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Bike insurance

Greg

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Joined
Mar 6, 2003
Messages
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Location
Tomball,TX
I sold my VFR a couple months ago and was on FULL coverage with Farmers at a reasonable annual premium - $790. As I am looking for my new ride, I've priced out insurance on several different sport bikes and the quotes are outrageous....some 3x's what I was paying before. Can someone tell me what I'm missing? I'm 33 y/o with a clean driving record and no accidents. What happened? What is the consensus from most of you - do you ride only with liability? I'm crying! And if I plan to finance the new bike, I have to get FULL coverage, right? Someone pass me some better news, please.
 
All i can say is shop-shop-& shop somemore. It comes down to the underwriters. They have a certain amount of money they write per month. They consider bikes to be obviously high risk so they tend to be very picky about giving good rates to motorcyclist. The underwriters have quotas though, and catching them when they need to write a policy can yield some awsome rates. You may check back w/ the same companies in a week and get a much better rate. Also check w/ some of the smaller companies. Dairyland for one writes a lot of motorcycles.
Also consider the bike. Full-on sportbikes (i.e. R1, R6, GSXR's) are going to be elevated anyway, but what I said before still applies. I ride a 2001 SV650 & full coverage runs me about $450 / year. 29 yrs old, no accidents & 1 ticket :angryfir:
 
I have liability, uninsured motorist, comprehensive, and roadside assistance (pretty much everything but collision) on both my bikes. I have a 1985 Honda Interceptor 500 (early sportbike that was replaced by the CBR in 1987) and a 1992 Honda VFR750. Both are sporty, but not the type of bike that gets stolen or wrecked often, so that helps the rates. I'm 26 and I live in Brazos County which costs about half as much as Harris County where I used to live. I'm in the probationary period of dismissing a ticket, so barring that, I have a clean record with a safe rider discount from taking the ERC. I'm insured through Progressive and I pay $484 a year for both bikes. Definitely shop around. Insurance is a wacky business that has very little rhyme or reason to how or why it costs so much at one place/time and not at another... :roll:
 
Like kawi jm said, it pays to shop around.

No matter who you choose you're probably gonna feel like you're getting gigged-just one of the joys of living in Harris County. The rates reflect, among other things, the herds of uninsured/underinsured roaming the streets.

I had all my bikes insured with Progressive for many years until their rates skyrocketed for no apparent reason(no tickets or claims). I called around and went with Bikeline, who gave me a quote I thought was reasonable. I have no experience with their service but other have said they were fast and fair.

Steve
 
Also my wife, who sells insurance for a living, told me to suggest Halley(sp?) insurance. I think they are in the woodlands. Thats who we are through.
 
I have Progressive for both bikes and pay a little over $1100/yr for both (and most of that is on the VFR). One thing I noticed when shopping around before getting the viffer was that most of the full litre sportbikes, your R1/GSXR1000/959, and even the the 600s, R6/GSXR600/600RR/ZX6R were all 100%-200% more than the VFR for full coverage. I guess the insurance companies have noticed that these are the machines that go down more often and get stolen a lot.

Anyway, when I was looking around I found that sticking with Progressive was by far the best deal but I think it just varies for each of us.

Good luck
 
Actually Progressive will lower rates in certain areas in an attempt to saturate that area. They up there coverage percenatage rate in some states that way. Texas is one of them. So sometimes you will hear of people getting awsome rates from Progressive, and when you go to get quoted it is way out of line. The reason is they are not focusing on that particular area at that time. :mrgreen:
 
Insurance rates are based on driving record, credit score, type of vehicle, county of residence (or zip code) It can also be based on the whims of the insurance undewriting agent, his need for a new car/house/plasma tv etc.

Also I believe the the alignment of planets, tides, plague of locusts, bio-rythms, barometric pressure, what phase the moon is in in, etc. comtributes to rate structure.

In reality (not the alternate dimension that is insurance) I have heard that you can get a much better rate at Progressive going through an agent than off of their website. Not sure about this, and I know their rates tend to be all over the board, but several have relayed this info in another forum.
 
:tab At times, it does seem like the quoted premiums are a tad on the random side :roll:

Adios,
 
Regarding the post by stinky93071, does anyone else on this board have experience dealing with Strictly Cycles Insurance in Dallas? The owner of the business gave me a quote on a couple of sportbikes and they were the lowest of all the places I shopped.

Just wondering how the customer service was, especially in case I do have to contact them for a claim.
 
I just switched from Progressive to Gieco Direct. Liability only. $89/yr for both bikes. Progressive went crazy on me and jumped from $120/yr to $210. It pays to shop around!
 
Just moved from Farmers to Progressive. In the process I dropped collision on the VTR, theft and liability only, and added the Sportster, which required comprehensive.

My rate actually dropped to cover both bikes! Adding collision back to the VTR doubled the rate! So, while it pays to shop insurance, at your stage of the game it also pays to shop various bikes.

The less plastic, the cheaper the insurance. A Bandit 1200 will be much less than a GSXR-1000. A ZRX less than a ZX, etc... My old Farmers agent said that statistically speaking, a 600cc SuperSport WILL be totalled in the first 12 months of ownership, and the insurance rates are set accordingly. Pick your bike carefully, and your agent will reward you.

Currently the scam to get a young 20 something on a SuperSport is to spread it amongst two or three credit cards so they can just carry liability. Of course if they wad it, they don't have insurance.

So, go for a Guzzi LeMans! ;-)

Daryl
 
I second the GEICO reccomendation. Every time I renew I shop prices with all of the companies that offer m/c insurance in Texas and GEICO has won every year by a wide margin with Progressive coming in second.
 
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