Bike insurance.

[F6Dave]

I had Progressive for several years. Never had a claim or a ticket, then my rates went up for no apparent reason. I made a few calls and learned they had erroneously changed something in my profile that caused the increase. To their credit they refunded the most of the difference, but the incident encouraged me to consolidate my policies with a single carrier. I'd also read that the 'Progressive' name is no accident, as their CEO donated heavily to leftist causes.

Over the years I've had 3 weather related (hail and wind) claims with Allstate. They were all paid quickly and fairly. That may be partly due to an awesome agent I had. She personally inspected the work of local body shops and roofers so she could make recommendations to her clients. Unfortunately she recently retired.

[makya53]

I have Geico 2 bikes 100K, 250K for 980 a year.

[makya53]

I live in Toronto Ontario area in Canada. No tickets, no claims. $1500 a year. And we don't drive year round.

Damn is auto expensive in Canada too? Guess you gotta take the good with the bad because you don't have to shell out $1200 a month for health insurance.

[Old Ryder]

State and driving record has a lot to do with it, but companies let you choose a la carte'. They may quote you a low price, but it may not cover if somebody else is riding your bike or if it falls off a trailer or other odd ball reasons for a claim.

State Farm had me at $111 per month for a Sporster a few years back---Progressive now covers my 2013 B and 2006 VRod for $60 per month for the both of them.

[Flat6addict]

Gentlemen, I am new here, but definitely not new to motorcycling. I want to share with you my thoughts on insurance.

I will preface by saying that last January, my wife and I were hit by a drunk driver that crossed the centerline, taking out both of us on two separate bikes. My wife was in front. She bore the brunt of it, and lost her left leg and shattered both arms. Of course, the asshole was uninsured. What follows is what I have learned from that... her medical bills so far are over half a mil- and that doesn't include the prosthetic leg. Mine were a paltry $62K, and I walked (well, limped) away from it all.

First, I think we can all agree that when the cager hits you hard, insurance coverage they carry will likely leave you short- especially since most health care insurance policies will claw back anything they spend on covering your injuries from any auto insurance policy you are going to get- yours or theirs.

The hospital, when they sniff out that your injuries were the result of a motor vehicle accident, will immediately try to get you to sign something called an assignment of benefits. They may even use a third party sales person to get you to sign. DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING THAT LETS THE HOSPITAL "ASSIST YOU" in processing an insurance claim. What they want to do is bill the auto insurance (either theirs or your UM/UIM) directly rather than take your health insurance company's negotiated rates- which are far lower than the standard billing rate. YOU DO NOT have to sign this, ever. Tell them to bill your insurance company. Hell, even those bastards are gonna steal from you too, but that's another story altogether. At least what they take back is the negotiated cost of the health care, not the full price.

Find out what UIM/UM is. Uninsured motorist coverage in your state is going to vary, but essentially, each POLICY has a UM/UIM line- NOT each vehicle. Therefore, it behooves you to have more policies- even from separate companies. Yes, it WILL cost you more in premiums. On the flip side, one bad accident will easily chew through one policy's UM/UIM. We had two to work from for a total of $550K.

Now, I have one bike insured with allstate- $700 a year, another with State farm, $620 a year, a car on a separate state farm policy, and two other cars on a USAA policy. NOW my UM/UIM totals over a million bucks.

Figure out if in your state how you can stack UM/UIM.

You will find that in a serious accident, the damage to your bike is going to be negligible compared to your medical costs. Don't shortchange yourself on insurance by trying to find the cheapest. Look at your tolerance to risk, financially, and insure yourself against the worst case scenario.

-Bo

[wjduke]

100% agree. You have to have "under insured" coverage. It's what gave me a small amount after my accident. Without it, I would not be riding today. The guy that hit me had my state's minimum coverage. No where near enough for my small problems compared to what happened to Bo and his wife. I still don't have the kind of numbers Bo has, but made sure it's part of my policy.