In the wake of the recent economic downturn, a significant number of UK motorcyclists are putting off potentially important motorbike maintenance in order to save money. This is causing real problems for some riders, as the important maintenance and repairs escalates to full blown problems that affect bike safety and motorbike insurance premiums.
Insurance companies are encouraging riders to stay on top of their bike maintenance after a recent study suggested as much as 78% of riders are putting off minor repairs and waiting until their MOT date before finding out the cause of strange engine noises and vibrations.
According to Swinton Bikes, there are three areas of motorbike maintenance that are most overlooked:
Motorbike Tyres
Failure to replace worn or damaged tyres is both dangerous and illegal, with a possibility of leaving your tyres in such a state leading to a fine or points on your licence.
Motorbike Chain / Sprockets
Riding your bike with a chain in need of replacing will affect performance, fuel consumption, and if particularly damaged could lead to the chain comin completely off the sprockets causing an accident.
Motorbike Oil
Not keeping your motorbike’s oil levels topped up will cause permanent damage to the engine and in some cases can cause the engine to seize up at the most inopportune time!
Keeping on top of motorbike maintenance issues will minimise the risk of problems, keeping your motorbike insurance premiums low and keeping you safe.
Motorbike insurance companies are advising bikers to make sure they declare any modifications made to their motorbike to ensure their insurance policy is up to date and correct. Modifying your motorbike without informing your insurance provider can void your policy and cause a lot of problems if ever you needed to make a claim.
With performance being a big factor in choosing your motorbike, many riders are turning to fitting upgrades or tuning existing parts of their motorbike to get more power and performance from it. One popular modification is to the motorbike’s exhaust – many performance enhancing exhaust systems are available for a variety of motorbikes these days, the exhaust system helping expel the burnt fuel from the engine more efficiently. However, a modification such as this is likely to lead to your insurer requiring you to pay a slightly larger premium to insure your now more powerful motorbike.
Other performance enhancing modifications include enlarging the engine capacity by more than 5%, modifications to the suspension and wheels, and fitting a nitrous oxide injection system. These are all highly likely to require a call to your bike insurance providers.
Another common theme seen amongst young riders who are still on their provisional CBT licence is to declare their bike as restricted to the required power limit of 13Bhp when in reality it isn’t restricted. This obviously means that the power of the bike is more than what the insurers are providing cover for, and more than that, there will be legal problems for the rider should they ever be found out.
However there are also modifications that can be made to your motorbike which do not need to be declared. These include such things as crash bars, crash mushrooms, upgraded braking systems and increases in engine capacity by no more than 5%.
Advice from motorbike insurance providers is to always check with your insurer before performing any alterations, just to be on the safe side and ensure you would still be able to afford your insurance premium.
With the onset of the summer months and the increasing likelihood that bikers will be traveling abroad for their holidays, bike insurance company Swinton has urged riders to check just what level of insurance cover they have if they are planning on riding their motorbike abroad and whether they need to increase that level of motorbike cover.
Many with a standard motorbike insurance policy will find that their level of cover will automatically reduce to third party only – the minimum level of cover. In these cases contacting your insurance broker and arranging a temporary motorbike insurance upgrade before traveling.
With petrol prices on the rise once again and the recession hitting commuters deeper in the pocket, more motorists are turning to two wheels as a cheaper option for the daily slog to work. The majority of the advantages of switching to a motorbike revolve around the lower costs – one of which is the considerably cheaper motorbike insurance.
Other advantages of riding a motorbike include cheaper road tax and better fuel economy but it’s the cheaper insurance that is of interest here. Post Office motorbike insurance quotes a significant increase in insurance quotes with approximately 13% of UK drivers saying they are prepared to move to a motorbike.
Bike insurance quotes end up cheaper due to the relatively lower risk in an insurance company having to pay out for expensive claims. In the case of a theft the motorbike is relatively cheaper than a car, and in accidents a motorbike is unlikely to cause expensive damage.
Every now and then we see or hear from people that have heard from a friend, or a friend of a friend, that their motorbike doesn’t require any insurance. It could be the size of the engine being below a certain limit, or the top speed being no higher than a certain level, but the simple answer to whether or not you need motorbike insurance? Yes you do!
If you take your motorbike onto any public road, you will undoubtedly need at least third party bike insurance. As soon as you are riding your motorbike amongst other road users there is that potential for an accident to happen, and you will need the insurance cover to make sure there are no legal problems if the worst was to happen.
You may own a dirt bike or trail bike which is fine to use on private land without insurance, but the minute you go on public roads you will need to get in touch with a motorbike insurer. Not only that, you will also need a sufficient motorbike licence for the bike you’re riding and you’re bike will need to be taxed and have passed a full MOT.
So in case the message hasn’t got through yet, if you have a motorbike that you plan to ride on the road, you WILL need motorbike insurance!
