1100R insurance cost. Frustrating story.

[BF204]

Thought I'd share a sliver of the joy of dealing with the folks that provide my insurance up here in the Great White North. When I bought my '99 R1100R (in spring 2017), and went to register it, I discovered that the Manitoba public insurance company categorized it as a "Naked Sport Bike, >1000cc", and "pleasure use" insurance (meaning not used as regular drive to work vehicle) was $1473 per year (99% of the cost is to cover the may-sept months = our 5 month riding season). "All-purpose" was almost double the cost.  The kicker was that the reduced cost "pleasure use" rate for my 1100R was ~$600 more than it would have cost if the bike was an "RT".  I tried to argue that my R was the naked version of the RT, and shouldn't be in the sport bike category, but the only recourse they said I had was to formally appeal the "sport bike" designation.  I did submit an appeal, I received a brief, "appeal denied" letter.  FYI, I have maximum merits on my driver's license and had full M/C endorsement since '87.

 

Now the good news...  I found out that somewhere between last season and this year they changed the category of my bike to be a "standard", and my insurance for this year dropped by >$500.  Yay (but $900+ is still a lot for a bike worth $3-4K).  The broker sympathized and commented how I've been overcharged for 2 years because of insurance co's "sport bike" categorization (despite me appealing that 2 years ago), and suggested that I complain and ask for retroactive reimbursement for the over charges. 

 

I'll try that, but I'm not holding my breath, and expect a lot of being put on hold!  I know that most of you pay a lot less for insurance than I do here, but it is what it is.  And in our province, the public insurance co. has a monopoly on vehicle insurance, so moving to another company is not an option (but we still get all the "Flo" commercials ). Normally the monopoly doesn't bother me, as our rates are *usually* better than private insurance rates in other provinces, but in this case, I was getting hosed.  Anyway, I just thought I'd post this for your amusement!

 

<sorry, should have probably put this in "bike related things".... Mod pls move if you like>

[Paul De]

Insurance is a frustrating part of life regardless of geography, but those numbers seem high for a standard motorcycles and in the range of what I pay for two RTs when converting dollars to dollars. Can you play the game of where the bike is kept.  Insurance rates can be quite a bit different based on the zip code where the machine is kept.  Do you have a cabin or a family member living in a rural area which could cause the rate to be much less.  The danger is that your coverage could become invalid due to that weasel move.  If the bike is stolen from your garage in town which is your listed permanent residence all the red flags will get raised by the claims adjuster.

[BF204]

52 minutes ago, Paul De said:

Insurance is a frustrating part of life regardless of geography, but those numbers seem high for a standard motorcycles and in the range of what I pay for two RTs when converting dollars to dollars.

 

Yup, it's still pricey. The public insurance co here has been saying for years (decades?) that each category of vehicles (cars vs bikes etc) should have rates that are sufficient to cover the costs associated with their policies.  They claim that the costs associated with bike claims are often high (= include injury costs), so they increased rates steadily until we're where we're at.  This is a big reason why motorcycles seem to have largely become an "old guy" hobby here.  A year's worth of car insurance for less than 5 months of coverage on a bike.  So, fewer bikes on the road means that there are fewer bike policies to share the costs when some young squid applies for a Darwin Award, or a graying newbie drops their shiny new Harley in their driveway.

 

1 hour ago, Paul De said:

Do you have a cabin or a family member living in a rural area which could cause the rate to be much less.  The danger is that your coverage could become invalid due to that weasel move.  If the bike is stolen from your garage in town which is your listed permanent residence all the red flags will get raised by the claims adjuster.

 

As for registering it somewhere else,  can't work here. It's all done by primary address of the owner (on our equivalent of the "title"). I'd have to "sell" the bike to a country uncle or someone. It would then become their property. Even if you gift it or sell it cheap, they'd charge sales tax on book value when registering it. And yes, if a claim ever needed to be made, it'd not fly. I doubt the difference for rural is that much anyway.

 

Better for me to just bite the bullet and whine on the interweb....

 

[Paul De]

Or down scale displacement.  I don't know if this is the case anymore, but I used to drive 750 cc motorcycles because there was a big increase on rates above that engine size.  90% 0f the performance of liter machines and 1/3 to 1/2 the cost to insure.

 

haha - Maybe a scooter in your future?

[BF204]

LOL, yes you're right. Size does matter.    Even though horsepower-wise my 1100 is probably behind a lot of 600's!  Having a smaller displacement GS or other dual purpose bike is something I might be interested in... but I'd still want something like an R or RT for the highway, so it would mean ANOTHER bike to insure!  I have friends who have a few bikes, but most tend to do the insurance shuffle depending on which one they are going to be riding for that week/weekend. (they switch the others to storage insurance)  Because of how expensive insurance is, I think the swap-a-rama is common (but would still be a PITA).

[catskill]

I think that many of the 1100's have the same problem. When I bought my 1999 R1100RT, my insurance company (Foremost Insurance) claimed that I have a R1100S instead of a R1100RT. So, they imposed a 50% surcharge for owning a "crotch-rocket" instead of a touring bike. Since I live in New York, motorcycles are not covered under no-fault the way cars are. So, my motorcycle insurance is ridiculously cheap. I could have filed a complaint with the New York State Insurance Department, but it just wasn't worth it. In your case, there might be some government agency you could complain to about the erroneous error in their database.

 

Also, when I put my VIN number into a VIN checker, it does come up with a R1100RT. It seems that insurance company VIN checkers come up with a R1100S.

[Jeff in VA]

I think insurance companies will raise rates if the sun comes up. Years ago I moved from Jacksonville, FL to Alexandria, VA. Rates went up a lot. 18 months later I moved back to Jacksonville, to the same address I left. Did my insurance go down? Of course not. Rates went up.