Insuring a ‘borrowed’ bike in New Zealand
 

The wife and I are, oldies health permitting, taking a month tour of New Zealand starting in November. Having looked at the cost to hire a VStrom 650, it is coming out at about £2K which seems ludicrous to me. I have posted on a NZ bikers facebook page to see if anybody would like to do an exchange if they are thinking of coming to the UK. No takers in that yet, but one chap has a 2003 R850R that he would be willing to hire to me for a very low cost. He is a bike mechanic by trade which is a bonus.
Have any of you got any tips on how one might best insure a bike that isn’t registered in your name abroad?
Obviously I would take out travel insurance to cover motorcycling also.

Can't you be put down as a named rider on his policy?

2K for a month's rent in more-or-less the peak season seems about right to me. That, in euros, is the quote I'm seeing from motorent.nz (used them before and am using them again in December). NZ's a very expensive country to begin with, but 67 euros a day for renting a bike, including insurance, arrive-and-ride service, reasonable guarantee of good condition... that's not really an unreasonable amount. You'd lose that much on depreciation on a showroom-new V-Strom in a season.

I know it is the going rate but £2000 is a lot of money in my opinion for a months hire. I can hire a small car for about £600 for the same period!

Yup - and a set of four tires for a car costs less than two tires for a bike. Ours is an expensive hobby. :)