Breakdown cover

ians

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I'm not sure if this should be here or in Travel but it will not apply to oilheads or paralever bikes so here goes.

Has any body managed to get breakdown cover for a classic bike i.e. a monolever G/s that covers continental Europe.
If you have please let me know about it.

Thanks.
 
Carole Nash does mine, multibike policy with breakdown and recovery including UK and Europe. Oldest bike is 1972, newest 1994. I think it comes under the heading of 'modern classcs' or something like that.

Nick
 
Most companies have a 10 or 15 year age limit for bikes.

As nick says, the only way around it is to buy a classic insurance policy that includes breakdown cover. Most people I know with older bikes end up taking out a policy through C Nash.
 
Big Carol's salesperson told me that it didnt matter how old yer bike was with their policy for multipel bikes
Have not tested it, thankfully, well not on me old un's. Now I have tested the policy on me 2004 bike :thumb

HTHY :thumb
 
Carole Nash does mine, multibike policy with breakdown and recovery including UK and Europe. Oldest bike is 1972, newest 1994. I think it comes under the heading of 'modern classcs' or something like that.

Nick

Cheers for that! Just renewed today and excellent deal - as you say Fully Comp includes breakdown cover for Europe & Green card, even 3rd party for Romania (fully comp rest) included. Cracking deal, just over £100 - nice one :thumb
 
Cheers for that! Just renewed today and excellent deal - as you say Fully Comp includes breakdown cover for Europe & Green card, even 3rd party for Romania (fully comp rest) included. Cracking deal, just over £100 - nice one :thumb

Slight update on the above insurance - interesting if you want to ride A N Other m/c too :confused:

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1377287#post1377287

Still with Carol Nash though as the breakdown deal is good
 
Just a word of warning!!. On our trip to Spain last year where my 100gs broke down, I contacted the RAC service provided through Bennets. Service was fantastic with English operators based in France. Bike recovered to a bm garage in tours for repair. We carried on without my bike to collect on the way back. Still no problems. I picked it up complete witrh new Bm bean can and a reciept fot 500 euros. then our troubles started. About 30 miles later she started to overheat and the engine was knocking itself apart. Contacted the RAC and said that I wanted the bike taking home as it was clearly in need of serious rebuilding. I was then told that as my bike was old they would only take me to aqnother garage. I did argue with them and they said asthey had already taken me to a garage on the first occasion, they were not obliged to get me home. More argument and they agreed to get me to the ferry in Le Havre. I acceped that as at least I could get home . After hiring a van in Portsmouth I got home and wrote to the RAC (in Britain) After sending reciepts they apologised and refunded all the costs.
Moral of the story, Bennets, Carol Nash or any others only sell you the policy.
make sure you have a get you home policy and check that it covers a second or related breakdown.:thumb
 
Footman James gave me excellent breakdown cover,on myR80 1985,and they specialise in classics and anytime iI renewed they beat everyone on price ,give them a go
 
Thanks for the added input Pastyman and Big Jets.
My insurance is not due for a while yet so I have time to study the differences.
That problem with Carol Nash is interesting as if you can not get the bike home thats is a VERY serious point to consider.
Taking you to the nearest garage to repair a blown engine is not very helpfull if you can't afford to pay the bill that week.

Thanks again Ian.
 
Bloody insurance companies
They switch the storys day by day
I would not question what any of the lads above have said but
Fat Carols rep has just ( today ) confermed that I am insured to ride other folks bikes with their permission " It says so on yer policy document" It does an all. she also said I was a very nice man
So that prooves it eh!!!!! :thumb
 
Bloody insurance companies
They switch the storys day by day
I would not question what any of the lads above have said but
Fat Carols rep has just ( today ) confermed that I am insured to ride other folks bikes with their permission " It says so on yer policy document" It does an all. she also said I was a very nice man
So that prooves it eh!!!!! :thumb

Remember that C Nash is just a broker. The terms of the policy will be set by the underwriter. In the past C Nash has provided me with policies from Norwich Union, Royal Sun Alliance, Chaucer, Equity Red Star and currently Groupama. The terms of these policies varies e.g I had to switch from Chaucer in 2005 and pay an extra £30 for cover with RSA to get cover for a trip to Croatia.

For the last year or two, C Nash has been owned by Groupama, so most policies will be underwritten by them. According to my certificate I have TP cover to ride a bike owned by someone else. C nash still sells products from other companies especially for multibike or classic policies, so check your policy wording.

Never make assumptions about insurance. Even from the same underwriter, terms can vary from year to year or if purchased through a different intermediary.

If you are going overseas then check the list of countries in the territorial limits section. Some policies will be EU countries only.

If you want to ride bikes owned by others then check the actual Certificate. There must be a suitable entry on here to say that the "riding other bikes" section is valid.
 
Remember that C Nash is just a broker. The terms of the policy will be set by the underwriter. In the past C Nash has provided me with policies from Norwich Union, Royal Sun Alliance, Chaucer, Equity Red Star and currently Groupama. The terms of these policies varies e.g I had to switch from Chaucer in 2005 and pay an extra £30 for cover with RSA to get cover for a trip to Croatia.

For the last year or two, C Nash has been owned by Groupama, so most policies will be underwritten by them. According to my certificate I have TP cover to ride a bike owned by someone else. C nash still sells products from other companies especially for multibike or classic policies, so check your policy wording.

Never make assumptions about insurance. Even from the same underwriter, terms can vary from year to year or if purchased through a different intermediary.

If you are going overseas then check the list of countries in the territorial limits section. Some policies will be EU countries only.

If you want to ride bikes owned by others then check the actual Certificate. There must be a suitable entry on here to say that the "riding other bikes" section is valid.

He tells the truth...:thumb2
 
Just a word of warning!!. On our trip to Spain last year where my 100gs broke down, I contacted the RAC service provided through Bennets. Service was fantastic with English operators based in France.
.......Moral of the story, Bennets, Carol Nash or any others only sell you the policy. make sure you have a get you home policy and check that it covers a second or related breakdown.:thumb

Good advice about checking the details, there is nothing more expensive than cheap insurance that doesn't pay.

Just out of interest, what is the age of your 100 GS and what is / was the age limit in the RAC recovery cover you bought, via Bennet?

Most breakdown policies have an age of vehicle limit in them, for obvious reasons. This makes it tricky if some customers have a single multi-bike policy (old and new bikes) but one single breakdown cover, linked to just the single policy number.

It's quite possible that just the younger bike has the breakdown cover, not the older one, but that may not be too obvious. I have seen it happen, quite innocently. A friend had a four year old R1, with Europe wide breakdown cover bolted onto his normal insurance. He then, after a few months, asked the broker to include an old Honda 4 - 400 bike onto the same policy. This went OK, the additional premium being just a few pounds. Only afterwards did it dawn on him that the Honda was too old for the breakdown cover part....this sunrise moment came on the A1, in a lay-by and it was very chilly.....

Most European breakdown policies will give a subsequent or second breakdown - especially if you have bought an annual or multi-trip cover - though they may limit the total number of claims you may have in one year.

This is little different to the annual vanilla AA / RAC / Greenflag UK cover which may have a limit, too. I guess it's to stop people being lazy and simply asking the recovery company to take them home / repair their vehicle every 10 minutes of the day.

If, however, you bought a single trip insurance from the RAC, it may have a single claim limit in it, which you might have burnt up when the bike was taken to Tours. Nor is it clear whether the second breakdown (overheating) is linked to the first problem (cause unknown). Or whether, whilst repairing your first problem, the Tours garage caused another problem, or quite what happened.

Let's say, for example, your first problem was caused due to a faulty oil pump. The garage fixes it, you pick it up, and ride away...quite happy. Then, 30 miles down the road, the bike runs like a bag of spanners, or worse, as matey in Tours forgot to put more than a drop of oil in it....what might happen then?

The devil, as they say, is in the detail.....

I'll be honest, I am not a great fan of 'bolt-on' covers, sold bundled with motor insurance. They are lobbed in, sold and bought without too much thought, getting mixed up and not read, when all the punter really looks at is the premium on one day of the year. They may be a little more expensive but separate, annual, cover is often better value in the medium / long term.
 
I agree with the previous comments but this cover was bought for the bike, a 1992 100gs. Bennets provided the policy bolted onto my fully comp insurance and cover was for EU countries, so France and Spain no probs. The initial breakdown was failure of the trigger unit which we now know was caused by the overheating due to low oil pressure .The point I was making though is ,it has little to do with the insurance broker. In this case it was the RAC and in particular the reps in France or at least one particular one. The Rac did agree when I wrote to them that I should have been repatriated.Mind you we did meet a bloke in a hotel in Potiers who had broken down in a newish Sanyong. They put him up in a hotel while his car was being repaired, He had been there for six weeks!! seemed to be enjoying it too.
 


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