Insuring a UK bike in France
 

Hi,

this is not technically a touring issue but I figured you guys might be some of the best to ask about this.
I recently rode my UK registered bike down to the south of france (Antibes, near Nice). I've just started a job down here so the trip was mainly to bring the bike down, but it was great. Set off from home in north east UK, down to dover, calais to paris, troyes, dijon, lyon, grenoble and down the route napoleon into Antibes.
My UK insurer gave me 90 days euro cover, but my actual policy expires very soon so I need to renew... whats my best option?? Alot of french insurers wont give me quotes, either because its uk registered and I have no carte grise (but I dont want to register it here, I'm probably only staying a year and having foreign plates has its advantages) or because the bike is a 600 and according to french license law I shouldn't be able to ride a bike that size! (I'm only 22, had my license 5 years).
So, does anyone know a UK company that will insure me fully to ride in france for 12 months? what do you guys do when you do your epic continental trips?? any help/advice appreciated!

cheers,
james

Hi

Check out e-bike insurance, to my knowledge they are the only company that offers 365 day euro cover (fully comp no less!) with their standard policy at no extra cost, for an additional 50 quid you can get euro breakdown cover as well, you would neeed to register your policy to a UK address.

Hope this helps:biggrin3:

Greg

Other options are:

1. Kopf (spelling) tours in Germany, who will insure it for riding in all countries in Europe apart from the bike's home country. Which means you will not be able to ride it home. Check the paperwork insurance links in this site for details.
2. Look at more UK insurers. I got al sorts of answers from my insurers when I posed a similar insue to them to yours. Eventually a superviser came on the line and tld me that the green card thing is indefinite. I guess that the company has no way of checking when you come and go abroad, and when you return.

French insurers are not going to help you.

Simon

thanks for the advice....

ebike looks pretty good, but it still specifies that the bike must be predominantly at the uk address... it might be an ok solution if I can find nothing else, just it could be a hassle if I ever need to claim and they decide to be awkward.

Also, I found that AXA ("your english insurer in france") will insure bikes with UK plates but they're having an issue with the size of the bike, apparently they had to ask HQ about insuring me, so even if they say they will, I'm not expecting the quote to be pleasant...

cheers,
james