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Sport or Sport Touring

Joined
Dec 8, 2003
Messages
2,468
Reaction score
21
Location
Republic of Texas
First Name
Chris
Last Name
Blaschke
When I went to insure my newly aquired Y2k Honda VFR recently, I discovered I had bought a "Sport Bike".

I had always know that this was Honda's 3/4 liter Sporting contender, but I had always read what a great "Sport Tourer" it was.

When I went to get insurance, I was shocked that to get the same coverage as I carried on my GS, was going to cost me $1500+ and that next year, when my policy came due, Dairyland would cance me. Seems they do not want to write insurance with large liability limits on VFR's because they are "Sport Bikes".

I ended up cancelling my policy with Dairlyand and getting coverage on both bikes for quite a bit less at Markel insurance.

I was just wondering how younger people can afford to get insurance on a VFR?
 
:tab I was 34 when I got my first VFR 800. $600 per year for full coverage, medical, blah blah blah... with a $250 deductible. That is with USAA, a clean record, and the MSF course. Same for my wife. However, we get a dividend check of about $100 each year back from them right around Christmas! So it really only comes out to about $550 per year. However, we are two counties out from Harris county and that makes a HUGE difference!

:tab I don't know how we might go about persuading the underwriters that the VFR is a sport-touring bike and not a sport bike. The Sprint ST is considered an ST simply because of the name alone! It has more HP and more Torque!! I think it really goes back to the roots of the VFR and the Interceptor line. Originally they were very much sportbikes. The underwriters simply don't read the mags or keep up with current trends in the use of a particular bike. :-(

:tab Anyone out there an insurance type guru that might be able to help us figure out how to persuade the underwriters to reconsider?

Adios,
 
Let me guess, you were an officer in the Air Force?

I insured both of my bikes for just under $900. With the VFR only having Comprehensive and Liability. No collision of uninsured motorist. I live in Fort Bend County though.
 
:tab Nope, Army brat. However, once you get in the door as a dependent, you are in for life, as are future dependents (grandkids). Hopefully, I will never be in a position where I will have to abandon USAA. We have our cars, bikes, and house through them. So far they have been great. :-)

:tab Counties immediately adjacent to Harris county are also quite expensive. Walker county is two counties out ;-)

Adios,
 
Sport on Sport Touring

Chris,

Just curious, did you check with State Farm? I insured the R1 with them for less then $800 per year. I am 35 with a "clean" record. This is for full coverage. I shopped it with everyone, was either turned down or given some outragous premium. The agent I was referred to is Jim Marsh on Hwy 6 in Sugar Land. This is not an endorsment for him but he is in your neck of the woods. According to Jim they are competitive on sport bikes but not on other type bikes???? I don't know??? I just went with it....

Bill
 
I went with progressive for my aprilia (RST 1000 Futura). They actually have two rates on their website, the lower Futura rate and the higher sportbike RST1000 rate. I took the lower one :) :

* $425 in Williamson Co.
* 250K/500K/100K
* PIP 2500
* Uninsured 50K/100K, 25K property 250 ded.
* 500 ded. comprehensive
* 1000 mods, 100 ded.
* early 40s, newbie rider, MSF, AMA member
 
$335 for the Bandit with Dairyland. Markel quit insuring it because it is a "high displacement sportbike". :roll:
 
txmedic said:
$335 for the Bandit with Dairyland. Markel quit insuring it because it is a "high displacement sportbike". :roll:

Shhh! We need to be wery wery careful about calling the Bandit a sportbike. Lets use the word standard when speaking insurance classifications. Naked even has a tendency to cause rates to increase.

Good price with Dairyland for living in Austin. I was paying over 360 in Killeen till 2 years ago when I opted for liability alone at 103. But then I'm riding a 99 will buy an SV650 if I have an out of seat experience.
 
mrr1150gs said:
I was just wondering how younger people can afford to get insurance on a VFR?

Liability only.

My Sprint ST was $600/yr through Dairyland. For the VFR, they wanted $2700/yr. :eek: Granted, this was after I just totalled the ST. Maybe in a few years (after I'm 30 and the claim is past 3 years or whatever timeframe), I'll ask about full coverage again.
 
Chris
Are you actually sitting down face to face with an insurance agent or just making a phone call? When I first tried to insure my ZRX they tried to classify it as a ZX model and wanted $1200. I chalk it up to the fact that it was a new model at the time and hadn't been categorized yet. After checking around and doin some splainin', I got that cut in half. I still wasn't satisfied and sat down with a Farmers agent. It was somewhere around $225 through Southern Mutual who have since left TX. Had to find a new carrier, so I sat down with another agent(can't remember her name right off) Went through Progressive and fully insure both my aprillia and ZRX for $600 total per yr. No P.I.P.since I'm covered by my health insurance. I have USAA for my auto policy, but they wouldn't touch my bikes for less than $1800 total. But they use displacement to figure their rates.

Point is, insurance companies can make classification errors and an individual agent is more likely to do the research to make his commision.

Tony
 
:tab Not long ago Motorcycle Consumer News did a piece on insurance rates. They created fake profiles of people: young guy/fast bike, old guy/fast bike, etc,... Then they called all the major carriers and even some small carriers to get rates. Sometimes they even called the same carrier twice. Their results showed that rates were all over the map for the same profiles. Ie; for the old guy/fast bike, one carrier would come in with some lowball number when another would come in with some astronomical number. Sometimes this would happen when they called the same carrier twice but spoke with different agents!!

:tab The long and short of their article is that there is absolutely no consistency among carriers regarding how rates are determined. It basically seems to be a crap shoot. Your best bet is to call every single carrier, some more than once, and keep shopping until you get a decent rate. But beware, because insurance is about more than just your rate. It is also about the ability of the company to pay out on claims and the level of service you will get from them. In that respect I am quite happy with USAA :mrgreen:

:tab When I shopped around, I came back to USAA because they still came in the lowest on premiums AND had the level of service I expect. Folks like Progressive, Dairyland, All State, State Farm, etc... wanted ridiculous premiums in excess of $1000 and up per year with higher deductibles!! :x Dweebs.

Adios,
 
Scott,

I second everything you said, about USAA. I have had them since I was stationed in Germany, and absolutely love them! I thought my insurance would go down, when I moved from Southern California, to Rural Texas, but to my surprise, it actually went UP $400 per year! I decided to call around, tried progressive, (and rates from 4 major competitors, like the add said) and, WOW! Progressive was$780 more per month, and one of the competitors, for the bike alone, was $890 more per year, than my truck, AND bike with USAA. Looks like Im with USAA for the long haul. (Incedentally, I also bank with em, some investments, other non-auto related insurance, and long term financial planning with em. They are terrific!)

One thing that will be of interest to you, is when I gave a slight moan of shock, at the increased rates, the agent told me that USAA was looking at their rate structure, and that it looked like rates in TX would most likely be adjusted downward in the near future....something to look fwd to!

TR
Brady TX
 
Howdy,

:tab A few nights ago, Beth and I were going over the finances. I noticed that my rates for JUST the bikes had gone up from $300/6mo to $600/6mo with no claims, tickets, etc,... ***!? I have to call them and see what is going on? I cannot believe they literally doubled the rates!?

:tab The sad thing is that even though they doubled the rates, they are still lower than most anyone else :roll:

Adios,
 
Chris,
I think the motorcycle mags (most of them) usually define the sport tourer as having hard removable luggage, such as the BMW R1100RT, Honda ST1300, Yamaha FJR1300, Ducati ST4, and the Triumph Sprint. I suspect anyone can call their bike whatever they want, and especially if most of what you do is sport touring. I have seen some Hardly riders call their bikes everything but a cruiser.
Insurance is another issue, I think it is a function of horsepower (maybe displacement) and weight.
igoforit
 
Howdy Igoforit,

:tab Welcome to the site. Good to see you come out of lurking mode ;-)

Adios,
 
Glad I bought the SV. It's a SV650S, insurance is CHEAP, considered a standard or entry level or something I guess and the displacement is unintimidating to insurance underwriters and the power output eliminates the possibility of those stand up wheelies at 137 in the HOV lane.

Suits me just fine, though. Does what I want it to do, and the handling is quite good for an "entry level" bike. I'd like to maybe put emulators in the front and an Ohlins on the rear, but on the street, I don't think it's necessary. The thing has sharp, quick handling, is stable, and great fun to ride. I don't need no stinkin' R1 and I sure don't need the insurance bills!
 
Jack,

:tab A few years back I got the pleasure of riding a friends 2001 SVS while on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville, NC. He had Race Teched the front end with springs, oil and emulators, and he had put the Ohlins on the rear. He also dropped a tooth up front. This was at the same time that my wife Beth had her 2001 SVS in stock trim. I was blown away by the difference in the two bikes. His did not wallow and pogo through corners, felt way more composed under braking, and had that extra little bit of grunt because of the sprocket change! Those mods alone, with no engine work or even an aftermarket pipe made the SVS one of the most fun bikes I've ever ridden. I imagine a tweaked motor would be even better :twisted:

Adios,
 
igoforit2003 said:
Chris,
I think the motorcycle mags (most of them) usually define the sport tourer as having hard removable luggage, such as the BMW R1100RT, Honda ST1300, Yamaha FJR1300, Ducati ST4, and the Triumph Sprint. I suspect anyone can call their bike whatever they want, and especially if most of what you do is sport touring. I have seen some Hardly riders call their bikes everything but a cruiser.
Insurance is another issue, I think it is a function of horsepower (maybe displacement) and weight.
igoforit

Aiyyy, I got one **** of a shock when I went to insure my FJR1300. It is truly scary that the TL1000 is significantly cheaper to insure than the FJR, and Stacy's EX500 reduces the overall bill. IIRC, it would actually cost us more to drop the EX500 of the policy.

Cheers,
Tom
 
I put race tech springs in the front and adjusted sag, put in 20 wt fork oil, and that alone eliminated the wallow in the front. The rear shock is still stock, but I don't reach its limits on the street. The stock front was terrible. Really, for street, all you need is to put the right spring in the forks and stiffen the fork oil. But, if you do any track riding on it, you will need that shock and the emulators will help the front a little more. The alternative is to have the forks revalved by a company like Traxxion or Lindemann. The emulators are the cheap and effective way, though.

I'd think a drop of a tooth on the CS sprocket would not be a mod I'd wanna do. Would help those roll on wheelies, I guess :lol: , but I'm not willing to have the thing too buzzy at cruising speeds. As it's geared, I can loap along at 80 and it's absolutely glass smooth. It gets just a little buzzy at higher speeds, not really bad, though. That motor is remarkably smooth for a non-counterbalanced twin. I think if I changed gearing, it wouldn't be more than one tooth larger on the rear.
 
Hmmm... I don't reallt recall whether it was buzzy or not? I guess I just never spent much time at one RPM to notice. There are not many places on the Parkway where you aren't either slowing down or speeding up :-P I don't do wheelies, at least not intentionally. I have to say I really miss the little SV :-| But I can only afford so many toys.

Adios,
 
Jack Giesecke said:
...As it's geared, I can loap along at 80 and it's absolutely glass smooth. It gets just a little buzzy at higher speeds, not really bad, though. That motor is remarkably smooth for a non-counterbalanced twin.

That's the beauty of a 90-degree v-twin with modest displacement; it has virtually perfect primary balance already. I had a Ducati 750SS for a couple of years that was the same way.
 
It's the same way with the V-4. My VF500 doesn't even have bar end weights. Your toes may get a little buzz above 8000 rpm for extended rides, but nothing like an inline. The 90 degree angle is the key to cancel out the primary vibes. Just look at how high Capirossi can rev his V-4. the combination of that engine configuration and the desmo valve actuation and it spins up like it has no reciprocating parts. Pretty cool. :-D
 
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