The Insurance Company Isn’t Impressed By Cool – The Motorcycle You Ride Determines What You'll Pay Them
If your motorcycle is expensive, fast or features lots of classy add-ons and equipment, then you can guarantee you’ll pay more for your insurance coverage. It’s just a fact of life.
Why, you ask?
It’s because the insurer would have more to replace in the event of an accident. If you want to save a few bucks, it might be worth taking a look at what you need in the way of motorcycle accessories, or at least those accessories for which you want coverage, and making a calculation.
Expensive tools, lights and bangles may look cool, but the insurance company doesn’t dig cool the way that you do – they just add up the cost of all your cool and increase your premium to cover their possible financial exposure in the event your cool is disrupted by theft or accidents.
You do have a couple things going for you.
For the most part, the more popular the manufacturer of your motorcycle model is in terms of sales, the cheaper it will be to insure. The insurance company has to assess what it might cost to repair your motorcycle in the event of an accident or a theft, and when your bike is relatively common, it’s going to be much easier for suppliers and repair facilities to find replacement parts for the repairs or replacement at a decent price.
The bottom line here is that a popular Kawasaki sport bike will be much cheaper to repair than your one-off, all custom aluminum bodywork Ducati.
Lots of people think that if they have a full coverage policy they’re completely protected against all possible problems. Those people are mistaken. “Full coverage” simply means they have coverage in all categories – it doesn’t mean they have ‘sufficient’ coverage in every categories.
To make sure you know the facts and have sufficient motorcycle insurance coverage to repair or replace your bike and take care of any medical costs you might incur, take look at this list of all the major categories of motorcycle insurance coverage we’ve put together:
Basic Motorcycle Insurance Information
- Property Damage – Covers you if you are responsible for causing damage to someone’s property while you’re operating your motorcycle.
- Collision – Covers repairs to your motorcycle regardless of whether or not you are at fault.
- Comprehensive – Covers your losses if your motorcycle and its parts are damaged due to theft, vandalism, flood, or fire.
- Umbrella – Covers any additional amounts incurred if the damages you cause are greater than the amount of your other coverages.
- Uninsured/underinsured – Covers you if you are injured by another person who does not have insurance or has insufficient insurance to fully compensate you.
The last item on the list, Uninsured or underinsured coverage, may well be the most overlooked policy feature of the lot. Without it, you’re left hanging if an uninsured driver causes damage to you or your bike, and with somewhere around 30% of all drivers on the road currently operating their vehicles without insurance nationwide, it’s a chance you don’t want to take.
Motorcycle insurance information is considerably more complex to understand than car insurance, so know what you need to know to protect yourself with the proper insurance.
Above all, don’t assume that the other driver’s insurance will cover the damages resulting from an accident…
Bad things can happen to you and your bike, and your insurance needs can get complicated.