Advice About Bicycle Insurance
I think I need to insure my bicycle against possible theft. I’ve heard that some bikes are more likely to get stolen and that theft happens every day in my city and I really want bicycle insurance to cover my investment. Even though I am very careful about locking my bike every time I get off. I use one of those really nice U-Locks and wear the key on a chain around my neck. But I found out that one of my friends was dating an insurance salesman and so I contacted him with my questions to see what he thought about my idea.

I asked him "What do you think about bicycle insurance" and he said that my homeowners insurance policy or (if I had rented a home) my renters insurance policy would cover my bicycle if it happened to get stolen. He said that there were a lot of limitations and exclusions with these policies though and that I should check them thoroughly. He said that my bike would probably have to be stolen from my home (inside of my home) or inside of my garage to be fully insured.

I was thinking that if I just had bicycle insurance and my bike



was stolen from anywhere near my house, including locked up outside of my garage that insurance money would buy me a new one. That turned out to not be true. The one agent I talked to told me that if my bike was covered I would be reimbursed for the value of a new model, less the depreciation for every year that I had bicycle. I’m thinking that depending on the rate of depreciation - I may still end up owing money, even if my very old bike was stolen! So, what's up with that? Perhaps a better 'replacement value' policy would do the trick but you'll have to talk to your own agent about it to make sure.

The agent I talked to told me that I should maintain very good records for bicycle insurance. He told me to take a detailed photo inventory of my possessions and to keep all of my receipts. He also said that any time I am making a claim against an insurance policy for theft that I need to have a police report attached to the form to verify that the bike was indeed stolen. It is also very important to be accurate when declaring the value of the property stolen - and the receipts would help with that.


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