Not one to review companies 'willy nilly' but i though these guys really did deserved a mention. Having just picked up a new bike (1290 SD Special edition) i did what I've always done and hit the usual comparison sites such as 'The Bike insurer' and 'MCN Compare' etc Now the thing is, this SE version i got wasn't listed and it was only the standard Super Duke on every site, of course you're then left to add all the additional parts as upgrades which most of the insurers have a field day with (£££££££) Still, it didn't sit right with me that the document wouldn't actually show the model itself, just a basic SD with lots of upgrade parts. Then i remembered watching a review video on 44teeth which Baron (Chris) interviewed a chap from Bemoto and so i thought id give them a call as opposed to rely on the internet. Bemoto - Home | BeMoto So, i ended up speaking with Ben (nice bloke) and what was immediately apparent was that they did genuinely look at me as an individual biker and showed decent understanding of different makes and models of bikes. What i mean by that is that when i mentioned the bike he didn't just dust over it, he was actually happy to take his time to go to a web page which shows the exact model, he could see exactly what was on the bike so to tailor his quote correctly. Now I know he did this as i didn't tell him all the parts, but they're all listed on the document, good level of effort there i thought. Another quite refreshing aspect was that he kind of interviewed me to find out what sort of history I've had in terms of biking. He explained what insurers look at when asking certain questions and so gave me an understanding of risk assessment as viewed from an insurer. So for an example, instead of just taking in to account my 8 years NCD, he built a profile up of what bikes i'd been riding during those years which then helps them pitch me as an individual rider to certain insurers and prove competence in handling big power bikes such as the SD1290. Id never thought about it before but i suppose that makes perfect sense, especially as you could go from some fairly low powered machines to a 200bhp missile and normally insurers don't really want to know what you've ridden in the past, they just want NCD numbers. Anyway, obviously not a standard bike and one with quite a few extras, hell i even added an expensive extra on the top (Full titanium akrapovic system) just to see what the outcome would be. About 30 minutes later he came back to me and i was sitting comfortably waiting for the big money bombshell....... Nope, nothing like that at all. His quote listed out all the extras, specified the exact model and it came in cheaper than a standard SD1290 using any of the aforementioned comparison sites. (he didn't even ask my cheapest previous quote) I got their Titanium cover which includes all the legal, personal accident, helmet and leathers and breakdown. So there you go. If you've got a bike a bit different from the norm, and dread that feeling of speaking to an insurer about an exhaust, bit of carbon or something else they'd know absolutely nothing about then i suggest you give these boys a call. Sincerely the best insurance experience I've had to date.
I too phoned them recently concerning my renewal, unfortunately I could not get a good quote for my 998, however they did make me the offer of adding a second bike, in my case my 748R for just £93, which was\is tempting. Service was very good and they clearly know the business and I can see that they will be getting some more well deserved recommendations coming their way in the future.
Is this a late entry for the naive and innocent post of the year award? Of course they're nice, chatty, helpful and friendly, they want your money! Come back and fawn all over them when you put a claim in and they pay out quickly and fulfill their obligations to you, until then you know nothing about how they perform, and all you've bought so far is sales blarney and patter with a cheap price.
It's just nice that they know they're stuff, and what they don't know they want to learn about. Imagine asking a usual insurer to go to a webpage to factor in a load of parts on a particular bike, not a chance that'd happen
Is your post a late entry for the pessimistic award 2016? Nobody is 'fawning' over them, I'm merely pointing out the service given to date. Luckily so far I've never had to claim on any insurance, as such none of them are proven to me or have ever had to fulfil their obligations. But as the actual insurer is AXA, I'm fairly comfortable that the cover is with a very well known supplier and likely to be good enough until I need it. I guess then we'll know.
