Rta Insurance

[thatchman]

Hi folks. Starting to look in to this whole road trial things and just wondered what you guys do about insurance?!?!?! Do any of you use the ACU insurance and have any details of it? Is is annual or pay per comp??? Im 21 and have had my license for 5years but no NCB. Any general advice would be great because i belive i have 2 insure with the frame number before DVLA will register it. THANKS IN ADVANCE,

THATCHMAN

[scorpa3]

With the ACU road insurance system as it is currently, you (or someone) will have to insure the bike so that you can tax it for the road. The same will apply for when you try to register it, if the bike needs registering.

If you are lucky you will find an insurance company who will cover you whilst riding on the road in a trial. Most won't allow this, so effectively you need to insure your bike twice which is a pain. That's what I do but I only ride in about four road trials a year anyway.

The ACU are talking about organising full annual cover purely for road trials which will allow us to tax our bikes. Fingers crossed for that one.

[chewy]

I enquired with the acu (via thier website ) last week and the silence has been deafening!! It would appear there is a catch 22A and a catch 22B with current system. If you could put a meter on my bike and divide the mileage at trials by the annual premium the price per mile would be not much and in any case the insurers would probably be able to welch on the deal due to catch 22B (competition is a dirty word) At least I can cover catch 22A and get my road tax paid and insure against theft for around a pound a week (I am an old git!) which is better than some of the deals advertised to simply insure your off road bike against theft. If the ACU could ever achieve anything usefull for the average rider (and the future of real trials) it would be to sort this issue out with the underwriters or do we/they still have to involve brokers? either way it is a central issue to proper trials and in consideration of the income to the ACU from trials it is one they should sort out pretty damm quick!.

[john collins]

Chewy - I have replied at great length to this before - it must be on the site somewhere. I am afraid you are over simplifying the problem - and need to read the past words in detail.

Trying to sort it pretty dam quick is not an option I am afraid - it has taken about 3 years and lots of work to date - and no real solution has been found. In my last post I think I pointed out some obvious problems - especially the fact that looking at the numbers involved taking out the One event RTA insurance - it is one hell of a job trying to convince an Insurance company that there is any market for such a policy. We might believe there is - but as I have said before - if a road based trials has 100 entries - and 4 One event insurances are taken out on the day - the logical conclusion for an insurance man is that 96 people already have cover?

Step 1 - When trying to persuade an Insurance company to look at the issue - How many riders are likely to take it up? No good saying loads - or all my mates - we need specifics - and it is not easy to asses as we think

Step 2 - the Insurance Company always always wish to know when their Insurance would kick in - or kick out - we used to say - as soon as the rider left the road or highway - simple - no longer the case I am afraid.

The insurance companies are able to assess the situation about bikes on the road - but when they start looking at Public places, Rights of Way, Boats, Rupps and so on - they start to get very cold feet indeed.

If as customers - Insurance companies decline to offer cover while in any competitive event - that is their prerogative - there is not a lot for the ACU to sort out - sure we can explain what trials are all about - been done on numerous occasions - sure we can show them a trials bike - been done (not sure if that was such a good move) Sure we can point out that statistics show that there has been very little claim culture etc - been done - and so on.

We must keep trying - and hopefully someone one day will take up the challenge - but it ain't happened yet for numerous reasons - but I assure you it is not for the want of trying - and I do not wish to claim brownie points for this as it has been others who have spent lots of time/ efforts and meetings - but so far to no avail.

As I said in my last post on the subject - there are dozens of Insurance Brokers who advertise all sorts of Insurance - but they are just that - Brokers. They often claim they will offer an annual policy - and off we go down the road again trying to provide statistics and estimates etc - but then it is the same old story - these brokers do not " write" insurance - they are only brokers - and there are not as many actual, Insurance companies who write motorcycle insurance as you think- and so when the broker finally decided it has been a wasted voyage - we start all over again - and so it goes on.