Motorcycle insurance advice: Keeping my no claims discount

Q. I am seriously contemplating selling my bike and giving the biking life a break for a few years with other commitments taking priority at the moment.

The question is, what will happen to my No Claims Bonus IF I do not insure a bike for X amount of years?

This happened to my uncle nearly ten years ago where he nearly could not get any insurance company to recognise his 20 years of no claims bonus because he did not ride a bike for four years. Is this still the case, or is your No Claims Bonus now safe if you take a few years out?

If not, I thought of insuring myself cheaply on a small bike, but when I floated this idea online I was told: “Nice idea…..but it won’t work. When you come to re-insure a ‘proper’ bike in the future you need to prove that the no claims has been gained on a bike of 600cc or more.

Is this the case? What about all the CBR400, Aprilia 125/250 owners etc….
Are they not getting no claims because their bikes are not “proper” – I find this hard to believe!
Alan R. Downie, email

A. Your online ‘mate in the pub’ is wrong. Insurance companies don’t distinguish between various engine sizes when allocating No Claims, it’s your riding record they are interest in this instance, so you can downshift to a smaller bike and never ride it, to maintain your No Claims. However your No Claims discount will expire if you take a long break from riding.

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