Recommended insurance companies

I have used Carole Nash for years. Amazing value with Europe-wide Recovery thrown in. Very good claims department too as I have discovered. www.carolenash.comor 0800 298 5500. They do an online quote as well.

Carole Nash are not the independent company that they once were but I have not found another company that will insure my mix of classic and modern bikes as economically. Customer service has always been excellent.

Use MCE Insurance- competitive rates , multiple bike policy if needed and RAC 24 hour roadside rescue cover included. Haven't made a claim however so can't rate claims dept yet.

I have always used Carole Nash insurance, but, it is worth checking what company they use for breakdown assistance (all are not the same!). Back in '99, when returning from Vezio, my commando gearbox failed when crossing the Gotthard Pass (I was too tight to pay motorway tolls!). I managed to limp down to Luzern, where I phoned Carole Nash. The breakdown cover, at that time, was provided by Mondial Assistance. They paid for a taxi to Zurich airport (£72), flew me back to London (Where I as met, not by a taxi, but a chauffeured limo). My bike, and luggage, were returned 10 days later. Unfortunately, not all breakdown companies provide this sort of service.

I have used both Carol Nash and Footman James and whilst they started off competitive, after a few years they both tried to impose a big hike in the premium without any reason (I have never had a claim in 52 years motorcycling)

Last August Footman James gave me a renewal quote rising from £183 to £247.Carol Nash quoted £207 and I settled for Lynbrook Insurance (usually in the middle of the back page of the Old Bike Mart) at £141 and this included increased agreed value for all four bikes.

Surprisingly, the premium was bumped up by all three companies by a 1984 Honda C90 stepthro which was classed as a modern bike. The other machines being a 1961 Model 50, a 63 Jubilee Deluxe and a 54 BSA Bantam D1.

At the time of renewal, Footman James ran a full two page ad in the OBM; Carol Nash a full one page ad and Lynbrook a 70 x 60 mm ad. Their premiums reflected the size of their adverts!

It's not just about the cost, it's the srvice provided aswell. Several years ago I broke a Dymag wheel on a T160 in Spain, so unrepairable ! Carole Nash organised the bike to be picked up and transported me, the missus and the bike to Santander and on arrival at Plymouth arranged pick up to where I live 300 miles away. I couldn't fault the service as it's not a lot of fun breaking down in a foreign country. i have 6 bikes insured with Nash (all old bikes) with agreed values for @£300 total fully comp. If you just have the one bike I reckon you will be looking at around £160ish. A mate of mine recently reinsured his 2 Triumphs with Footman James, who after a month or so demanded the specific power outputs of the bikes, an 850 Trident and a Rob North 750 so now he has to get them dyno'd or change insurance company.

sam

I am with Carole Nash

After crashing a bike in France hard enough to write it off Carole Nash provided a hire to get me home.

Two weeks later the bike was in the Uk. Within another two weeks it had been inspected, a value agreed and the money paid. Brilliant service.

I also used their recovery service in the UK when my 16H broke down. That was fast and efficient too.

So long as their premium is reasonable I don't even bother shopping around as good service is worth more than saving a few quid.

I had a spill (fuel on roundabout) which wrecked the engine on my 99 - the bars bent up and pulled the throttle cable tight with the back wheel off the ground, resulting in massive over-revving and a snapped con rod and smashed crankcases and barrels. Carole Nash paid out for the engine parts, I provided the labour.Most unusual but very welcome.

I had been using Aon for years for a multi bike policy. About 4/5 years ago they joined with Footman James, who then took over my policy. The premium went up a bit, but still good service, really a case of same contents, different box. In 2010 a foreign lorry knocked me off my Dommie & put the bike & me in a ditch. Could have been worse as neither me or the bike was too seriously damaged but the lorry driver didnât stop & I had other things on my mind other than getting registration numbers etc so had little chance of finding the culprit so asked Footman James where I stood. No problem, they said, get some quotes for repairs & weâll do the rest. I explained that I repaired classic cars & bikes for a living & could I do the work myself? If you give a competitive quote, yes, was the answer. I sent them an estimate, worked out exactly as it would have been had the bike been a customers, the assessor phoned me & asked if I could email him some photoâs of the damage & on receipt of them, phoned me again to say he was happy with my estimate & had authorised the claim, they never asked for any other estimates & I received a cheque within about a week to 10 days. The whole process took less than three weeks! Couldnât fault them.

Last October, however, when the policy was due for renewal, I noticed they had removed the cover to ride other motorcycles (not important to me) but hiked the premium massively. I phoned to query but was told that was the price, take it or leave it. As I can cover the bikes on my trade policy, although not on agreed value, I decided to leave it & shop around to see if I could do better. I didnât get round to doing this until May this year & after phoning around all the other companies I could find, I had some much more attractive quotes for much the same cover so thought Iâd phone F/J to ask why they were suddenly so much more expensive than their competition? They went through the information they still held, which hadnât changed & was the same info I had given all the other companies, & guess what, they gave me a new quote which was one of the best Iâd had. (& had the ride others motorcycles reinstated.) They couldnât explain why it was so much lower than their renewal! I decided as Iâd had good service from them in the past & an excellent outcome when Iâd needed to use the cover, better the devil you know & have given them my business again, although I have to confess itâs tainted my opinion of them a little. If it hadnât been F/J, Iâd probably have gone with Carol Nash whose cover & benefits were pretty much identical.

Regards, Tim

My Footman James policy covers my Commando and Interpol 2, the policy involves four different insurance companies and the details come on 28 pages of fine print, I can ride any other bike PROVIDED it is over 20 years old. They will not remove the legal protection cover (something I have through other means) I get the feeling that if I were to claim I would likely fall through some loohole. Peter James insurance seems to be well worth a look and I will almost certainly be moving to them next year.

I use FJ for my 3 bikes all on agreed value cover, they also include European recovery, legal cover and travel by bike, insurance in the cost of around £200. (Travel insurance for just wondering around the place by Bike seems to be difficult to get as most ordinary travel insurances won't give you cover).

FJ are getting more difficult about modifications, increasing the capacity of one of my airheads resulted in £20 extra premium and I don't really think tha the people who man the phones really understand that a 40 year old bikeis unlikely to be standard.

the only time I had to claim against another vehicle, their legal service worked, so has the breakdown service in the UK. If you are traveling abroad it's good to have agreed value insurance as the cost of repatriating your pride and joy can easily exceed 'market value' and being away does not put you in a strong negotiating position.

I have used both Carol Nash and Footman James and whilst they started off competitive, after a few years they both tried to impose a big hike in the premium without any reason

Deja Vu, my experience exactly, I am now with Peter James Insurance and so far no big hikes in premium, never had cause to see what the claims or recovery is like but the cover matches CN and FJ.

Just beforemy insurance came up for renewal FJ wrote& asked me to allow them to quote. When CN sent my renewal I called FJ and, to cut a long story short, the best that FJ could do was to offer me a policy on the basis of 5k miles a year (as opposed to my unrestricted CN quote) and to add insult to injury it was more expensive than CN. the clincher was that if I wanted to be able touse the bike to commute to my office or a client then the annual mileage would be further reduced & the premium increased still further (don't get me started on the rip off that is Business Class1 insurance).

I stayed withCN, we'll see what happens next year!

Back in May, Norton phoned to say my 961 was ready to build, and they wanted the balance payment, and insurance so the new machine could be registered. I had not had m/cycle insurance for years, and started with Carol Nash. I struggled to understand the saleswoman, who I assumed was in an Asian call centre. After 20 minutes I was loosing the will to live, but we seemed to have it sorted, with a copy to Norton.Next day Norton e-mailed to say the registration No. was wrong, my name was wrong, the model was wrong & so on. Got back to Carol Nash, spoke to a supervisor, who announced the policy would have to be started again, at a higher price,as the no-claims I had many years ago would not apply (I had already pointed this out), and a sales person would get back to me. Suprise suprise ,the same original person phoned. At that stage I gave up.

A friend recommended MCE insurance.5 minutes and it was all sorted, and £70 less. A nearly finished 1938 restoration can be added to my policy when ready. Suggest you get quotes from a few.7 weeks later the 'ready next week' Norton has still not arrived, but that is another story . . . .

Sounds most unlike CN's staff. I added another bike to my classic policy yesterday and the very helpful guy I was speaking to (Ian) mentioned that the multi-bike policy could alsohave added named riders. I added my wife to the policy and it came to an extra £3. Pretty good value I reckon.

Footman James insured me for the last 6 years, as they were always cheaper than C Nash for me. This year the premium for my 3 "classics" was going to be£180, so I rang Peter James (recommended to me by another NOCCER) and the premium for the same cover came down to £125, so a significant saving.

Previously martin_holdsworth wrote:

Footman James insured me for the last 6 years, as they were always cheaper than C Nash for me. This year the premium for my 3 "classics" was going to be£180, so I rang Peter James (recommended to me by another NOCCER) and the premium for the same cover came down to £125, so a significant saving.

Hi

I have a triumph t90 ( 350cc) a Tr25w(250cc) and a norton electra which is not registered so it is insured for fire thef only I am using peter best and all 3 were under £100 including recovery but I have not to date needed to make a claim .

I know they are small bikes but previously I was paying £80 just for the t90.

Hopefully the norton will be running and registerd by next year