Best Insurance Company?

My car insurance company, USAA, won't insure bikes any more, so they cut a deal with Foremost insurance. I'm paying about $20 a month for my 1975 Z1 900, and about $15 a month for my 1979 KZ 650. Full coverage on both, $100/300 limits, with med pay.

Two notes. One, they say they won't suspend it during the winter, so either I pay for insurance I ain't using, or I cancel and find a new company in the spring. (Leaning toward the latter)

Two, I don't see why the second bike is almost as much as the first. I can only ride one at a time, and the main risk comes from riding (liability and collision), not from theft (comprehensive). So, the second should be much cheaper, IMHO. I haven't checked, but I bet the KZ 650 would cost me the same even if it was the only bike on the policy.

Any recommends for good, and inexpensive, companies?

With State Farm I pay $14 for one bike and $7 for another per month with similar coverage to what you are decribing. Yes, I do need to keep the bike insured over the winter, but as the bikes are under the same umbrella policy as our cars and house, we do get some good multi-line discounts.

the difference is the size of the bike, 650 and below cheap, 650 and up more expensive, I pay 130.00 per year for both bikes liability only, crap they wanted almost as much as the bikes are worth for full coverage

BSKZ650 wrote:

650 and below cheap, 650 and up more expensive

Somehow 650's are both expensive AND cheap?

I will only deal with two insurance companies
for motorcycle insurance.State Farm and Progressive.
State farm goes by engine size and Progressive
goes by a rating system using cost and type of
bike to calculate the price.Get a quote from both.
My 1200 Bandit was cheaper with Progressive.But my
kid got a better rate on his ZX12 through State Farm.

These are liability-only, 1 year quotes.

Progressive had the best ratio when it comes to 2 bikes. They quoted me $220 for one bike, and $300 for two bikes. (Much lower if I didn't have a speeding ticket.)

State Farm, for some goofy reason, was chrging me more for the second bike. The first bike was $250, then the second bike was an additional $270 (exact same year and model (1981 gpz550)). WTF!!! No wonder I dropped them. However, tickets have no bearing on the rates, only accidents.

Geico quoted me $247 for one bike, and $156 if I had no tickets, but when is that ever going to happen? (I didn't ask about the second bike.)

In the end, Foremost won out. For one bike they wanted $155 for one bike, and $230 for two. My speeding ticket only raised the rates by $7.

So switching to Foremost, I pay less for two bikes than I was paying for one bike, with State Farm.

Post edited by: loudhvx, at: 2007/08/30 21:51

i had progressive when i crashed my 03' harley. the a**hole was in the emergency room while they were patching my head back together, trying to settle the case. telling my there was 6000 grand damage after my 18000 dollar bike just flipped three times at 70mph landing on the top each time, and that if i did not settle it would be a hassle. the adjuster, company, and everyone i dealt with there were comlete jerks.
i use gieco now

Progressive...I pay $84.00/year for liability for my roadworthy KZ1000 (the other bikes are currently uninsured).

I use Foremost thru State Farm, I pay $16 a month for full coverage including roadside assistance! After my accident these guys were great,Of course they totaled my bike (book value $830) But they gave me $150 for helmet, $80 for gloves, $50 for steel toe shoes (all totaled) and paid $205 for bike impound! Even after $500 deductable I'm getting a check for $450 for bike! Plus I had $1000 medical so I'm being reimbursed for deductables for meds, emergancy room, etc. Maybe it was just Anthony, the claim guy but these guys I highly recommened!

I'm with AllState but my experience recently was with Farmers Insurance.

I was hit by a car back in may, my girlfriend was on the back. I was in a turn lane, sitting there when the car hit me, drove off etc. they caught him though.

Anyway to do with insurance, my girlfriend is ok now, a few more checkups and she'll be cleared and then they'll be paying everything for her. I was fine (Helmet, armored jacket).

What I was surprised by was that they totaled my bike (not all that much damage..) but gave me $2100 for it (I paid ~800) and also gave me $200 for helmet, $100 for cowboy books (hey! we'd just been out doing some two-stepping etc, i don't normally wear cowboy boots but they saved my ankles that time), $15 for each of our shirts, some amount for her jeans, shoes.

I bought the bike back from them for $250 and I'm in the process of repairing it now (with help of parts from Kawasakiman thanks!)

So... Farmers seems to be pretty good to me, but not sure how much their premiums would be.

I can see -- maybe you can too-- it mostly depends on the agent you deal with. I've ran State Farm forever, through 4 or 5 states, but would change in a heartbeat if the agent was a jerk. Period.

In my mind, all insurance companies are a necessary pain. If you are a "good" driver according to the DMV, rates are usually close across the board. But a good agent can help you when the times get tough.

And good agents - from I have seen - are word of mouth success stories.

I can see the dichotomy here...if we define 'best' as inexpensive, then many companies can be 'best'...as long as you never get into an accident and claim...in which case then we define 'best' as the company that provides the fullest payout...which then leads to higher rates. Insurance is mandatory legalized gambling stacked in the house's favor.