Five ways to reduce your motorbike insurance

Take your test

It may sound obvious but many new riders put off doing their test until they are ready to part with the cash and buy a bigger bike. However, the longer you’ve had your full licence, the lower your premiums are likely to be. Even if you’re not ready to hop off the 125cc and onto your first ‘big bike’ it’s worth taking your test (restricted or unrestricted). It could mean the difference between being able to actually afford to insure a larger capacity machine and having to make do with something a bit less powerful.

Protect your bike

We’re not saying bikes are easy to steal – but in a lot of cases they are considerably easier to steal than cars. Yes your bike probably has a steering lock, but this isn’t that difficult to break. Disc locks and chains are fairly hefty pieces of equipment, as are land anchors, but a determined group of thieves needs only a van and the willingness to leave the front wheel behind and to render these moot. There’s no substitute for locking your pride and joy away in a private garage but an alarm and a tracking device may sway insurance companies into offering you a lower premium.

Enhanced Rider Scheme

Advanced training courses are always a good idea; there are very few arguments against doing them. The Enhanced Rider Scheme is recognised by many insurance companies and could bring large savings, not to mention make you less likely to have an accident in the first place. However, it’s not cheap. Well, having said that, that depends on the current state of your riding. The cost of the training will vary with each provider and could be dependent on your individual needs. If your riding is deemed to be satisfactory then you’ll be handed an ERS certificate without any need for training. If training is needed then an individual plan is devised that concentrates on specific areas that require attention.

BikeSafe

Bike Safe is another course that is aimed at improving your riding. It is run by local police forces and designed to focus on areas of your riding that could do with improving. Much cheaper than the Enhanced Rider Scheme, Bike Safe is even free for those in Scotland and well worth doing whether it has a large effect on your insurance or not.

Go racing

Race schools won’t be able to hand you over a crisp piece of paper that entitles you to insurance discounts but they may be able to equip you with some new skills that could push your no-claims tally up a few notches. Bikers are much closer to their racing counterparts than car drivers and many of the skills are transferrable. As a result, we have seen schools such as the Ron Haslam Race School and California Superbike School at Silverstone go from strength to strength. So much so, that new courses such as trackdays with professional riders are becoming more common. Silverstone has announced that Ron Haslam will be attending certain trackdays this year to offer tuition, while Brands Hatch is offering a similar deal with British Superbike Champion Tommy Hill.