Same - F for fucked
I should be F but I’m G
G for garage!
I kept my bike on the drive in Hemel for years until it was stolen, now I use my gran’s garage across town, it’s a pain in the arse but it’s a lot cheaper
I’m glad I’m out in Sticks McSticksville these days. I ran a quote on a couple of year old Rocket 3 and that came back at £130 with a £400 excess.
I’m E. Acquaintances around the corner had their Land Rover stolen off their drive in the night without the keys, was tracked to a few streets away sitting with false plates on. Left to see if there was a tracker I guess. Plenty of high value cars in the area make rich pickings for visiting car thieves.
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Mad isn’t it, I’m riding again after a 12 year absence, 2k bike in N16, private parking (not garaged) costing me 700 to insure, no claims, no cloaks discount either, absolutely insane!
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Just saw a tweet yesterday by a bloke who was mugged for his Brompton bicycle. The guy is over six foot, fit and in his early thirties, yet six scotes ambushed him in broad daylight, in Islington, and mugged him for the bike, wallet and phone.
Bromptons are very stealable. A grand the size of a briefcase. Scrotes steal them from trains too.
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I had the same issue when buying my first ‘big’ bike last year. I’m late 20s and live zone 2 SW London with the bike on the street. Quotes coming back in the thousands for fully comp or TPFT, even for older bikes.
The conclusion I came to:
- Buy a cheap bike. Plenty of ULEZ-compliant Bandits, SV650, FZ6 etc available in and around London for under £2-2.5k. Many of these will have some service history, decent tyres, full MoT etc so wait for one to come up.
- Get TPO insurance. Your bike is cheap.
- Buy some crash bars/bungs for the inevitable drop/slide which is now not covered by insurance.
- Buy good locks/chain for each wheel and always use them. Your bike is now not worth stealing because it’s cheap and a pain to do so.
- Kryptonite locks come with ‘insurance’. I bought the ‘New York Fahgettaboudit D Lock’ for £100 - it slides through both front brake discs, is very chunky, and gives £1250 insurance if the bike is stolen after forcing the lock. Search Kryptonite Anti-Theft Protection Offer. My FZ6 cost £1900 so the ‘insurance’ covers roughly the same amount as a regular insurance policy would after excess. Yes, you can find ways round this lock, but the bike is cheap, has another lock on the back wheel and is too heavy to carry away so what’s the point trying.
- Suck up the cost for the first year - it will get better! My insurance recently halved to about £600 with 1 year NCB (Lexham then MCE).
Did you ride on a 125 before doing your licence? If so, you may be able to switch your current insurance to a new bike and then your 1 year NCB ‘anniversary’ will come sooner. Also worth considering what you’ll use the bike for over the next few months. If the answer is not much you could get a smaller capacity bike to pootle around London then upgrade next year having spent a few months paying a lower insurance premium.
Good luck!
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You might want to consider non-compliant ones being “dumped” on the market.
Chatting with my local mechanic, while my bike was being MoT’ed this week, he told me everything is passing the one-off emissions test, even old two-strokes. The pollutant gas they are looking for is not a problem on an old bike, even on two-strokes, and apparently if the bike fails they just run it richer - which masks the gas - until it passes.
Basically everything passes, the only downside is you have to pay the £175 for the test.
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