bike beater, is full coverage really necessary? "

No, especially if you aren't worried about taking the hit if it's stolen or totalled.

Longride is right. I have been selling motorcycle insurance for 8 yrs and unless you have something special (no- the ex doesn't qualify) then you shouldn't. Now a suggestion is to put Comprehensive coverage on it. That way it's protected for theft, fire, vandalism and a host of other oddities. I sell in the southeast but if you'd like to contact me I'd be glad to help you find an appropriate company that does business where you live.
Kirk

 

[Kenneth_Moore]

Unsolicited Promotion

I sell in the southeast but if you'd like to contact me I'd be glad to help you find an appropriate company that does business where you live.
Kirk

BTW: Kirk's quote to me was about 40% lower than the best quote I got from my insurance agent friend.

 

[57335]

I've totaled two bikes, and both were repaid, so it's a tough call how much you should get. I have comprehensive now on my bikes, but a bike worth under $3000 probably isn't worth the hassle unless you think it's a real target for thieves and vandals.

 

[Kenneth_Moore]

Do Tell!

I've totaled two bikes.

So...what happened??

 

[dodogenocide]

I can't imagine how much of a theft target it would be - it'd be on the campus lot parked next to Ducatis, GSX-Rs, and the occasional CBR1000. Plus, most of my riding (at first) will all be within pushing distance of my school campus, and I'm not sure if my AAA covers bikes.

If (or when, if you're cynical) I drop the bike, will having fairings protect the internals from damage? I don't mind an ugly bike if it runs well.

 

[35377]

The purpose of an insurance company is to make money. They do this by collecting premiums and denying claims. They all suck, so give them as little money as you can. Shop around, and on-line is OK. Go with the cheapest company that’s licensed to do business in your state.

Do the math for each different type of coverage. As you noted, it’s probably not cost-effective to get collision or comprehensive on a bike with a low “depreciated value” (an insurance company euphemism for “half what you paid for it”). Always figure into the cost of any comprehensive or collision policy the aggravation of trying to collect anything from these claim-denying scumsuckers.

On the other side of the coin, you need to make sure that you have enough liability insurance to protect your assets. If you live in a refrigerator carton and spend all your money on motorcycles, riding gear, track days and booze (as we all should), then go with the state minimum. On the other hand, if you’re rich like Longride, you can coordinate your m/c coverage with a high limit umbrella policy.

By the way, cheap towing insurance is available to members of the American Motorcyclist Association. It covers you on any bike you’re riding, so if you’re riding with a friend and his bike breaks down, just swap saddles and the broken bike gets towed.

And above all, have fun flailing the half-liter Ninja!

 

[Buzglyd]

The purpose of an insurance company is to make money. They do this by collecting premiums and denying claims. They all suck, so give them as little money as you can. Shop around, and on-line is OK. Go with the cheapest company that's licensed to do business in your state.

Snip

By the way, cheap towing insurance is available to members of the American Motorcyclist Association. It covers you on any bike you're riding, so if you're riding with a friend and his bike breaks down, just swap saddles and the broken bike gets towed.

And above all, have fun flailing the half-liter Ninja!

Um Bill? The purpose of every company is to make money. I've used State Farm for 20 years and can't recall them ever denying a claim.

 

[35377]

You’re absolutely right about the moneymaking thing, Buzglyd. And I don’t have a problem with that, unless, of course, you advertise one thing and deliver another.

Amazing the difference between the advertising copy the fine print on the policy. 100 percent of the ad copy is about what they cover. 100% of the fine print is about what they DON’T cover.

I’ve dealt with insurance companies for nearly 40 years now. I fully understand the contracts I have with the companies that insure my motorcycles, cars, home, business, life and health. I expect to get what I pay for, but I do not expect them to cover anything that is excluded from my policy. I also do not expect them to be there “Like a Good Neighbor.”

In my experience, no group promises more and delivers less than insurance companies and their agents. They will do anything to sell a policy, and start reneging as soon as the ink is dry on the contract (“an audit revealed that your application states that your house is more than one mile away from a fire hydrant – give us another $500 a year or we’ll cancel your policy and leave you on your own to find something else”).

They also do all they can to sell you insurance that you don’t need, such as grossly overpriced towing insurance or any “whole life” policy.

Maybe I just use the wrong companies. If I call State Farm, can I mention your name?

 

[Kenneth_Moore]

I think somebody needs a nice nap in the Geico Harmony Hut. I'll bring your cookies and milk when you're tucked in.

 

[35377]

Thanks for bringing up the “G-Word.”

The good people at Geico have a huge program where they give – GIVE – police radar units to local police departments to “promote highway safety.” They do this in states where their lobbyists have been successful in establishing an insurance “points” system that increases your rates whenever you get a speeding ticket.

If you buy insurance from Geico, you are arming the local gendarme with radar guns to use as a revenue-generating device at your expense. Geico wins. The local cops win. You lose.

Boycott Gieco!

 

[Kenneth_Moore]

Damn SuperBill, did an insurance agent abscond with your teenage daughter?

BTW: thanks for the tip on the AMA towing insurance. I just joined last week, and a few minutes ago I signed up for the MoTow. With one bike over 30 yrs old, and the other 21, I need it.

 

[acecycleins]

The purpose of an insurance company is to make money. They do this by collecting premiums and denying claims. They all suck, so give them as little money as you can. Shop around, and on-line is OK. Go with the cheapest company that's licensed to do business in your state.

Do the math for each different type of coverage. As you noted, it's probably not cost-effective to get collision or comprehensive on a bike with a low "depreciated value" (an insurance company euphemism for "half what you paid for it"). Always figure into the cost of any comprehensive or collision policy the aggravation of trying to collect anything from these claim-denying scumsuckers.

On the other side of the coin, you need to make sure that you have enough liability insurance to protect your assets. If you live in a refrigerator carton and spend all your money on motorcycles, riding gear, track days and booze (as we all should), then go with the state minimum. On the other hand, if you're rich like Longride, you can coordinate your m/c coverage with a high limit umbrella policy.

By the way, cheap towing insurance is available to members of the American Motorcyclist Association. It covers you on any bike you're riding, so if you're riding with a friend and his bike breaks down, just swap saddles and the broken bike gets towed.

And above all, have fun flailing the half-liter Ninja!

Bill- since I have never met you and don't want to be unfair, I am going to make an observation: You're either anti-capitalist or a cynical a$$.
As with ANY business, the object IS to make money. You're statement that insurance companies are there to make money- well, DUH! No one opens a business to lose money you dope.
As far as your statement about of denying claims- Hosresh!t. I've been in this business for 8 yrs and if you're not prepaired to deal with a claim from a business standpoint you will always feel had. I have never had a customer feel jipped or ripped off by any company that I rep. Are some claims harder to satisfy than others? YES. But if you (the policy holder) have your facts straight and your documentation in order to complete a claim most will be settled in less than a week. So- don't be so sour. Relax and drink a nice tall adult beverage of your choice and after you think about it for a while, either change your agent or drop out of the system take your chances by self-insuring. Let me know how that goes for you.

People have the [email protected] things stolen for unexplained reasons. It doesn't cost a lot to have Comprehensive coverage on a bike. Tell me how good our subject's going to feel if the bike was pushed over and damaged by some jerk? Or if something is stolen off of the bike while he's at the local brew house watching the game. Insurance is a safety net. Why do we use safety nets? Ask your Home Owner Insurance provider that question.

 

[35377]

Choice #2 is correct, Acecycleins: I am a “cynical a$$” when it comes to insurance. Here’s a recent example of why:

My elderly mother lives in north central Florida in the house she was born in. The house is over 100 years old (that’s OLD for Florida). It’s balloon-frame constriction on brick piers.

I lived there the first 18 years of my life and only recall one storm that hit that part of the state at hurricane strength. Mom only recalls two. None of the bad storms of this century hit her at hurricane strength.

For years she was insured with some company out of Michigan that specialized in insurance for farms, but they quit insuring in Florida and she ended up with Kemper about 10 years ago. Apparently, the rocket scientists at Kemper decided it would be a good idea to sell a whole bunch of policies to shoreline residents of a narrow peninsula that separates the storm crucibles that are the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Kemper got their clock cleaned when all the storms came through. DUH!

Kemper decided that the only appropriate thing to do was to completely bail out of Florida, irrespective of where the damage occurred. No doubt they are now flooding the California insurance market with earthquake insurance. No matter. Now mom can’t renew, and no other insurance company in the state will touch her house, completely disregarding the patently obvious fact that that a house that has stood up to every storm since 1895 is a good insurance risk.

Now mom is left to swim in the high-risk insurance pool run by the state. It goes by the communist-sounding moniker of “Citizen’s Insurance” or some such stuff. They charge her TEN TIMES what Kemper was charging. On top of that, they made her buck up about $12,000 to replace the perfectly good circa 1920 “knob & tube” wiring system before they would even issue a policy.

I consoled my dear mom by telling her that it wouldn’t be long before private insurance would come back, unable to resist the kind of profit that the extortionists at Citizens insurance were gleaning. They did, and now she’s only paying about seven times what she was before. Another couple of years of no storms and “underwriters amnesia” will set in and she’ll be down to paying only about twice as much as she should.

Yes, I believe in capitalism, and I believe in making money, and I believe that huge corporations should have the right to squeeze money out of little old ladies in Florida. That doesn’t mean I have to like them or give them any more of my money than is absolutely necessary to get the minimum coverage I need to meet my fiscal obligations.

 

[Kenneth_Moore]

Choice #2 is correct, Acecycleins: I am a "cynical a$$" when it comes to insurance. Here's a recent example of why:

My elderly mother lives in north central Florida in the house she was born in. The house is over 100 years old (that's OLD for Florida). It's balloon-frame constriction on brick piers.

I lived there the first 18 years of my life and only recall one storm that hit that part of the state at hurricane strength. Mom only recalls two.

No kidding! My folk's house is 120 years old, is build on brick and mortar piers, and is in Central Florida. She's on the Indian River near Cocoa Beach. How 'bout that? Her place has survived every storm too. I'll have to ask her what's up with her homeowners...my sister handles her finances.

 

[35377]

My mom lives in Marion County, 90 miles from the gulf and the Atlantic, so it’s the tornados that worry me more than the hurricanes. There’s nothing but gravity holding that old house on the face of this earth, and it looks to me that a good twister could take the whole kit and caboodle up to the Land of Oz.!

 

[acecycleins]

Choice #2 is correct, Acecycleins: I am a "cynical a$$" when it comes to insurance. Here's a recent example of why:

"Kemper decided that the only appropriate thing to do was to completely bail out of Florida, irrespective of where the damage occurred. No doubt they are now flooding the California insurance market with earthquake insurance. No matter. Now mom can't renew, and no other insurance company in the state will touch her house, completely disregarding the patently obvious fact that that a house that has stood up to every storm since 1895 is a good insurance risk.

Now mom is left to swim in the high-risk insurance pool run by the state. It goes by the communist-sounding moniker of "Citizen's Insurance" or some such stuff. They charge her TEN TIMES what Kemper was charging. On top of that, they made her buck up about $12,000 to replace the perfectly good circa 1920 "knob & tube" wiring system before they would even issue a policy."

Point taken. Sorry your Mom got the short end of that. However, every homeowner insurance company that does business in hurricane prone areas over the last decade have taken terrible losses during that time. The claims pay-out two years ago was so bad that most companies are still trying to recover from the losses. Re-insurance is the insurance that keep the insurance companies floating while paying out claims. Most every area in the country never have to deal with such situations, but if you live in coastal regions you see the results. The point of insurance is to spread the risk far and wide throughout the underwriters entire region. For some reason, after Hugo, none of these guys learned from that lesson. If the insurance companies would have spread the loss nationwide by issuing a simple two percent rate increase then FL, AL, MS, LA and TX would not have customers scrambling for insurance coverage because the accuaries screwed up the filings (or simply ducked out) in the first place. Homeowner insurance is tougher than what I do (strickly toys) because homeowners aren't told that they should re-evaluate and re-appraise every couple of years to make sure that the value of their homes are correct for the re-sale market conditions. Funny thing is no one (homeoners) in these areas think about adding flood or wind coverage, as well. So, when claims happen arguements between homeowners and insures ensue. Sadly, these things happen, but if agents would better explain coverage and what they can buy as supplements to that coverage we wouldn't see the attitude that you are justifiably displaying. Part of being an educated consumer, however, is asking even the most obvious of questions to agents or brokers. We agents carry E&O insurance (errors and ommisions). That insurance is for anything we do that could be misconstrued at the point of sale. If I don't give you a direct and complete answer to your question or a false answer and you sue then E&O covers my losses to make your claim right. E&O protects us from our own stupidity. Attorneys have the same type of coverage.
On the property and casualty side of M/C coverage or Auto for that matter, these types of things rarely happen when you look at insurance as a whole. There are 100's of millions of insured vehicles out there and less than 10% of claims are the cause of such mistrust in this industry. Agents really are your best solution to the problem. We make money from the carrier. Brokers make money from you for finding a carrier. Eventhough the agent is a direct rep for the company we have a customer to protect. Brokers, more or less, are looking at the bottom line. Direct business is even worse because you have no one to back you up. As an agent, if your not happy with the carrier I will find another one you will be happy with. Brokers don't go to such extremes in most cases. Direct business is wrose because they have a "kiss my a$$" attitude about you. So, in the end a local agent is looking out for you because their reputation is far more precious to them and the community than you think.