Who has it, and what all is covered by your policy? Theft, in any situation? Damage due to crashes? Is my bike covered by my general household insurance, even if I’m away from home? Have mercy on me with your answers, because I am truly ignorant about all of this!
My renter’s insurance (Liberty Mutual) covers material losses outside of my apartment up to 10% of my policy. That’s cool now that I have a $2500 bike, but I’m going to get a rider for it when I get my Elite T-Class in a couple of weeks, that way I’ll be covered wherever.
I sell car insurance, but know a little about property insurance. It should be covered under your homeowners or renters policy. Most people would be surprised at whats in their policy documents. It’s boring as hell, but I’d recommend investing some time to actually read the thing at least once. Don’t just go by what your agent tells you, read it. And your auto policy too. Keep receipts for the bike itself and all expensive upgrades. An adjuster may have a hard time believing someone would actually spend $3000+ on a bike and another $1500 just for wheels.
My Aegis Trident was covered under my homeowners when it was stolen on Thanksgiving night 2003 from my mother-in-law’s Del Mar, CA home. That night some guys in a box van hit 5 homes and cleaned out garages including Lightspeeds and other high end bikes. We were home to top it all off.
Now I bought the thing for $2,600 on E-bay and I had the Pay pal reciept as proof in July of the same year. I got a check for $5,200 replacement value from the insurance company.
Watch out! I was dropped the next week. When I went to re-insure with another company, my rates went up $1,200 a year. Two well known national companies would not write a policy because I had a flood claim on my Ohio home the prior year (bad luck I know).
Regardless I have to go 3 years without a claim before I can get back to a none rated policy rate. Basically, I will have paid for my new P3 and HED wheels by that time.
By the way, when we go to Del Mar now, the bike sits next to my bed in the guest room.
