Insurance ( modifications )

[Ian]

A question for the collective .. probably been asked before ..

I'm Just about to sort my bike insurance out and wondered what other people considered should be put down as modifications or ignored ?

Don't say everything ,the line has to be drawn somewhere !

These are a few I've ignored in the past ,Not to sure if some are modifications more enhancements !

Air box removed replaced with K&N ,750 engine replaced with 850 ,bigger carbs ,wider wheels ,fatter forks ,
single seat conversion ( angle grinder ) ,big bore kit ,race can ,high lift cam ,over sized tyres ,over long shocks ,
lowered seat rails ( angle grinder again ) ,fairing ,twin head lights ,custom parts , ..............

Most of these go back to the days before the question appeared on insurance forms .
And they weren't all on the same bike.

[squirrelciv]

I'm probably going to stand out like a sore thumb here, but I'd put it all down. My reason is, if you don't and you have an accident, they will invalidate your insurance. (I know, it happened to me, albeit on a car)
When I built a special, most of the mods I told them about didn't effect anything anyway, with the exception of the single seat.

[Steve H]

My insurance only seemed to be interested in engine modifications. The spoked wheel conversion I did was noted down but didnt effect premiums.

[Ian]

Squirrelciv ,I understand what you mean
But would you put this down ?

Last year I took my MZ for a MOT ,
I knew the back tyer would need replacing as it was nearly worn out .
MOT''er fitted an over sized tyer ,not at my request and I didn't notice till I'd got home .
Phoned him up and asked why ?
" It was the nearest we had in stock the correct size will take a week to get and we can't change it now as it has been used "

I should have known better as he had done the same to the front tyer the year before .
I now go else where for the MOT'S........

[squirrelciv]

might be worth asking the question as a general enquiry. Like Steve said, most mods wont affect things, but you'd be gutted if one did and you were left paying the bills.
Not very 'rebel biker' I know, but that's the world we live in and if the insurance company can get out of coughing up, they will.

[beeman]

The trouble is many of the discount insurance companies wont touch modified bikes, I seem to remember bennets wouldn't. Carol Nash does tho'. Cost me best part of £80 more for my modified srx, bugger!!.
When getting quotes if you are telling them of mods do it at the beginig if possible saves all the questions followed by "we don't do modified bikes" 5 minutes into the call. Trouble is some of the call receives will be working to a set protocol and havn't a clue what they cover until the end when "the computer says NO", the price of progress.
 

[Ian]

Steve H,
"My insurance only seemed to be interested in engine modifications."
Very interesting I wonder what my mods will cost me.
I don't Know why I missed Steve's post this morning .... to much rushing about

Squirrelciv
"might be worth asking the question as a general enquiry. Like Steve said"
Yes I'm going to list all mods and phone my insurance company and see what they say .££££

Beeman
"Cost me best part of £80 more for my modified srx,"
What did you modify to be charged £80.00 extra ?

[Andy M]

Biggest hassle i've had is getting the ******s at Bennetts to understand what you've done. I told them that the MZ has a 300cc piston. The reply is that capacity increases under 10% don't matter. Hang on, 250 plus 10% is 275 not 291. I wrote again and got the same answer. Finally I sent them a recorded letter telling them that their maths was wrong, their employees were muppets and I consider lack of responce their acceptance that everything is Ok. I got no response!

Carole Nash on the other hand asked for photo's of the leading links, car tyres etc. I had, noted the whole lot on the policy documents and charged me nothing extra.

Andy

[Steve H]

The trouble is many of the discount insurance companies wont touch modified bikes, I seem to remember bennets wouldn't. Carol Nash does tho'. Cost me best part of £80 more for my modified srx, bugger!!.

I take it this was for your engine mods, was it hassle explaining/describing the changes ?

[beeman]

Carol nash were fine, I sent some photos and a list of the mods to them first. The engine is out to 634, high liftcam and gas flowed head big bore exhaust and carbs modified. My other problem was I wanted to insure two bikes on one policy. This probably limited choice as well.
Still they agreed to value it at £1500.

[guest27]

Had a whole host of bikes through Carole at one time - did nto seem to worry too much about mods as long as they were told.  Stage 3 tune on the RD500 mad a small but not a lot of difference (20% power gain)  The Triton was never anything other than modded.  The people at CN seemed to take the view that you would be hard pressed to find an un modded bike over a few years old, so not covering them was a little silly>

R