Unrealistic small print on bike insurance policy

[Paullie]

This about UK bike insurance - hope the right place.

I've been with BeMoto (insurance brokers) for a couple of years, on their Titanium policy, which is pretty good. But this year with a move to a northern city centre location they wanted to charge me an extra 1K insurance premium. I know the bikes are not in a garage, but they are behind a steel shutter in a private back yard, off a brightly lit back street, so it must just be the big city centre additional premium. In the end I got it down, but only by borrowing a builder's massive drill, drilling into 2.5 inches of concrete and fitting a huge commercial ground anchor.

What gets me now is that if I have go out on the bike and want to pop back to the house because I've forgotten something, the theft insurance isn't valid within 1/2 mile of home unless the bike is chained to the ground anchor! So if I leave it out the front for 5 minutes and it gets stolen in that time, it's uninsured. This is AGEAS - what a load of crap. Next year I'll be shopping around for a more realistic policy.

[T800XC]

My insurance has a similar thing, but it's based on my bike being garaged. The slight difference is that I'm not covered if the bike is stolen from outside my house after a certain time at night. They do allow (supposedly) a common sense approach to cover me getting home and giving some undefined amount of time to get the bike put away in the garage.

[seangee]

Mine has a similar clause about being inside the garage, with the door locked. And not covered unless I use the steering lock or if I leave the keys in the garage.