I consider insurance to be a fairly important part of owning a bike. Most of the time I just pay the premiums and have peace of mind. I haven't had much call to use the other side of insurance.
We were, until recently, a 2 bike household. She had a 2006 GSX750F worth about $8,000 and I had a 1998 Ducati 600ss worth about $6,000. She was insured fully comp to ride her bike and I was insured to ride both bikes fully comp. All purchased through Kiwibike Insurance. So far so good.
We sold her bike to pay off a home improvement loan. It got collected on the Saturday - I was out riding my bike when it got collected and had fun : she looked after the children at home.
On Sunday she was sad that she didn't have a bike so I said - go have a ride on the Ducati - it will cheer you up. Winston came round and offered to accompany my wife on a short ride - about 120kms. I looked after the children and took them to Teretonga to watch the bikes at a track day.
My wife had a great trip and then binned the bike in the driveway. Munted the bike and herself pretty badly. We could have said I was riding. We didn't. We could have got her named on the insurance on the Monday and pretended she had binned the bike after that day. We didn't. We called the insurance broker on Monday and said:
"I'd like to cancel my policy for the GSX750F please"
"Sure, can I ask why?"
"We sold it"
"Cool"
"I'd like to cancel my insurance for the 600ss please"
"Why would you like to cancel that policy"
"Coz the missus binned it and there's not really enough of it left to insure"
"I see. Why aren't you making a claim?"
"Coz she's not insured to ried the small, lightweight, gutless, cheaper bike. She was only insured to ride the bigger, heavier, more valuable bike"
So policies cancelled I looked to see what could be done....of course looking at the state of the finances the expression "Streetfighter" leapt irresistably to mind.
Anyway I searched Trademe and bike wreckers and made phone calls and gradually got some pretty sharp prices for bits of the bike and sent some of the fairings in to get repared and resprayed meanwhile Dave from Kiwibike calls back and reckons we should lodge a claim anyway since we are decent customers he reckoned Swann migh cut us a wee break for being honest.
so we lodge a claim, Swann considered it and called me back to say "How much are these repairs costing you?" I gave them the cost and they said "Cool, we'll pop that into your bank account on Monday less your excess - thanks for your honesty - enjoy your bike."
So we got paid out despite not actually being entitled to a payout and I just got the last parts back from the panel beaters today.
Now to put the jigsaw puzzle back together again.
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