5 top tips to cut the cost of your motorbike insurance
The average motorcycle rider clocks up more miles than the average car driver – 11.1 miles per average trip in 2016, compared with 8.4 for car drivers. And that’s despite the fact that bikers are less likely to be using their wheels to drop the kids off at school or do the supermarket run.
So you need that insurance – but you don’t need to be paying too much for it.
1 Choose your bike carefully
25 years ago, scooters accounted for less than 1% of all two wheeled theft; today over half of all the bikes stolen are scooters and mopeds.
Dr Ken German, vehicle theft consultant 2017
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a Honda 125 is going to cost less to insure than a Kawasaki Ninja H2R. Smaller, older, and less-powerful will cost you less on your premiums, so don’t carried away in the showroom.
Having said that, with scooters now the preferred mode of transport for inner-city bike gangs, the more powerful models are now more likely to be targeted for theft.
2 Secure your bike
According to Bennetts Insurance, seven out of 10 owners still leave their machines unlocked in city bike parks.
Motorcyle insurance policy theft claims doubled from 2014 to 2016, according to Bennetts Insurance.
- Whenever possible park your bike indoors, or in a secure garage. Check for spy-holes drilled in the doors of lock-up garages.
- Always engage your steering lock, and use grip locks on the handlebars.
- Use disc locks to prevent your bike being wheeled away.
- Lock your back wheel and frame with a chain.
- Fit an alarm and immobiliser.
- Mark your bike frame and parts.
- Use a bike cover.
- When chaining a bike, keep the chain and lock off the ground. Thieves can easily use a hammer or angle grinder if a lock is on the ground.
3 Get an advanced driving qualification
74% of motorcycle insurers checked offered advanced driver discounts.
In 2014 GoCompare, 2014
Getting more training will make you a safer rider and possibly also reduce your premiums – though the savings in the first year may not be more than the cost of the course.
Contact your insurer first to find out which qualifications they recognise.
4 Don’t over-estimate your mileage
Britons are notoriously poor at estimating distance: asked to guess the distance between major UK cities we overestimate by an average 15%. This could add up to the average motorist paying for 1,185 more miles than we actually drive each year.
More than 1 in 4 motorists guess their annual mileage when getting insurance quotes.
uSwitch, 2018
Are you a summer-months bike rider? It used to be possible to purchase seasonal motorbike insurance, but the law now requires that motorcycles must be insured year-round unless they are registered with a statutory off-road notification (SORN).
It may not be worthwhile registering SORN and cancelling your insurance – you won’t reclaim the full pro-rata of your insurance policy, and you’ll lose your no-claims bonus. But at least estimate your annual mileage more accurately, and update your mileage with your insurer if you change jobs.
5 Tweak your job description
According to the Daily Mirror you can save almost £300 if you select “retired” or “full-time parent” rather than “unemployed”.
- “Chefs” pay more for car insurance than “kitchen staff”
- “Music teachers” pay more than “teachers”
- “Office managers” pay more than “office administrators”
- “Construction workers” pay more than “builders”
But be very careful not to actively mis-represent yourself: you need to be able to justify your job title if your insurer should challenge it when you make a claim.
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