South West Bikers | Motorcycle Forum

Do anyone tell the insurance companies they have added or altered things on their bikes? I recently went on a price comparison site and played around with the things like exhausts, Power Commanders, K+N etc and found the insurance could jump by up to £300 more! Now I could understand if you added NOS and a turbo but when increasing performance it's usually up to about 10-15 bhp more - big deal! Yet insurance companies want your blood if you step of the original manufacturers specs train! Seems totally unreasonable to me!

All modifications declared

To be honset, it's not worth the hassle of not declaring - why give them an excuse to try and refuse to pay out Equally, if the bike gets nicked, at least you can claim for the additional cost of the extras on top of the bikes market value ...... though it does depend on what mods you're talking about

I'm surprised more people havn't posted? Either because their mods are not declared or most chaps leave their bikes standard?

none delcared as ive heard they dont actually pay out for your modifications just charge you extra for the privilige.

deej wrote:none delcared as ive heard they dont actually pay out for your modifications just charge you extra for the privilige.

Not so, I have successfully argued increased value and cost of extra parts in the past

cool, as said it was only what ive heard.

sometimes its actually cheaper for a insurance company to replace say a akrapovic can instead of a standard can

i have declared my mods, my insurance company were only interested if they were performance enhancing mods.

When I get asked if there is any mods on my GSXR I ask them if I can list what is standard, it's much easier!

They only want to know if it will increase performance, My old VFR400 I swapped the engine because I had a spare and the cam shafts were worn on the 1st one. After being on hold for 10 minutes while the woman asked the boss, she then asked "will it make it go faster?" It's exactly the same engine size. Another example, GSXR750K 1989, Full Micron ROAD system........... "Will it make it go faster?" "It will pass the MoT as the older system is full of holes!".

I emailing the list of mods to the GSXR now, much easier! (Frame, wheels & bodywork are the only from the factory parts)

none ever declared

I declare mine, not so I can claim for them but because insurance companies are getting more switched on to ways to shirk their responsibilities when it comes to actually paying out. Obvious performance enhancing modifications such as a full Akrapovic system could be the perfect excuse for them to refuse to pay based on you failing to declare mods.

I should add at this point that I declared my full Akro system as 'an aftermarket stainless steel exhaust that was fitted due to corrosion on the original' when asked if it had increased performance I stated that I had no idea, but I didn't think so. Technically this was true as the bike has not been dyno'd since so I can not be sure about any effect on it's power........

this may sound stupid but I can't remember if I listed my upgrades , but I have had brake lines fitted now so I should let the insurance co. know. Thing is if I'v upgraded my brakes surely that should be a reason to reduce my premium because it makes my bike safer................................bet it won't

One quote I had put the premiums up because I had put crash mushrooms on. I figured that a protective device would decrease premiums.

Did anyone see the article in MCN about Insurance companies refusing to pay out for undeclared mods? One guy even had a claim initially refused because he hadn't informed them of the Chelsea FC stickers on the bike, another had a claim refused for not telling them about his heated grips. The claims were paid after the FSA got involved, but the whole process was delayed.

After reading that I phoned my insurance company (Carole Nash) to declare my heated grips and chain oiler, no increased cost as they said they only really needed to know about performance enhancing mods, but they did make a note on my policy.

On a side note, if performance enhancing mods increase the cost of your policy, why don't performance limiting factors, like a lack of ability, lower costs?.... Ah, now I've written that down I can see the flaw in the arguement

If that was the case my insurers would be paying me

NorthIrish wrote:Did anyone see the article in MCN about Insurance companies.....

Yehp. Would be interested to know which company that was. although most of em are like it so doesnt matter anyway