‘Insurance soars in theft hotspots’
The bike trade is cyclical, and so are insurance rates. Certain classes of bike become difficult to insure. Sports 600s were once under the cosh, believe it or not, and now the problem is theft.
This is most prevalent in the inner cities, especially London, where scrotes on scooters will lift just about anything and the police seem powerless to stop it.
My local dealer tipped me off about this: a 40-something had recently passed his tests and wanted a new Yamaha MT-09. He didn’t have a garage and was being quoted around two grand, fully comprehensive.
Going for a year-old, used model halved the premium. This is because the aforementioned scrotes regard new bikes as more valuable.
I did some checking myself, feeding dummy details into online premium checkers, posing as a 40 year-old, but this time with a garage for overnight storage. The saving between new and a year old wasn’t a grand, but it was a few hundred quid.
It’s only going to get worse and if you are considering a new bike, look at ex-demo bikes and ultra-low milers. I’ve bought prereg, ultra-low miles and ex-demo vehicles on a number of occasions.
If you’re intending on them being longterm purchases, five years down the line it will have just two names on the V5, rather than one, and there will be no depreciation difference. You might even get insured, too!