Right, after what feels like weeks and weeks of phoning & webbing, I've settled on a solution.
I've taken out a comprehensive policy with ebike - should've just listened to Fernando in the first place! This seems to the
the only UK insurance comany who operate independently (different underwriters, and I was wrong about my BMW policy being the same) and offer 365 European cover for EU member states (only). And unless I'm reading the policy document wrongly, it seems that within the EU states, they offer
comprehensive cover i.e. not just minimum Third Party - which is very pleasing. They also have full European breakdown cover for £50 which covers for EU states
and most of the non-EU (excluding Asian Turkey & Russia). Their website is
www.ebikeinsurance.co.uk.
For the bike insurance in non-EU countries, I'm going to go with Alessie third party liability. Because of the way my route is planned, all of these countries (Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia*, Turkey, Albania, Bosnia, Serbia) are pretty much lumped together in the middle of my 6 months. This means I can keep the cost down a little by just paying for 2 or 3 months with them.
*Russia not covered - buy at border. Their website is
www.alessie.com.
So, done at last. I'll shut up about it now, hope it helps. Thanks for all your advice ;-)
Happy Trails,
Pat.