Car Insurance

THE MOTORBIKE is making a comeback. Last year motorcycle and scooter sales hit their highest level for 13 years, says the Motor Cycle Industry Association, with over 120,000 machines sold in the UK.

You might think that this is because more of us are buying trendy scooters, but the best-selling bike of 1998 was a whopping great 900cc Honda. The truth is that a growing number of thirty-something and forty-something professionals are splashing out on luxury high- performance bikes to ride in their spare time.

Ensuring that these bikers ride safely is now a concern for the insurance industry and the Department of Transport. The rise of the thirty-something biker led many insurers to think that biking was entering a new, safer era. Far from it. “The problem is that people are getting on bikes again maybe 15 or 20 years after owning their first bike,without realising that big bikes are a lot more powerful now,” explains Richard Alger, market support manager at Norwich Union. “A whole new set of riding skills are now required and many born-again bikers are having accidents because they don’t realise this.” So if you are thinking about joining this band of born-again bikers, you need the right insurance. Specialist insurance broker MC Edwards, which has put together a policy for Peugeot scooter owners, offers comprehensive cover at a flat rate of pounds 225. This is reduced to pounds 150 if you just take out third party, fire and theft cover. Insure a classic scooter (more than 20 years old) and your premium could be pounds 40. The premium for a high-performance bike is more expensive. Under Carole Nash Insurance Consultants’ Ultima policy, an office worker of 39 living in Milton Keynes with two years’ no claims and adequate security, riding an pounds 8,000 Yamaha YZF-R1 registered this year, would pay pounds 534. There are three ways to buy motorcycle insurance: through a specialist insurance broker, from a motorcycle dealer or from a direct insurer. The only direct company actively selling motorbike cover is Hastings Direct. When the insurer burst on to the market a couple of years ago, it was offering some cheap premiums. They are not as competitive now but it is still worth getting a quote. Motorcycle Direct is also offering good premiums. Motorbike insurers have become more sophisticated but there are two basic things all of them look for: adequate security and evidence of safe and competent riding. Motorbike theft is a growing problem. A bike is stolen every 13 minutes, and for this reason insurers will require an immobiliser on many higher- value bikes. In some cases the owner will be required to garage the machine and secure it to the floor with a ground anchor. To encourage owners to take theft seriously, most insurers will offer discounts for security devices. For example, Cornhill offers a 7.5 per cent discount for garaging and between 5 and 7 per cent for security devices. Norwich Union offers discounts of up to 8 per cent for immobilisers and tagging devices on its Premier Bike policy. Anyone wanting to ride a motorbike or moped must complete Compulsory Basic Training (CBT). The training is thorough, covering areas such as bike maintenance, gear changing and junctions. Many motorcyclists also undertake advanced rider training. Insurers will usually reward these policyholders with a discount. For example, Motorcycle Direct has an agreement with the British Motorcyclists Federation that anyone successfully completing its riding scheme will get a 25 per cent discount. Most motorbike policies have similar standard sections, covering damage to, or loss of, vehicle, liability to third parties and usually legal expenses. However, some specialists offer policies with a wide range of standard and optional extras. The first thing you should look for in a policy is an emergency breakdown service. Norwich Union charges an extra pounds 28 for the RAC’s service, Bennetts also offers RAC rescue and Motorcycle Direct offers a recovery service from DAS. Lombard is one of the few companies that does not provide roadside recovery. Most policies will also offer automatic green card cover for riding in Europe. Check whether the policy covers personal possessions; some do not and others have low limits. Carole Nash’s Icons has a limit of pounds 1,000 for helmets, leather and other accessories; Norwich Union charges an extra pounds 22 for pounds 250 of possessions. Also ask if personal accident insurance is available - Norwich Union is unusual in offering up to pounds 1,000 of cover. If your motorbike is damaged beyond repair, some companies - such as Bennetts and Motor-cycle Direct - will replace the bike if it is less than six months old and if the damage exceeds 70 per cent of its listed price. Finally, you must check the excess. Most insurers will base this on a sliding scale according to the bike’s power. It usually ranges from pounds 100 to pounds 500. Beware some of the small ads in the back of motorcycle magazines. The premiums maybe cheap, but the excesses can be as high as pounds 1,000. Tim Collison is editor of `Professional Broking’ magazine. bike specialists Bennetts, 0870-333 0007 Carole Nash, 0800-298 5500 Devitt’s Direct, 0645 279305 Motorcycle Direct, 01454 419801 Hastings Direct, 0800 001066 MC Edwards, 01536 510100 NU Direct, 0800 125750 For Norwich Union, Cornhill, Lombard and Eagle Star policies, contact a specialist broker.

THE Association of British Insurers has launched a confidential hotline for honest policyholders to “get their own back” on insurance cheats. The ABI says fraudulent claims add pounds 1 a week to the average family’s insurance bill. Several fraudsters have already been exposed by anonymous tip-offs, including a claim for a stolen car when really it had been passed to a friend who was dismantling it for spares. Another woman claimed for stolen possessions following a burglary, but had really stored them with a relative until the claim had been paid. If you know a cheat, call the insurance hotline on 0800 328 2550.

BIRMINGHAM Midshires members should vote now for the take-over of the society by the Halifax if they want their windfall payment, which is expected to average pounds 1,250. You have until midnight on Tuesday for postal votes to be received by the scrutineers.

FOR EVERY LittleXtra children’s account opened by January 3, Halifax will donate pounds 1 to Save The Children. This follows a similar promotion last year which raised pounds 30,000 for NCH Action for Children.

GENERAL Direct has launched a car insurance policy aimed at 17 and 18- year-olds who have just passed their driving test. It offers them the chance to cut their normally high premiums by transferring a No Claims Bonus from their motorcycle or moped to their new car. This can mean a discount of 30 per cent on their new premium. For a quote call 0800 78 313 92.

NATIONWIDE has launched two attractive bonds available only to members of three years’ standing. There is a one-year fixed-rate bond paying 7.35% and a three-year variable-rate bond currently paying 7.75%. This is part of the society’s policy of rewarding long- standing members to emphasise the benefits of remaining a mutual society. Apply at your local branch.

John Ford must be directing this scene through a celestial bullhorn. Tall hats etch the skyline under the desert sun, as our horses pick their way around a crumbling sandstone ledge of Thunderbird Mesa, beside a vertical drop of 200 feet. It’s best not to look down.

This is Monument Valley, on Arizona’s northern border with Utah where, nearly 60 years ago, Ford shot his classic western, Stagecoach, and a clutch of later movies, immortalising the actor John Wayne. The awesome scenery hasn’t changed in more than a thousand years and it still takes some rugged riding for disciples of the Duke to follow in his shadow.

Jingling spurs and the creak of saddles are the only accompaniment to our anxious traverse, led unconcernedly by the white Stetson of what must be Wayne’s reincarnation, Don Donnelly, chewing a trademark toothpick, his grey mount, Steel, stepping confidently over rock scree on a serpentine descent. A few paces behind is a figure with Hollywood good looks, in cavalry uniform, gold epaulettes on a Yankee shirt, straight out of central casting. Bob Marelli, a mounted policeman from Newark, New Jersey, has been a devotee of the Duke from childhood. He had his attire - after a Wayne character - personally tailored, and he’s become known to us as Cap’n Bob. It is his second trip, and three of his police colleagues - one a motorcycle cop and two desk-bound lieutenants - have joined him. At his heels shambles another rider in dusty brown chaps, and collar- length lank hair under a black hat. He could pass muster among the Hole- in-the-Wall gang, until you speak to him. Ian Drake is a computer analyst from Essex, complete with appropriate accent, who belongs to the British Cowboys Rodeo Association and began riding three years ago. “I never thought I’d be praying for my horse,” he said as we negotiate a precipice. The ride has attracted 29 of us from the States, Europe and Israel. Lawyers, policemen, engineers, estate agents, a store-buyer, a retired headmaster, an interior decorator, ranchhands, grandmothers, and a couple from a kibbutz. “We cater for all sorts,” says Donnelly. “It helps if you’ve been on a horse before.” The valley is mercifully free of 20th-century toys. “If you’ve brought any mobile phones, fax machines, or computers, you can drop them in the bin here,” he says. The landscape bespeaks scores of famous movies it has inspired, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Cheyenne Autumn among them. This is Indian territory, with the Navajo reservation inhabiting Monument Valley, ironically given to them as land the White Man didn’t want and which is now a major tourist attraction. Its towering monoliths and mesas, once the bed of an ancient sea, were eroded by wind and weather into mystical shapes the Navajo have named the Ear of the Wind, the Eye of the Sun, the Bear, and Camel Butte. They now live in scattered communities, some in traditional dome-shaped hogans. They are silversmiths and rugmakers, tending their sheep - and the tourists who are now a prime source of revenue. The valley spans 40 by 50 miles, stippled with black and purple sage, cactus, juniper and yucca. Jack rabbits bound among the brush. Our horses take us to the parts others rarely reach. We visit ruins, a thousand years old, which were once occupied by the Anasazi, cliff- dwellers who mysteriously abandoned the valley in the 15th century, leaving their petroglyphs for us to decipher. We camp at Pancake Flats, cavalry fashion, in orderly rows of tents big enough to stand in. They contain a steel chair, a canvas bed, a sleeping bag and - a nice touch, this - a sweet on the pillow. The valley is without water or electricity. None the less, a generator provides illuminated washbasins, hot showers and Portaloos in the open - “five-star camping,” the Donnellys assure us. The food from the chuckwagon tent is pretty good, too. Fruit, cereals, and cooked American breakfasts. We ride out for six hours, with a picnic lunch, or barbecue carried on pack horses. Snacks await our return, before dinner - salads, steaks, joints and poultry, with sweets from a French chef. The lure of the West has brought Donnelly a lucrative living. He has much in common with the Duke. At 6ft 4ins he’s the same height, with a matching drawl and years of experience conducting sorties into this wilderness. The only complaints I heard were of aching muscles. Most riders considered it a fantasy fulfilled, the experience of a lifetime. As we ride out of the valley onto dirt roads bringing in busloads of visitors, other tourists leap out with cameras, little knowing the riders they photograph are as metropolitan as themselves.

After years of stagnant or declining sales owing to a harsh economic climate, the motorbike market is again booming. Twelve- month sales figures to August show bike sales rose 39 per cent towards the 85,000 mark, with the 900cc bracket accounting for most of that growth.

According to Tony Woodall of Metropolis Motorcycles, a bike business in London, the major growth area for bikes is now with upwardly mobile executives and directors. “This includes the born-again biker who may have had one 15 years ago and is now in a position to spend over pounds 9,000 on a top-of-the-range Honda, Suzuki or Kawasaki.”
One key factor behind the resurgent bike market has been the purchase of machines for leisure, fuelled by a prosperous economy and fine summer weather. This is combined with the practicality of using a motorbike to negotiate the traffic-clogged streets of urban areas to reduce travel time. But bike riders need bike insurance,and bikes create special problems. They are four times more likely to be stolen than cars, and the lucrative market in spares makes small bikes just as likely to be targeted by thieves as the expensive super-bikes. Only 25 per cent of stolen bikes are recovered. According to Ken German, technology officer at the Metropolitan Police, recovered bikes are piling up at police stations all over the country because their identification marks have been removed. Bike riders are also at a higher risk of accidents than drivers of four- wheeled vehicles. Two per cent of women riders and 3.7 per cent of men had serious accidents in 1995, excluding riders riding on car licences. This means that, pound for pound, bike insurance will be dearer than for cars. Comprehensive insurance covering accident damage and parts for bikes is also more costly relative to third-party cover than in the case of cars. Traditionally, Norwich Union has had the dominant share of bike insurance, but direct marketing has brought new players into the market. Mike Bowman, marketing manager at Hastings Direct, says: “We saw a gap in the bike insurance market for a direct service similar to that provided to car owners. As a result, we launched a service this year which offers bike owners a free-phone number which can be called 12 hours a day, over-the- phone cover and flexible payment methods.” Insurers have also become more imaginative in marketing their policies. The AA offers its members a 10 per cent discount on insurance. Norwich Union has announced that bikers who have not made a claim in five years are entitled to a 50 per cent no-claims discount on its Premier bike policy. Eagle Star, another major player, also has a deal which cuts the cost of insurance for new policyholders if they take an advanced training course. Malcolm Nash, a director at specialist bike broker Carole Nash, said: “Approaching an insurer direct means they will only quote you their own policy. An established motorbike broker will have access to a range of different policies from which they can choose the most appropriate. Brokers also have a degree of specialist knowledge about bikes which a direct insurer may not possess.” Nash offers owners a 10 per cent discount for fitting approved immobilisers, 5 per cent off for Datatag security devices, 5 per cent for mechanical locks and garaging and uninsured loss cover of pounds 10 for the legal costs of fighting disputed claims. Motorbike manufacturers also provide insurance for their customers. Honda customers have two choices - Honda Care and Honda Cover. In the case of Honda Care, the Honda customer will benefit from a 45 per cent discount if they have five years’ riding experience - not bad if you have a five- year no claims bonus and are paying over pounds 400 to insure a Honda Fireblade. Suzuki, Kawasaki and Yamaha also provide insurance for customers. Yamaha is offering free insurance for any 1997 model Yamaha motorcycle bought in October. Otherwise, Yamaha’s insurance arm will charge a 35-year-old man living in central London an annual premium of pounds 526 fully comprehensive for a 900cc Diversion, reduced to pounds 306 in an area deemed less risky. Motorcycle owners in South Wales and the west country will soon be able to benefit from a new service launched by Holman Superbike Plus. This service gives brokers access to the majority of insurance policies on the market for bikes from 50cc up to 1,000cc. If the scheme proves successful, Superbike Plus will become available to brokers in other parts of the country. q Contacts: AA, tel: 0800 125 620; Hastings Direct, 0800 00 1066; Carole Nash, 0161-927 2424; Premium Search, 0990 134920. Eagle Star and Norwich Union sell through brokers.

Corporate boards and a bullish stock market last year combined to give Wisconsin’s 25 highest-paid public company executives average pay increases of 21%, or $302,501 per boss, bringing their average compensation up to $1.77 million, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s annual analysis of public company executive pay.