Bicycle Insurance | How to Find the Best Companies | Useful if You Cycle to Work | Bike Theft

In this video, Jim Dodson, a bicycle injury lawyer in Florida talks about insurance that will protect you if you’re hit by a driver. He also talks about one of the best bicycle insurance companies in Florida that will cover your bike. He discusses three different scenarios.

1) Insurance that Protects you if You're at Fault While Riding Your Bicycle
What insurance protects you if you're on your bicycle and you're riding, and you run into a pedestrian or you run into another cyclist? What kind of insurance is available to actually protect you? Generally, your homeowners or renters insurance will cover you. Most of these policies come with general liability protection for you as the occupant of the home. So the general liability insurance, or your homeowners or renters policy, protects you where you go, and one of the ways is while you're on your bicycle.

2) Insurance that Protects You if You're on Your Bicycle and are Hit by a Driver
What about insurance that protects you if you're injured while on your bicycle and you're hit by a car? First, you have the insurance of the driver. Remember that in Florida, drivers are not required to purchase liability insurance on their auto policy. That's the law. So remember that a great number, 40% of the drivers on the road, do not have liability insurance. So you protect yourself while you're on your bike and you're hit by a driver. By purchasing automobile insurance on your own car and adding to your policy uninsured motorist coverage, that uninsured motorist coverage protects you while you're on your bike and you're hit by a driver who did not have insurance or had a small policy, and you have a larger claim.

Good example, driver's at fault. He has a $10,000 liability policy. You've got a $100,000 injury. If you have uninsured motorist coverage of at least $100,00 on your own automobile, it would pick up the $90,000 not being paid because the driver only had $10,000.

3) One of the Best Bicycle Insurance Companies that Cover Your Bicycle (useful if you cycle to work)
So now the third type of insurance is how do you protect yourself, or your bike, from damage? This can be a little confusing for people, because your bike is generally going to be covered on your homeowners or renters policy. But remember, homeowner's and renter's policies insure against specific risks, such as fire or theft. So it has to be one of those types of reasons to have a claim. The fact that you were hit by a car isn't one of those reasons. So the homeowners insurance on your own homeowner's policy may protect your bike. Some policies have a limit on what they will pay. Some policies allow you to buy extra insurance for something like a bicycle, but the big drawback to relying on homeowner's insurance to pay for the damage to your own bicycle is this. You're going to first apply the deductible. If you have a $250, $500, or even $1,000 deductible, that will be applied to the value of your bike first. Secondly, homeowners insurance is going to depreciate your bike. So that bike you bought three years ago, they may depreciate it by 30% at least, and apply it to the deductible. As you can see, you quickly get to the point where they're really not providing much protection for your bike.

Now there is another option available, and there may be others in Florida, but personally the one that I'm familiar with is a company called Velosurance. This bicycle insurance company writes insurance policies for bicycles. The advantage of a policy like Velosurance is that you choose a deductible. So you can choose a deductible of, say, $150 or $250. And if there is a claim and they pay, all you pay is that deductible. They're not going to depreciate the bike as well. Velosurance is an all risk coverage. It protects against theft, against your bike being damaged. It protects it if you're hit by a car and in a bike crash. So it has all of those things covered. Now they've got requirements under their policy of the situations where they will cover it. And you need to ask and be familiar with those, but you eliminate the issue of the deductible and the depreciation and all that, as applied in the typical homeowner's policy.

[joelamb]

Loved the video, so many people don't know how homeowners and auto coverages affect cyclists. Especially UM!

[black_rifle_veteran]

What a great video. Thank you for the information. I do not have home or renters insurance. So any help or advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated. On what insurance and coverage I need on my bike. Thank you. I am from Tampa. I also hope I will never have to use you

[buzzygermony]

Velo will not answer the phone or return E-mail. BOGUS!