The Beacon Message Board

I've always been a bit dismissive of cycle insurance. However a recent accident involving someone I used to ride with got me reconsidering. The risk I take when cycling is my call, I do everything I possibly can to minimise that risk - But none the less the risk is there - so I looked at the options:-

British Cycling + CTC
Nothing wrong with what they offer and for under £40 a year you get £10m Public liability insurance and a few other goodies thrown in - also access to legal advice should you ever need it.
I do think some people have this cover and that they are are 'insured' - be aware that the £10m figure is only 3rd party (it covers what you hit - but not you or your bike) - Also access to legal advice - doesn't necessarily mean solictor will represent you in court for free. It can just be a phone number - any better than googling for a solicitor ? - or the no win no fee types

The above really wasn't what I was looking for. So I found Pedalsure. This better suited me - for £60 a year - I am covered and get a benefit type payout (£35k)if I am injured or loose a limb in a cycling accident. I only get £1m third party cover - a lot less than BC or ctc. However its only me thats insured - not my bike ...

Bike Insurance
In the end I decided against this. I have £500 cover on my house insurance if someone steals my bike in a burglary. For around £200 I could insure the bike away from my home - but with lots of provisos - for example the theft element would only apply if my bike was secured with an approved lock (im slow enough without lugging a cast iron u lock around!)
Crash cover - yeah well fair enough - by my reckoning was you may break your forks, wheels, even frame - but highly unlikely to write of all of the group set as well . If you have a £6k frame this may be worth it - but I don't. I thought £200 to insure a 6 year old bike - which cost £1500 when new wasn't worth it - depends what your riding I suppose.

Right - Just off to check my bike are still in the garage ! - and wondering why my wife has scrutinised the £35k death benefit section so much !

I think it's appropriate to point out that BC cover for Silver membership is third party for both racing and coaching, not just whilst generally cycling (as long as you follow the BC codes and rules). They would also usually provide full representation if required for claims arising out of racing/coaching. For Gold membership you also get some personal injury cover.

petemarshall wrote:I think it's appropriate to point out that BC cover for Silver membership is third party for both racing and coaching, not just whilst generally cycling (as long as you follow the BC codes and rules). They would also usually provide full representation if required for claims arising out of racing/coaching. For Gold membership you also get some personal injury cover.

Good point.

there is a case on going at the moment against a mountain bike instructor - who it is alleged took his group down slopes they weren't prepared for. This lead to one of the riders crashing and ending up paralysed. He is now suing the instructor.

petemarshall wrote:I think it's appropriate to point out that BC cover for Silver membership is third party for both racing and coaching, not just whilst generally cycling (as long as you follow the BC codes and rules). They would also usually provide full representation if required for claims arising out of racing/coaching. For Gold membership you also get some personal injury cover.

There's an exception to the liability insurance whereby one BC member can't claim against another in a race, though.

See BC's cycling cover here https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/membership/compare

Quite timely this, as I'm just about to move away from "we are cycling uk" (formally CTC) in favour of British Cycling.

Philip Whiteman wrote:See BC's cycling cover here https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/membership/compare

See, that suggests that it covers competitive cycling, but then https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/thirdpartyliability states "Important exclusions include: One member against another in a cycling competition, race, time trial or timed event". Unless I've misunderstood, that effectively means it doesn't cover competition (it seems a bit unlikely that you'd need to make a claim against a rider who isn't a BC member in a BC race).

This is an interesting discussion as silver and gold members used to have identical insurance cover. BC has clearly watered down the offering for silver members.

Philip Whiteman wrote:This is an interesting discussion as silver and gold members used to have identical insurance cover. BC has clearly watered down the offering for silver members.

I don't race - but on the whole it seems very much like travel insurance - the very cheap cover - if fact doesn't cover for anything at all.

It would interest me to discover what people perceive they are covered for v what they are actually covered for.

I had a discussion on a general cycling forum where people were convinced that very basic cover covered them for loss of earnings should they be involved a cycling accident ! - and there was more than 1 that thought that !

Peter

Take a look at the ETA's policy:

https://www.eta.co.uk/insurance/cycle/

BC cover hasn't changed for last six years that I've had it, silver and gold get same except gold gets personal cover too.

I have been meaning to check home insurance for a while, with m and s which was best for bikes but they have watered it down.

Hopefully none of us have to claim for anything!

laurence_cooley wrote:

Philip Whiteman wrote:See BC's cycling cover here https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/membership/compare

See, that suggests that it covers competitive cycling, but then https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/thirdpartyliability states "Important exclusions include: One member against another in a cycling competition, race, time trial or timed event". Unless I've misunderstood, that effectively means it doesn't cover competition (it seems a bit unlikely that you'd need to make a claim against a rider who isn't a BC member in a BC race).

BC cover gives you liability insurance during competition. It does not cover one racer sueing another, but it covers any incidents with spectators, damage to property etc all the usual stuff liability insurance covers. The exclusion of covering a BC member taking action against another BC member who is a competitor seems sensible to me. The exclusion only applies during competition

Personally speaking I think liability insurance, unless you are coaching or racing is largely unnecessary;hence it doesn't cost much.
Coaches, race officials, race organisers and competitors certainly do need it and BC supply it.
For general cycling the likleyhood of liability insurance ever paying out is remote so the type of insurance provided by the old CTC and other such organisations pretty pointless unless you are planning on running over a load of pedestrian 😉

petemarshall wrote:

laurence_cooley wrote:

Philip Whiteman wrote:See BC's cycling cover here https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/membership/compare

See, that suggests that it covers competitive cycling, but then https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/thirdpartyliability states "Important exclusions include: One member against another in a cycling competition, race, time trial or timed event". Unless I've misunderstood, that effectively means it doesn't cover competition (it seems a bit unlikely that you'd need to make a claim against a rider who isn't a BC member in a BC race).

BC cover gives you liability insurance during competition. It does not cover one racer sueing another, but it covers any incidents with spectators, damage to property etc all the usual stuff liability insurance covers. The exclusion of covering a BC member taking action against another BC member who is a competitor seems sensible to me. The exclusion only applies during competition

Personally speaking I think liability insurance, unless you are coaching or racing is largely unnecessary;hence it doesn't cost much.
Coaches, race officials, race organisers and competitors certainly do need it and BC supply it.
For general cycling the likleyhood of liability insurance ever paying out is remote so the type of insurance provided by the old CTC and other such organisations pretty pointless unless you are planning on running over a load of pedestrian 😉

Couldn't agree more. Throw the fact that you probablyy have excess of £100 and you most likelyy never claim.

Thats why I like pedalsure - it covers me against being injured.

laurence_cooley wrote: There's an exception to the liability insurance whereby one BC member can't claim against another in a race, though.

Don't you have to be a BC member to be in a race? so their insurance is basically invalid whilst racing.

As an aside, I used to do mine via LVRC until they changed the cover to exclude commuting! (now with CTC or whatever they're called this week).

RichK wrote:

laurence_cooley wrote: There's an exception to the liability insurance whereby one BC member can't claim against another in a race, though.

Don't you have to be a BC member to be in a race? so their insurance is basically invalid whilst racing.

As an aside, I used to do mine via LVRC until they changed the cover to exclude commuting! (now with CTC or whatever they're called this week).

No, the insurance is not invalid, see my comments above.