Motorcycle Insurance Coverage: What Riders Need
New bike, first policy. Here is what motorcycle insurance coverage includes, what drives the premium, and the pieces riders most often leave off.
New bike. Good decision. Now the part nobody wants to think about on delivery day.
Motorcycle insurance coverage is not just an auto policy with a different vehicle on it. The exposures are different, the required coverages are different, and the pieces riders skip are different too. Here is the map.
What sets your premium
- Your age, your riding record, and where you live.
- The style of bike. A sport bike, a cruiser, a touring bike, and a custom build price nothing alike, and engine displacement moves it further.
- The age and value of the motorcycle.
- Annual mileage. Most bikes here are seasonal, and that's reflected in the rate.
- Where it's stored. A locked garage and a street spot are not the same risk.
The coverages
Liability. Bodily injury and property damage you cause to other people. This is the required core, and it's worth being clear about what it does not do: it pays nothing toward your injuries or your bike.
Property damage liability. Damage you cause to someone else's vehicle, house, or structure.
Medical payments. Your medical expenses and your passenger's after a crash. Ambulance, imaging, treatment. This one deserves attention, because motorcycle policies handle medical coverage differently than auto policies do, and a rider who assumes their auto no-fault carries over can be badly wrong. Ask specifically how yours is written.
Collision. Damage to your motorcycle when you go down against another vehicle or an object.
Comprehensive. Everything else that happens to the bike. Theft, vandalism, fire, weather. Motorcycle theft is not a rare claim, and comprehensive is the coverage that answers it.
Custom parts and equipment. This is the one riders most often discover too late. A standard policy insures the bike as it left the factory. Exhaust, bags, seat, paint, chrome, audio, none of that is automatically covered. If you've put real money into the build, it has to be declared and scheduled, with a limit that reflects what you spent.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist. Covers your injuries and your passenger's when the at-fault driver has no coverage or not enough. For a rider, this may be the most important optional coverage on the list. In a collision between a bike and a car, the physical outcome is not symmetrical, and minimum liability limits are exhausted quickly.
Towing and labor. Reimburses towing and roadside costs after a breakdown or an accident. Inexpensive, and useful on a bike that isn't going to limp home.
Before you ride
Two things worth confirming with your agent rather than assuming. First, how your medical coverage is structured, since it's not the same as your car's. Second, whether your seasonal storage months are being handled in a way that saves you money without leaving the bike uncovered against theft or fire in the off season.
We're independent, so we shop motorcycle insurance across a diverse stable of carriers. Bike appetite varies a lot by carrier, and the company that's competitive on your car is often not the one you want for a cruiser.
Get a quote, and tell us what you're riding.