Motors Motorcycle Mayhem

I may do just that tomorrow! I've found what seems to be an amazing deal at a dealer nearby. 04 plate, lovely blue colour, 22k miles, tip top condition bar a few scuffs on a wing mirror stalk and where the keys have rubbed on the fork, £1995! If you can recommend insurers that'd be helpful. Best I've had so far is £600 ish for 3rd party, fire & theft. Guessing it's just a case of playing them off against each other for the cheapest deal. Long phone conversations ensue...

Oh, also suggestions for a security device to help bring the cost down (and keep the bike secure!!) would be nice!

I could get a car, but I don't have a license!

Hopefully I'll arrive home tomorrow in more style then when I left!

 

Premiums have gone a bit wild lately but 18 months ago my mate with an SV650 managed to get about £200 for TPFT, kept on the road, declared value of £2000 with no mods. The comparison sites (the bike insurer?) do a pretty good job. Bennets and Carol Nash are usually expensive, probably worth avoiding. eBike have been good to me in the past, as have MCE.

If it has an alarm you'll get a few quid off. Not worth fitting one to save as the pay-back time will be too great. In general alarms are a pain anyway, best avoided. The best way to get a reasonable quote (other than being over 25 and having no claims bonus) is to store the bike in a garage.

Just get a good disc lock and an Almax chain with a squire lock. Do not, repeat, do not, buy an Oxford chain or anything similar - total and utter shite, you'd be better off setting fire to your cash

In general though, SV650s aren't really hot on thieves lists, thankfully.

 

Yep. I don't know whether it has anything to do with where I am or not, but I suspect it may do so... I'll try changing my address from my home in the north to where I'm living in the south to see if that helps. It's difficult to know where to say its main home is as a student when you're home quite a lot over the summer etc...

Thanks for the security suggestions. I wasn't planning on getting an alarm but a disc lock and some form of chain. I just need to make sure I get it to put on the insurance so hopefully it'll make a difference. I'll try changing my address from my home in the north to where I'm living in the south to see if that helps.

Thanks for all the help RTT. I'll post pics if I do get it!

 

Nah triples Cheesecake.

One of these bad boys and a good ground anchor for home and a Xena disclock alarm for the road.

That is of course assuming you are allowed to drill into the driveway if you live in rented accommodation. Even if they don't I'm starting to install a ground anchor because I live in a fairly high theft area and already had my bike stolen once.


Edit: Curses Beaten to the punch again. Damn my slow typing and procrastinating ways!

 

Blimey that chain is expensive! Still, no one would steal my bike in a while!!! I won't be able to dig into the ground for a ground anchor as I'm currently sharing with a family and next years accommodation doesn't have anywere to do it either, though hopefully I might get a friends garage to keep it in.

Coincidently I was looking at the Xena disc lock alarm, though I may have to choose one and wait for the money for the other given I'll then be a skint student. best to get myself a disc lock reminder to prevent a reoccurence of earlier in the thread!

 

If that chain is a bit too pricey grab a Series III as it is about half the price but still a top notch product.

Regarding the Xena disc locks - mine works well and the sensitivity is about where it should be however I've heard people complaining about them being overly sensitive or requiring a lot of movement to be set off. You wont have to worry about a disc lock reminder though as they are loud enough in person to make you remember!

 

This insurance searching is a real pain... Getting 3rd party, fire and theft quotes as low as 350 but the underwriters seem to all get appalling reviews. D'ya reckon I can use these low quotes to try to bring down some of the others who seem more reputable?

Sucks being a newbie!

 

Who is the underwriter? AXA?

 

You can only try with ref to playing some insurers off the other.

There's a point where insurance at this level is more so you are legal for a couple of years rather than actually looking to claim on it. If you have decent security on your bike, and keep it up to scratch so you cannot get pinged by them if you hit someone - then just ride out the crappy insurance for two years until you can get on with a better company. This is exactly what I am doing.

 

I think it was KGM or something of the sorts. I'd check but I've given up for the night as I feel rough. £350 does seem too good to be true given its my 1st bike etc... You raise a good point though Julian. I guess I could do that until more money comes in and then switch.

Really appreciate all this help folks!

 

Study the Ts & Cs regarding the addresses. Some insurers are fairly anal about where the bike is kept vs where the policy is reg'd. My first policy had some utterly ridiculous clause which was something like tripling the excess (so not far off the value of the bike!) if the bike was stolen more than 100m away from the registered address on the policy... to get around that I had to add a 2nd overnight location to the policy, which obviously cost more And even then, if it was nicked when I was out and about, I was pretty much ****ed! Tbh though, leaving a KTM 950 SM anywhere is a stupid idea

And just to back what the other guys said, see your first couple of insurance as policies to make you legal, rather than something to rely on!

 

I wish I could share your confidence... I've had some good low quotes, but then they ask if it has any modifications. Apparently a rear hugger, crash bungs and a tank pad make a quote jump up £400! And of course if I weren't to declare them and had a crash I'd be stuffed...

What's also annoying is that I can't often find the specified locks and so on, so I'm not sure if I'm actually getting the best quoted deal. In one instance I've had the 3rd party rise by as much as £900! It really is like ...

 

I don't bother declaring non performance enhancing mods - I've got a belly pan, hugger, seat cowl, tank pad and paddock stand bobbins fitted, none of which are declared. They were all fitted in the factory, though. Despite all of the negative press around it, no insurer is going to refuse a pay out because you fitted a tank pad or a hugger. Absolute worst case they may raise the excess. I have a bit more faith in them despite all the negative press ;D

Of course, my performance enhancing mods (exhausts) are declared - and don't affect the premium in any way whatsoever (amazingly!)

 

I'd consider that, but given they ask for it on the quote page, it makes me think that they'd void my policy if I didn't declare them. Grr... Why do they make this so hard?!

 

Does the premium really go up if you add a tank pad?! That's insane. I'd ring them

 

Yep! I added a tank pad, rear hugger and crash bungs and the quote jumped more than £400!! Absurd. They say the new test regulations coming in next year will stop people learning to ride. Insurance is enough in my eyes.

Still, soldier on.........

 

What are they doing to the test next year?

 

http://http://www.artmotorcycletraining.co.uk/new-motorcycle-test-2013.htm

If taken to it's most extreme form, you'll have to take 3 tests (at least) to get an unrestricted license and you can only take them after having the previous stage for 2 years. (This assumes you start at 17) It's all explained there. Even D.A.S is going up to 24 years of age.

E.U eh? Fun, fun, fun...

 

Which insurer is changing the quote by that much for a hugger (edit: £350 for an SV with a new licence and no NC bonus you must been in a cheap postcode group!)? I'm using http://www.ebikeinsurance.co.uk/ (because they're cheap and I've a claim against me now ) and they don't change the quote unless the mod increases the power even then I don't think it changes much although some insurers are pretty evil with prices when it comes to mods (max number of mods etc...).

However I agree with RTT I'd leave them off as they wont change the performance or handling of the bike. If you were going fully comp then yes you might lose out in a crash as the insurer could choose not to cover the extra bits however with TPFT I wouldn't care.


The new test is awesome! I wonder when they are going to do something similar with cars because I'm sure that wouldn't cause an uproar...