Motorcycle insurance is a necessary purchase for anyone who owns a motorcycle. However, there are some common mistakes people make when buying motorcycle insurance. Here are some mistakes to avoid when purchasing motorcycle insurance.

Always drive with insurance!

Driving on the street can be super unpredictable. You’ve got constantly changing conditions from cars pulling out in front of you jamming on their brakes or texting while they’re driving. You’ve also got wonderful woodland critters coming out to give you a nice old hug and potholes the size of Niagara Falls. My riding instructor told us the first day, “If it fits in a skillet, kill-it.” 

The kind of person who brags about not riding with insurance is the sort of person who also brags about not riding with a helmet because they’re never gonna go down. Not to mention that getting pulled over while driving without insurance is a great way to get a massive fine or potentially lose your license. 

I’ve been involved in more than one motorcycle accident, so it’s important to have insurance. It’s something that’s better to have and not need than need and not have. Another myth that we hear way too often is that motorcycling is too expensive due to the insurance costs. Now, you’ll often hear this being espoused by some 18-year-old kid who’s using his graduation money to go out and buy himself a leader bike, and then he’s confused as to why he’s paying so much for insurance. 

The type of bike you are riding!

Now, a lot of things are going to impact how much your insurance is going to be.

The type of bike that you’re on! If you’re on a sport bike versus a cruiser versus vs a dual sport. The cc of your engine makes a huge impact on your rate.

All three of those kinds of motorcycles are going to have different types of insurance costs. Additionally as well, subsets of sport bikes or cruisers might be more than others. You might love the power of a 600cc bike, however, if this is your first bike and you’re trying to insure an M1 on it good luck. Yes, I made this mistake and my first quote, which was really my third company because no one would talk to me once they found I was riding a 650cc with my M1 my quote was 8,000 a year. Um .. no thanks! So I sold my bike and bought a 250 and me and the streets were a much safer place. What was I thinking with a 650cc for my first bike? With the purchase of the Suzuki Gixxer SF 250, and by the time I sold the 650, I had passed my m2 with a safety certificate, after taking my MSC. My quote dropped like a rock and was down to 1,200 a year.  Yippie!

How old you are!? (sorry)

So insurance companies are going to see that the second big thing to consider is how old you are, you’ll likely notice if you’re over the age of 25 that your insurance costs dramatically went down. That’s because insurance companies normally look at someone who’s yeah, as having less experience on the road and more likely to incur an accident or some sort of incident. The final thing is those accidents and incidents. If you have a history of accidents or incidents on your motorized vehicle, your insurance premiums will probably go up as well. 

Now not every ticket from traffic enforcement officers going to automatically increase your insurance premiums. For example, a parking ticket usually isn’t really going to do much. Let me show you what I mean. 

Now, if you were to leave your motorcycle parked on the sidewalk, you’d probably get yourself a parking ticket, but that’s not gonna do anything to your insurance. 

Now, if you were to be doing 160 kph with your buddies on the freeway, you’re probably gonna get yourself a reckless driving ticket and that’s gonna massively impact your insurance, you can complete a driver safety course or something like that to help reduce your overall liability on your drivers and then get yourself back to a better place with your insurance.

Getting road-side assistance

Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever been out on a ride and picked up a nail in your tire and forgot to pack a plug kit? Well now you’re stuck on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck or maybe you’re waiting for your buddy to come to rescue you with a trailer or a patch kit of his own bet. You wish you had that roadside plan. 

Now didn’t you think you’d save some money by not getting it? But then you start to think about it and you’re like, wait, how much is a tow truck? How much is triple A? How much is this? And how much is that? Well, it’s actually gonna be a lot cheaper if you just get yourself roadside coverage. It’s literally a few dollars per year. 

The next myth I wanted to talk about is one that we’ve already covered before, but it bears repeating because it’s super, super important and that is that liability coverage is not enough coverage, you might think that you’ve got yourself minimum liability coverage and you’re good to go. 

Well technically that’s enough to get you on the road, but it might not be enough to get you back on the road in the event of an accident. Now let’s say that you’re a brand new rider and you’ve run out, you financed your this rebel 1100 right here. Now between your monthly payments and your rent and food and whatever else you’re subscribed to. You might need to get yourself some savings somewhere and you might think, well insurance is the way to go. I can get cheaper coverage by, you know, just not paying as much not getting the full comprehensive coverage. 

Skipping out on gear and accessory coverage!

Another small brain move I’ve seen people making is skipping out on gear and accessories coverage on their motorcycle. 

They think well I’ve got plenty of money to cover that stuff or didn’t put that much on my motorcycle, to begin with. All my gear is not all that expensive but you’d be surprised how quickly that adds up. Track all of the mods and riding gear I wear, slip on exhaust. $480. Power Commander Five $380 KTM Comfort Seat. $190 C. R. G. Bar, End Mirror Set, $270 Heated Grips, $200 Rear Wheel A. Bs Dongle, $115 Roadblock Disc Lock, $345 Ktm Power Parts, Orange Mirror Block Off Screws, $10 A. G. V. X. Nine Dual Sport Helmet, $550 Alpine Stars, Chrome Sport Hoodie, $200 Alpine Stars, S. Mx Five Boots, $200. See what I’m talking about, that stuff adds up. Pay a couple of extra bucks and get it covered.

That’s why whenever you sign up for a quote they’re usually going to ask if you’ve had any incidents, accidents, or traffic tickets while you’re on your motorized vehicle and if you don’t answer truthfully it’s probably gonna impact your rates as well and that’s why any claim accident or any sort of incident you have on one policy will definitely affect your other vehicles policy as well. 

For example, if you have a claim on your truck, it will probably affect your motorcycle policy by going up as well. Now the best way to save money is actually bundling your vehicles together. 

We’ve bundled all the bikes together so we get a pretty hefty discount but if you’ve got just a truck and a bike or a car and a bike and get yourself a discount that way too. Now one of the final mistakes we see when it comes to insurance is just simply putting your policy on a set-it-and-forget-it mentality. 

A lot of people think that their policy has the best price and the best coverage and they don’t even bother to shop around once they’ve got something in place. But the easiest thing you can do is get yourself a free quote to see if you can save yourself some coin on your insurance policy. Google is your friend here!