News Archive

Motorcycle Modifications Don't Always Mean Big Insurance Price Hike

Thursday, 12 May 2005

Romford, 5th May 2005 – Too many motorcycle owners are failing to tell their insurers about modifications to their motorcycles either because they fear the changes will increase their insurance premiums, or because they don't realize they need to. However, a new review by specialist motorcycle insurance broker Devitt reveals that many of the most common modifications actually have little or no effect on premiums at all.

This contrasts with failing to tell an insurer about modifications which could result in the insurer refusing to pay when a claim is made – particularly if the modification is a factor in the claim.

According to Devitt, many of Britain's bikers' favourite modifications have virtually no impact on insurance premiums. These include modifications such as crash bars, crash mushrooms, road legal after-market exhausts, huggers, up-rated braking systems and a five per cent increase in engine capacity.

Other modifications including wheels, suspension, Dynojet and tank pads may also be accepted by insurers and would result in only a moderate premium increase.

Modifications that are likely to render a motorcycle uninsurable are increasing engine capacity over five per cent; custom motorcycles and converting to running on nitrous oxide.

Commenting on the review, Devitt's Managing Director (at the time) Martin Pretlove said: "One of the most important principles underlying any kind of insurance is that all relevant information must be passed on to the insurance company. That's the only way an insurer can understand precisely what risks they're covering and calculate a fair price. Motorcycle owners are often scared of declaring their motorcycle modifications because they think there's going to be a big price tag attached. Yet the vast majority of modifications will be accepted by insurers at either no additional charge or a small premium increase. This is definitely one of those situations where it's much better to be up-front with your insurer than to end up having to pay for a damaged motorcycle, or possibly worse still, having to personally pay a third party's claim. Problems arise when the insurer believes the modification may have caused or contributed to the claim or the amount payable – for example, having a motorcycle with eye-catching race-replica paintwork stolen."