Cont....

Roadside Assistance. This additional coverage provides towing to the nearest qualified repair facility and necessary labor at the place of disablement when your motorcycle is disabled due to any of the following:

• Mechanical or electrical breakdown
• Dead battery
• Flat tire
• Lockout
• Insufficient supply of fuel, oil, water or other fluids
• Entrapment in snow, mud, water or sand within 100 feet of the roadway
• Roadside Assistance is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

Before considering this type of coverage check your club memberships or motorcycle loan for Roadside Assistance included as a perk or benefit.

What to take and in which flavor
With the different categories available to cover yourself, the motorcycle, a passenger and any vehicle or person involved in a potential accident, which ones are needed and what will it cost?

Some categories are required to be carried by state law. Additional coverage could be needed if any aftermarket chrome, equipment or pipes have been added after the motorcycle was purchased. Including the ‘extra bits’ in the value of your motorcycle will ensure receiving the correct replacement value if it ever gets stolen or totaled in an accident.

If you’ve followed the advice regularly given to new riders of buying a cheap motorcycle (so it doesn’t matter if it’s dropped a couple of times during the learning period) then getting by with the minimum legally required coverage could certainly help with the overall cost of insurance. However, the policies covering other people, or vehicles involved in a potential accident would be important to consider.

Speaking of cost, insurance premiums are determined from a blend of personal information. By knowing what’s involved in calculating a premium not only helps in deciding what to include in a possible policy, but it’ll also ensure any quotes you’ll get will be accurate and close to the final bill. For example, if the person or website offering a quote hasn’t asked for any of the following information, chances are the final cost could be more than the estimate.

Some of the key factors that affect motorcycle premiums are;

Age. It’s obvious that insurance companies consider older riders more reliable and safer than their younger counterparts. This is ironic considering the media consistently tells the world about baby-boomers buying bikes to recapture their youth only to lose their lives.

But if we’re going on stereotypes, one only has to look as far as the local freeway for potential claims with young sportsbike riders speeding in and out of congested traffic.

Driving record. If your driving record is littered with tickets or accidents, then you should expect to pay for higher rates.

Number of miles driven every week. Nearly every traffic study quotes the number of miles traveled compared to the number of miles driven or ridden as a measurable statistic. Consequently, insurance companies reason that the more miles you ride in a month, the more likely you could have an accident. By using your motorcycle on a daily basis your premiums could be much higher than the weekend warrior.

Where you live and more importantly, where does the motorcycle call home? Riders who live in a big city can expect slightly higher rates compared to those who reside in a rural area, even though it may be exactly the same motorcycle. Similarly, a motorcycle parked in a garage is less likely to be vandalized or stolen than one kept in a communal parking lot and is rewarded with lower insurance costs.

And as we’re on the subject of the two wheeled beasts;

What you ride. The insurance premium will have nearly as much to do about the motorcycle as it will about you. What brand, how large of an engine, how old and probably top of the list, what its worth will all directly relate to how expensive the policy will be. If your ride is larger, newer, racier or expensive, expect for a high premium.

But there are ways to lower your insurance policy, and they’re even encouraged by the insurance industry!