Bike insurers - taking us for a ride?

Ask bikers what their most common frustration is and chances are that insurance will come fairly high on the list. High premiums, the yearly ring-round for the best quotes, the insistence on purchasing the latest Thatcham-approved alarms, trackers and other anti-theft paraphernalia etc, and then the hassle involved in getting a payout if something does go wrong and your bike is nicked.

The motorcycling public have been lead to believe that the greatest risk of theft surrounds high capacity sports bikes such as the Fireblade, R1 etc - accordingly riders have been paying through the nose for insurance because of this. We are told that over £3 million worth of motorbikes are being stolen from the UK's streets every month. This figure is helping to raise bike insurance premiums to extortionate levels.

But what is the truth about bike theft? Judging by some of the premiums being demanded these days, any rational person would indeed think that high-powered sports bikes are the number one target for bike thieves. The truth is actually somewhat different. According to Carole Nash’s yearly bike theft survey, the most stolen bikes in the UK are as follows:

1. Honda SCV 100 LEAD
2. Vespa-Piaggio NRG MC3
3. Vespa-Piaggio ET4
4. Yamaha DT 125 R
5. Honda SES 125 DYLAN
6. Vespa-Piaggio ZIP 50
7. Gilera RUNNER 125
8. KTM 640 SUPERMOTO 625
9. Aprilia RS125
10. Suzuki DRZ 400S

So, according to Carole Nash, 8 of the top 10 stolen “bikes” are actually scooters or mopeds and all 8 are under 125ccs in size - not a Fireblade, R1, GSXR, Ducati etc amongst them. This is borne out by the highest risk by type:

1. Scooter/Moped
2. Trail
3. Sport
4. Supersport
5. Roadster
6. Custom
6. Tourer

Interestingly, riders in North London suffer the UK’s worst thefts, with a rate that is more than four times higher than the national average. Riders from Cardiff had the worst rate in Wales, whilst those in Aberdeen topped the Scottish table. Fully 80% of stolen bikes are taken from the owners’ home and according to bike security manufacturers, 50% of owners were found to have simply not locked their bike! I find this last statistic incredible – in fact I‘m not actually sure I believe it. But why would they lie? Why indeed…

Of course it makes sense to ensure you have good security for your pride and joy but short of buying a house next to the police station or bringing your bike indoors every night, there will always be some risk of theft. However, it seems to me that insurers are not playing fairly when it comes to the level of risk associated with large(er) capacity machines.

Carole Nash posted a profit of £6.17m in 2010 (within an overall turnover of £24.2m) and the big players in the bike insurance market – Carole Nash, Bennetts, Devitts, MCE – all sponsor a variety of bike shows and race series. Clearly, someone somewhere is doing very nicely thank you out of our bike premiums…