I know your post was more of a vent than seeking a drastic change to your current arrangements, and having just written the below Iāve gone on a bit of a rant answering a question you never asked - I certainly donāt mean any of it to be preachy or in any way detract from the fact that your insurance quotes are obscenely expensive through no fault of your own whatsoever, and youāre right that is incredibly unfair. However, I also donāt know what can really be done about that so Iāve just written down what my though process might be if I were faced with a similar issue.
So for me, owning and riding a motorcycle daily is my only non negotiable. I sometimes wonder if I only go to work so I can ride my bike, and I spend most of my day thinking about motorbikes. As such, if I lived in a location where this lifestyleās existence were threatened Iād most certainly move.
Itās not a solution that works for everyone, thatās for sure. But to put the benefits into perspective, I live halfway to Dover yet it only takes me an hour to get to my desk in the City - in fact it takes me just as long to get from Moorgate to visit friends in Earlās Court at rush hour.
For the price of London flat rent, I get a house with a garage. And a driveway, clean air, slower pace of life, physical separation between myself and work even though I do take work home with me it definitely helps reducing stress from long hours, community, great countryside pretty much on my doorstep, and Iām not permanently worried about my bike getting stolen. All my friends who live in London canāt imagine life outside it, but I personally couldnāt bear living there again.
For context, I was 23 on my last insurance renewal and I think just for my TDM 900 with a valuation of Ā£3500 and 16,000 miles a year including commuting, a single vehicle write-off 3 years prior at a cost of Ā£1900, no points, and the IAM qualification I was quoted just south of Ā£400 - I also own a car which they often ask. I have a multi bike policy with the TDM and my VFR1200 and thatās just above Ā£700 for the pair. I imagine with the information you supplied above in my location your insurance would be unbeliavably cheap. The difference between your quotes and my insurance is pretty much bang on how much it costs me in terms of fuel, insurance, depreciation and tax to get to work each year. I should have given you enough information to do a dummy quote on a price comparison site against your data and see if yours looks more reasonable in comparison. I imagine I would be uninsurable in that location? Youāre more than welcome to PM me if you want to do the inverse and plug your details in for my postcode.
Of course you may be unable or donāt want to move and I definitely get that. In which case I really would suggest getting an older and cheaper bike. The newest bike Iāve owned is my vfr and itās 9 years old and many owners. To me though, I still consider it my āniceā bike, am very pleased with it and its all round build quality, and quite honestly have never hankered after anything newer.
I do appreciate your frustrations on seat height but there are very very few bikes that canāt be lowered, and most can be done with kits readily available on ebay and the like. Even if you paid a mechanic to do this the whole thing would surely pay for itself in a few months through premium reduction.
itās not fair