Does anybody know of insurance provided for bike theft. My auto insurance company (State Farm for 20 years) told me they do not provide any bike theft insurance policies. They said if the bike is stolen from my SUV (I travel with the bike inside) that my auto policy does not cover it but that my homeowner’s insurance would cover it. I haven’t read the fine print on my homeowner’s policy yet. Anybody know in general? Also, what happens if the bike is stolen while in the transition area at a race? I know the race promoter is not responsible but does homeowner’s policy cover it? What if stolen while locked to a rack? Bike is worth about $6,000. Thanks.
Talk to your insurance rep and find out what is and isn’t covered under your homeowners. Typically anything you own will be covered regardless of where it is but it’s not always the case. I went over my policy and found that I have full replacement value for anything I own. The only caveat is that I have to actually replace the stuff, if I choose not to buy a replacement then I will get fair market value for those items.
My Renter’s insurance covered my loss last June. The bike was stolen from my garage, $500 deductable is all that my replacement cost. USAA insurance company, quick, like 7 day turn around time.
I work in property insurance, so I may be able to offer a little help.
It really depends what kind of homeowners policy you have. More often than not, most special limits within homeowners policies are more concerned with jewelry, antiques and collections, rather than bikes. So as long as you have adequate limits, your homeowners policy will likely cover your bike even if it’s stolen out of your car or transition area. The most common homeowners policies settle personal property (ie. not your home or other structures) at actual cash value, but you can buy replacement cost loss settlement on personal property. If you don’t already have this, you should call your insurance company and upgrade, because the difference between ACV and Replacement Cost can be significant, and it’s usually not much extra to buy.
All good advice. I will add that there is generally a limit of ~10% for household goods that are “off premises”. Therefore, if your house and furnishings are valued at $100,000, and the property stolen from your vehicle/transition/bike rack is more than $10,000, you might be out of luck for the overage. Check with your homeowner’s/renter’s insurance provider for specifics.
In all those cases you may have to attest that you took adequate measures to ensure your property was safe from theft; i.e. car was locked, security at transition, bike was actually locked to the rack, not just zip tied or leaned against it.
My homeowner’s insurance covers any number of bikes up to a value of $1000 each. So it my $3k bike gets ripped off they’ll pay $1000. But if my apartment got broken into and they stole n $1000 bikes, they’d all be covered. Up to the max of my policy, that is.
Bikes worth more than $1000 can be insured under a separate rider for $4/$100. It seems high (especially when I hear about what some of the US based companies offer), but it’s the best deal going in Vancouver.
Any idea how one stands if it’s stolen from the bike locker of your apartment, if it’s locked up with say a Kryptonite fawgetaboutit chain and lock?
Mine is pretty much the same. But I also figure, if it DOES get stolen, it’s an automatic cash replacement. Last thing I (or my wife) want to do is be screwing around with an insurance company when one of my steeds goes missing. Mind you we also insure our digital camera, cello, and some jewelery just in case. The old addage comes to mind that “an ounce of prevention, is worth a pound of cure!”
Truegrit,
I am also with State farm and here is what you need to do. Tell your agent that you want a personal article policy. I think thats what its called. They are usually done for jewelry and bigger ticket items that are not covered by normal home owners insurance. It will be its own seperate policy and will insure for replacement value not depreciated value. They are also typically no questions asked too. But like I said this will be its own policy and you will have to have your LBS write you up a detailed appraisal of value and then you will have an annual policy cost. Its super low though. We have my wifes engagement ring under one of those policies and I think its like 8-9 bucks a month which is nothing compared to what it would cost to replace the ring. And it should cover all conditions. Theft, forgot it at a race, crashed out. Again the awesome thing about this is your are insuring the amount of the appraisal not depreciated value.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for the detail on this one! Just got a new bike and emailed my agent (state farm) yesterday. At least once I speak with them, I’ll have some idea of what type of coverage is possible. I’m especially pleased to know that I can insure for replacement cost rather than retail price or depreciated value - I purchased a used bike and got a GREAT deal; I want insurance to pay to give me an equivalent bike if necessary.
Thanks!
I’m not sure how community accessible bike lockers are covered, but Kryptonite has decent coverage with their higher end locks as well. I’d check with BCAA once you know where you’re living. But seriously - I just can’t picture you leaving bikes in the locker… 
$4/$100 of coverage is not that bad if the company giving you coverage will give you good claims service. I work for a high end insurance company and one of my jobs is the valuables (or personal inland marine which is the technical name) pricing. Valuables policies are primarily used for jewelry and fine arts, but currently we have rates for bicycles among other things. Bicycles are also insured under the contents of a homeowners policy I believe, but you have to pay the deductible on your homeowners insurance.
All good advice. I will add that there is generally a limit of ~10% for household goods that are “off premises”. Therefore, if your house and furnishings are valued at $100,000, and the property stolen from your vehicle/transition/bike rack is more than $10,000, you might be out of luck for the overage. Check with your homeowner’s/renter’s insurance provider for specifics.
In all those cases you may have to attest that you took adequate measures to ensure your property was safe from theft; i.e. car was locked, security at transition, bike was actually locked to the rack, not just zip tied or leaned against it.
This is true. You are limited to 10% of your Personal Property limit for property not located on your premises.
As far as having to prove that you locked your car or locked your bike at transition. This likely isn’t going to be an issue, unless you were insanely negligent. Negligence is very difficult for an insurance company to prove in most cases, and most companies won’t go to the hassle for such a small claim (small compared to a $500,000 house burning down). Because they risk the insured turning around and suing them, and it takes about 2 seconds for the legal costs of that to exceed what they could have just settled the claim for.
Insurance is generally a rip-off.
I don’t insure anything I don’t have to.
Insurance is generally a rip-off.
I don’t insure anything I don’t have to.
Most people don’t insure anything they aren’t required by law or promissory note to insure, either. A lot of people who take this plan also aren’t very learned on the coverage they’re being forced to buy. Plenty of people are required to have homeowners insurance, and all they know is that if the house burns down they get a new one. Lots of people don’t know that property off premises is covered, that flooding is NOT covered unless you have a special rider, or that even though you’re covered for a hurricane, there is a different deductible schedule for those claims.
Insurance is gambling. It’s like playing one number at roulette for 50,000:1 odds. Odds are that you’ll never collect, but the one time (or worse yet, multiple times in quick succession) that number pops… you’ll be glad you put your dollar on the table that month.
I’m just trying to weight up all options, space permitting it would only be the Kona and the Big Dummy in a bike locker.
I am on the same team as jimatbeyond. Generally I try to stay “self insured”. Hurricane Ike, which went thru my neighborhood last September, only strengthened my beliefs. (Have homeowner’s insurance thru Lloyds of London, have never seen any insurance company RUN away from paying any potential claim so fast.) Got our bikes registered and tagged thru bikeregistry.com , travel w/ a small lock on multi-day events…
Thanks everybody.
Last thought on this: My home insurance only covers up to $500 per bike. I went ahead and sent them appraisals for two bike, and pay for extra insurance for those bikes specifically. It ain’t cheap, but I know I’m covered.
My renter’s policy from Allstate covered my bike when it was stolen from the street. It costs me 200 a year and covers anything in my apartment for up to 30k as well as off site theft of music equipment, sports equipment, and anything in my pockets/bag. The off site theft is not added in by default so you have to ask for it…it was only like $40 extra.
When my bike was stolen they asked me to tell them all the parts I had in it over the phone and called the bike shop to make sure I can get the bike for the price that I paid. They pay the replacement cost and not what you paid…so if it goes up you’re still covered for the greater amount.