I am on 4 years NCB from riding my CBR600 before I got the Blade. My Insurance is still more than £1200 per year (I pay around £115 per month)... Just for the pleasure of living in London........................
As a fellow Blade owner living in London and having been through this for several years, you basically have 3 options: Find the cheapest premium you can find with your current circumstances, although ALL will be extremely high if you live inside the M25 Mitigate the insurance risk to get a lower premium Get a bike in a much lower Ins Group for a few years to build up your NCB #1 is a bit pointless as you'll still be looking at thousands. The best thing for #2 is get a garage if you don't have one already. Check loot.com, gumtree, local ads for a garage to rent near you. The use of a garage is the main factor between getting a quote and being uninsurable - if your bike is kept on the road or driveway, forget it. Other factors are advanced riding qualifications and bike security, but they don't affect the premiums as much as having your own lock-up garage. #3 is the least-desirable as you'll obviously want a Blade, but if you've done #1 and #2 and still have excessively-high premiums, you may want to consider.
That's it in a nutshell. Was in a similar situation myself once... wanted a 'blade or an R1, but I lived in central Bristol (#2 UK vehicle crime hotspot at the time!) it would have to live on the street, and I had no NCB... fact is, no one would touch me on a 1000cc bike (well, not without me having to sell a few organs!). I'm afraid to say I had to plump for option #3... rode around on a CBR400 in an effort to build some NCB... insurance on that was still nigh-on £1000 a year!!! Did the OP not research this before buying the bike?
Here's an article by Carole Nash about their survey last year: CAROLE NASH MOTORCYCLE THEFT SURVEY 2011 This survey is conducted annually by the UK’s biggest motorcycle insurance specialist, Carole Nash, which currently has over 300,000 bikes on its books – equivalent to around 25% of all road legal bikes. It analyses risk by examining theft claims received by Carole Nash according to main postcode area, model and type. Risk rankings are calculated by comparing the number of thefts against the number of policyholders in each category. FAST FACTS • Bikers in London postcodes endured the highest theft rates taking nine out of the top ten ‘hotspots’ • Bikers in South West London suffered the highest theft rate in the UK over 4.5 times the national average • Only one area outside Greater London featured in the UK’s top ten hotspots; Huddersfield • Bikers in Huddersfield replaced those in neighbouring Halifax as suffering the worst theft rate outside of London • Bikers in Edinburgh returned to suffering the highest risk in Scotland, replacing Aberdeen. For the previous three years Aberdeen had endured Scotland’s highest theft rate • In Wales, Cardiff bikers again endured Wales’s highest rate of theft. They were also the only Welsh bikers recording thefts above the UK average • Bikers in Hemel Hempstead had the UK’s average theft rate • The highest climber in this year’s rankings is Walsall which rose from joint 90th to 19th place, a leap of 71 places • The biggest faller in this year’s rankings is Aberdeen which fell from 10th to 80th place, a drop of 70 places • Scooters and moped faced the highest theft rate which was more than double the average risk • The most stolen bikes by category in absolute terms (ie actual numbers) rather than theft ratio (thefts versus policyholders in each area) were Supersports models link and you can understand why insurers are reticent to insure Blades in London!
This is what I read SORNing bikes for winter could void insurance - | Motorcycle News | Bike News | Motorbike Videos | MCN Going to ring Swinton and check my position will let you know what I find out.
Regarding the SORN I can see where the insurance companies are coming from on this? They insure the bike for road use, if your bikes not taxed, then technically speaking its not fit for the road? How many folk have, when the bikes are SORN'ed have had that cheeky blip around, I don't mean from the MOT station and back either? IMO For the extra it costs a year it's just not worth the Agro and uncertainty, as previously stated by others, by the times you pay cancelation/insurance fees you may as well just keep it taxed. Keeping them taxed and it just takes that one nice day that when you can get out on the bike. Priceless.
Bloody right ......... I remember a few years ago when Allan was on a 12 hour shift on X-mas day I got out for a few hours of fun . As you say 'priceless'
I was always amazed by just how badly-rated the South East is for insurance. An ex of mine was living in Weybridge and then moved up to live with me in Teesside and her insurance almost halved.
£1700 for insurance f**k that I would sell the bike and get something cheaper to insure for now. Or find a mate who lives outside London and store my bike there (but I didn't say that) I pay £274 fully comp on my blade and that annoys me as I have 10yrs NCB its in an alarmed garaged, ground anchored x2 !
Trouble is, in London there isn't much that's cheap to insure! I've gone TPFT which keeps the premiums down to a more palatable level, and if I trash the bike then I'm prepared to stump up for a replacement, as given the current market value of mine minus the sizeable excess isn't going to be much more than a Fully Comp premium or two anyway.
It's not too bad, considering. Works out at ~£500 for TPFT and I'm in one of the top 3 areas for bike theft in the UK. If its a choice between stumping up or not getting to ride a Blade then it's a no-brainer - here's my cash, thank you very much!
It probably comes down to storage. I'm 40, passed my test when I was 23, but have been off bikes for 13years before getting the bike in Aug so zero ncb too. The big drop in insurance for me was storage. I live in a flat, but keep the bike in a storage unit. Costs a bit monthly, but is cheaper than hiring a garage, it's always warm, gated, alarmed and more secure plus has hot water on tap so I can wash it there too Cut my premium in half
Totally agree with every you say Gary if you have one bike, my problem is I have 3 bikes (actually not really a problem, LOL). I can keep one on the road waiting for that one off sunny day to arrive, but if I sorn the other 2 I can get back £80 plus I hate paying any tax so our glorious goverment can waste it so its a win win IMO, just not sure how I stand with insurance so going to check that out first before I SORN.
