How to insure an unknown bike!

There are lots of new cheap and cheerful Chinese and Taiwanese copies of Japanese learner-class bikes on the market at the moment, but the insurance industry has struggled to keep up with this new wave and buyers either find their insurer has either never heard of the bike, or want to insure it as a “Hongsow 123” a completely different motorcycle, which could lead to problems if you are ever stopped and the police check your documents.

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The insurance industry uses a database that’s maintained by the Association of British Insurers to rate every vehicle on our roads using claims statistics provided by all the insurers.

If a bike is new on the market or there are relatively few bikes on our roads there won’t be enough data to give it an ABI grouping.

In which case the insurers will compare its technical specifications with similar types of bikes, like the HD125 in your case, and use that existing grouping to rate your bike with.

However, all the paperwork should show the correct make and model of the bike that you actually ride, so there shouldn’t be a problem with the Old Bill – but check your paperwork carefully.

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