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Motorcycle Insurance: Property or Physical Damage
 

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Motorcycle Insurance: Property or Physical Damage

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PD and Med pay must not be interesting enough for a response. Well, maybe when the unisured motorist article comes out you guys will have something to say.
:)

Thx 'hawk- I'm better now.

I keep asking my insurance agent to quote coverage on sport bikes, but every time I do, he comes back with these ridiculous quotes for like a gazillion dollars.

But seriously...it seems like you guys (insurance agents) throw out these numbers, but who the hell knows what's reasonable and what isn't? Say you're an average middle class guy, got a house and mortgage, kid in school, in the $50k to $100k salary range. What's the right number for these catagories? How big a disaster do you plan for?Could you ever have enough insurance to cover any eventuality? If not, then where do you draw the line?

It's really an underwriter thing, Ken. US Services/American Reliable doesn't like things that approach sport. But Dairyland, PSIC, Foremost and AMIG will treat the SV like a standard. Which is funny since the Superhawk or FZ1 are the same type of bike and almost everyone wants to jam those bikes into a sport slot. Then there's location. You FL guys get hammered. Your DL or the SV would be under $300 here in GA vs FL. And the Uninsured Motorist coverage for FL is insane on most bikes. That's a "law" thing. They write the law as such to mess with the underwriters and in turn the underwriters make the line item premium crazy high to discourage you from buying it. Vicious circle is what it is. My job is to try to break the circle with something that doesn't break the bank. Since I decided not to renew my FL license for lack of business down there I can only service existing customer policies. That's why I'm stuck right now, but did you check a Dairyland agent by you? I believe the SV would be in the high $400's and the DL would be in the high $300s. If that does't work then Foremost or AMIG would be the next two companies.
As far as your question: Draw the line....... No amount is too much. It's a matter of what you want exposed. If you think you can handle the personal financial hit then keep the limits low. Most people can't. That's why the insurannce business exist in the first place.
Insurance is Vegas without showgirls. Sometimes the odds are with you. Most of the time the odds are stack against.

call me crazy but i'm tired of paying here and there for things i seldom or never use. been paying car insurance for 23 years, homeowners for 16 and bike insurance for 12 years. not to mention health BS, dental, etc. i bet if i added up what I've contributed vs. what's been paid out, I'd have been better off stashing the cash in a shoebox. hell i probably could have added another cycle to the collection! surely an insurance agent will tell u to buy more insurance. i think i'd rather save a little here and there and assume i'm not going to toat a family of 3 on my motorcyle and happen to crash into a mercedes. maybe that's just me. ..

Shableib- in most cases the liability part of the insurance is not huge. It's the comprehensive and collision coverage that cost you the most in a policy. The question is: Can you afford a 1 time payout of $50k or more for someone elses injuries and your injuries at the same time? That's where the balance line is. If you can then only buy the minimum of everything.

Well of course an insurance salesman thinks you should buy more insurance.

This is what you call a conflict of interest. The writer is looking our for his own financial well being, not yours. The plain fact is that the most expensive thing that will be damaged in a motorcycle wreck is you.

By the way, do you know how much damage a meteor will do to your home? Do you have meteor insurance?

I certainly hope you are joking. "Buying more Insurance" does not exactly equal "Rich Insurance Agent". Especially an agent with a narrow specialty like ACE.

For crapsake, man - Kirk barely has two quarters to rub-together - he's essentially going without a salary (and doing other jobs on the side), JUST to keep his help on the payroll!

Even when he was flush with clients, he worked so damn much that his hourly rate was probably equivalent to a burger-flipper at McDonalds.....

If ever there was a guy that did something "for the Love of it" - Kirk is that man.

You're dead wrong. Sure, Kirk sells insurance, but only in a very limited area, as agents are licensed by state. Who else are you going to find that has his level of expertise to write an article like this? We all need the information. There's no mention of his company at all.

If anything, Kirk goes out of his way to save his customers money. Here's just one example: last week I got a hair up my ass to buy a new SV1000 that was really cheap. I couldn't finance the bike without insurance. The companies Kirk represents quoted over a thousand bucks. Kirk sent me to another company, one he doesn't do business with, and I got a quote for well under that.

I'm not a fan of the insurance industry in the US, auto, health, home, they all leave a lot to be desired. But Kirk happens to be an honest, straight-shooter who would rather steer a customer in the right direction than make a buck.