Here is an unpopular or perhaps unwelcome thought.
Imagine you are riding along on your bike tomorrow. And for whatever reason you lose control and crash.
Firstly, I hope you’re OK, and you haven’t damaged yourself too much. Your well-being is the most important thing to consider in this scenario.
So you are OK, now what’s the damage to your bike?
Oh. That looks expensive. I’m not sure that’s fixable.
Here’s the point where my opinion becomes unpopular.
Many people ride expensive bikes. That’s fine, we have varying capacity to pay. Spending $10,000 on a bike can be absolutely fine if you can afford it.
But if you are in an accident and your bike gets wrecked, or if you are sitting at a cafe and your bike gets nicked, and you can’t afford to replace your bike, then you spent too much on your bike.
Bicycles aren’t “forever”. I’ve had my favourite bike for 29 years, but it’s still just a bike.
Yes, you can insure your bike. I recently got a quote to insure my road bike, one of my seven bikes. I don’t know what it would be worth to replace, but a new custom steel frame would be around $3500. Insurance against theft or accidental damage will cost $20 per month, or about $240 per annum.
I’ve got seven bikes, which ones should I insure? And what’s the value proposition here?
Insurance is a scam which has all of us bluffed when it comes to high-consequence items in our lives (houses, cars, medical bills).
But for bikes, it’s easy. Don’t spend more on a bike than you would be willing to pay again the very next day if it disappeared.
