ADDING liability for winter - fire/theft only during summer

Hello All;

I'm thinking of getting another ride that I can tow down south to ride once in a while during the winter. This bike wouldn't be used during the summer months in Ontario.

Is it possible to ADD liability for the winter when it's cheaper to insure? From what I understand, insurance companies in Ontario pro-rate insurance for the summer months when they are in use regularly and those are the months we're basically paying for in our annual premium. What would happen to the annual cost if the bike only had fire/theft during our riding season?

Owen said:

Hello All;

I'm thinking of getting another ride that I can tow down south to ride once in a while during the winter. This bike wouldn't be used during the summer months in Ontario.

Is it possible to ADD liability for the winter when it's cheaper to insure? From what I understand, insurance companies in Ontario pro-rate insurance for the summer months when they are in use regularly and those are the months we're basically paying for in our annual premium. What would happen to the annual cost if the bike only had fire/theft during our riding season?

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Most (but not all) insurance companies don't like to write fire/theft policies without liability. Not worth their time. Also they have a minimum retained premium (for example if you added the bike in december and removed it at the beginning of march, you would have paid ~15% of the yearly premium, but they may want to keep more than that for the trouble of signing you up).

You bring up an interesting point about living in the states during the winter. They assume you are riding very little in the winter, if you are living somewhere warm with the bike, this assumption could easily be invalid, no idea how they deal with this.

Call insurance companies/brokers and get real answers, not typical GTAM bs answers.

I do not think you rate will be low in winter if you ride a bike in US but insure it via a Canadian insurer.

If you go with StateFarm it will be very cheap if you only insure for the winter.

You could also get US insurance if you live down there in the summer. I know a guy that works and lives in the US most of the time but still has his Canadian home (where his wife lives, and they are not divorced or separated) and all his cars have US plates and insurance.

I've not had a company refuse to write me a policy without liability. StateFarm, Wawanesa, ThePersonal and some other one I can't remember will all do it.

If you can get US Insurance, The yearly premium would be close to what you would pay here for the winter months (YMMV).
Easiest way to get an accurate answer would be to call the insurance company anonymously and ask yourself.....
Best bet would be to go with TD as well as they charge 0% of your yearly premium for the winter months...... Just becareful about insurance fraud doing this as there may be something in the fine print stopping you from doing this..But I have not read it throughly enough to answer.

Thanks for the answers!
To clarify, I don't live in the US but will be towing a bike down there for 3-4 day long trips at least once a month.

I'll be calling around over the next week to get information and will report back any findings, just in case anyone else is curious.

I don't see how this can be fraud if they base their premiums so payments are loaded during the summer. It's no different than cancelling your policy for the winter if you're not riding. Their fault for setting up premiums this way.

Owen said:

Thanks for the answers!
To clarify, I don't live in the US but will be towing a bike down there for 3-4 day long trips at least once a month.

I'll be calling around over the next week to get information and will report back any findings, just in case anyone else is curious.

I don't see how this can be fraud if they base their premiums so payments are loaded during the summer. It's no different than cancelling your policy for the winter if you're not riding. Their fault for setting up premiums this way.

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Short vacations should not cause any insurance problems. If the bike was actually staying in the US for 4 months, I could see the insurance company balking. I try to get at least 1000 km a month on bikes during the winter in canada, your riding scenario should be a much lower risk.

GreyGhost said:

I try to get at least 1000 km a month on bikes during the winter in canada.

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What?!? Please explain! Do you just go out for a full day ride on the random days it goes above zero? What do you ride and what are the extra precautions you take? What type of gear do you wear?

Owen said:

What?!? Please explain! Do you just go out for a full day ride on the random days it goes above zero? What do you ride and what are the extra precautions you take? What type of gear do you wear?

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Some long rides, some short rides. Lots of days below zero, you just have to pick the days you don't think there will be ice on the roads (the further below zero the better the conditions normally are, close to zero is by far the worst). Sometimes you find the ice (or blowing snow) and life sucks (I've been caught in a snow storm on Hwy 6 before where I was going less than 10 km/h down the shoulder because there was not enough traction to do more). Warm clothes, neck warmer, heated grips and good gloves are key.

Small bikes are better than big bikes, the Ape is horrendous when it's slippery. Even at idle, everytime a cylinder fires it spins the rear tire a bit in wet snow, I've never ridden anything so scary (I am not good enough to drift bikes).

Back in the day I spent years riding bicycles every day in the winter. I'd normally only crash once a year. You get used to balancing on ice, no sudden inputs, don't lean much, etc.

EDIT:

My K75 was super cold blooded, when the temperature dropped below -10, I would carry a torch with me. To start the bike, I'd pull the plugs and heat them up and then it would fire up with no problems. It should have started fine, I never figured out why it was so difficult, but it only took a couple minutes so I wasn't that concerned.

Owen said:

What?!? Please explain! Do you just go out for a full day ride on the random days it goes above zero? What do you ride and what are the extra precautions you take? What type of gear do you wear?

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I've been out in -15C or so. Get funny looks at the big box stores when you do that.

As long as the roads are dry and clear of snow, it's fine.

I got more opportunity when I lived out in the country. The rural highways and roads in Guelph area are plowed frequently (almost daily) and are dry very often since the area is less dense (with buildings) so the road gets more sun. Since I moved to Toronto the roads in the winter are usually covered in snow or ice pretty much all winter so I don't bother trying. Plus the traffic in Toronto is way more dangerous, dense, and unpredictable which makes it worse.

The last year I lived in Guelph I rode at least once every month. Sometimes just to Starbucks (but that was at least 20 minutes away from me) but still nice to get out for a ride.