Motorcycle insurance for traveller
 

I hope someone can advise me...

I travel pretty much full time, stopping only in the winter to replenish funds. I'm looking at buying and insuring a bike in the UK (British passport holder)...I need to insure for multiple European countries but I'm not having much luck finding a company. I'm not in any one country for more than a few months. Does anyone have any ideas or recommendations?

Thanks, Chris

Hi Chris:

I have no experience with your specific situation (I'm a Canadian who visits Europe with a Canadian-plated motorcycle), but I would be very surprised if there are no domestic UK insurers who offer insurance policies for UK registered motos that provide coverage on the continent.

It may be that the 'basic' level of policy coverage offered to motorcyclists by UK insurers does not include coverage in other countries, but I am certain that extended coverage - at the very least, to nearby Western European countries such as F, D, NL, B, L, E, & P is available as an option (at extra cost) on an otherwise standard UK motorcycle insurance policy.

What you might encounter as a problem is finding that no UK based insurance companies who insure motorcycles in the UK are able to extend coverage to certain Central & Eastern European countries (for example, some of the former Yugoslavian countries). Likely the reason for this is that the business registration requirements imposed by the foreign country for a UK insurance company to issue coverage in these far-away locations are too onerous to make it worthwhile for the insurance company to offer a product that has very little demand in the UK market

But, I'm certain that enough UK riders visit the nearby previously mentioned countries on the continent to make it worthwhile for UK insurers to offer coverage there.

Maybe this has changed since Brexit, and maybe insurers who offered coverage for the continent before Brexit no longer do. Probably best for you to make inquiries in a UK motorcyclist forum, I'm sure others have the same question. One possible place to start is the UKGSer forum. That's a pretty big and pretty active forum of UK based riders of the BMW GS motorcycle.

Michael

Thanks for taking the time to reply Michael. They cover 3 months out of the UK but not more than that, I'm about to buy a new Africa twin and really don't want to be riding it effectively uninsured. I'll ask some UK forums.

Hi Chris:

My guess, based on 20 years of experience riding my Canadian-plated moto all over Europe and North Africa, is that you will always be able to purchase country-specific insurance in whatever country you are riding in that provides the minimum legally required third party liability cover for that one country, but you will have great difficulty purchasing any kind of enhanced coverage beyond the minimum third party liability such as theft, collision, comprehensive, etc.

I suspect that this is the reason that the majority of international tourers use older motorcycles.

Michael

I think you're right Michael

Border insurance isn't unusual in many parts of the world, however I'm particularly interested in the issue of what to do on a UK plated bike where the insurance covers for 90 days in the EU, but you expect to be out of the UK for longer.

It's "third party only" but that's understood, you won't find an insurer who will touch you for anything more outside your home country.

Get to an EU external border before the 90 days run out, and cross back inside through a big border post where EU-wide frontier insurance is available for foreign-plated vehicles? Something like Turkey-Greece or the Spanish entry ports from Morocco? You'll be a third-country national and it doesn't matter to the EU that your domestic UK insurance has run out as long as you've got newly valid EU insurance. No?

Hi Chirs,
If not too late for you, I was looking back for information and saw your post.

I have a US plated in Europe and I have used (Motorcycle Express . com), so far I have liked them, and their rate was fair after looking into over a dozen different companies. Most all use the same underwriter anyways and then charge you extra for their rate. Now I haven't had to use them for anything but I like how you get it for up to 12 months or however many you want under that, rather than only 7-10 days at border stations from what I have seen.

They DON'T cover ALBANIA, ANDORRA, AZERBAIJAN, BOSNIEN HERZEGOWINA ,BELARUS, ISRAEL, IRAN, MOROCCO, MOLDOVA, NORTH MACEDOIA, MONTENEGRO, RUSSIA, SERBIA, TUNISA, TURKEY, or UKRAINE.
but all of these you buy at boarder stations or nearby them if entering on a main road.

Actually a simpler solution came up a little while after my las post. Motocamp Bulgaria can issue EU insurance to cover you after the UK 90 days runs out. As RTE says, EU insurance only covers the EU. You can generally buy border insurance of countries outside the bloc.