A Guide to Motorcycle Insurance in New York (NY)

New York City is the biggest city in the United States and it is a common sight to see motorcycles weaving in and out of traffic on the streets of the city. Along with the hustle and bustle of the big city though there are some surprisingly calm parts of New York State were serenity is far more in order. But regardless of where you choose to ride your motorcycle in New York, it is vital that you make sure that you get New York Motorcycle Insurance that is full coverage and provides you with lots of different protections.

In this article I will be looking at your options when it comes to motorcycle insurance in New York, and some other factors that you should pay attention to before deciding on which policy to get.

Let’s start by taking a look at the state minimums that everyone HAS to have:

What are the state minimums for New York Motorcycle Insurance?

As with most other states (there are a couple of exceptions) you have to have certain levels of motorcycle insurance simply to be able to ride your bike on the road.

These form the bedrock for most people's insurance policies, because they are largely concerned with liability insurance and protecting other people if you are involved in an accident with them and it was your fault.

They are as follows:

$25,000 – Bodily injury liability for one person
$50,000 – Bodily injury liability for one accident
$10,000 – Property Damage Liability Cover

These levels are commonly referred to with the shorthand of 25/50/10 cover.


Are the New York Motorcycle Insurance Minimums adequate?

When looking at the amounts of cover to get for various facets of motorcycle insurance in New York it is well worth giving careful thought to both how much you can afford cover wise, and also the types of things that you want covered.

The basic minimums would mean that you could ride your motorcycle legally, but what they would not do is make it so that all things that can go wrong when you ride your bike would be covered.

For example, they would not cover any of the following:

1/ Your bike being stolen.
2/ Your bike being vandalised.
3/ A tree branch falling on your bike and it being damaged.
4/ Your bike being damaged by a storm.
5/ Your bike being damaged by fire.
6/ Cover for if you were hit by another driver who did not have any insurance.

Also, the amounts of liability cover and the property damage cover that the basic minimums would seem to suggest are enough, really aren’t.

New York Motorcycle Insurance SealThe price of most new cars is much higher than the $10,000 minimum, and at these low levels of liability cover you would be hard pressed to cover the costs for an accident that had multiple vehicles.
These would quickly mount up not only in the costs of replacing damage to property, but more significantly in the costs for medical care which are often the most significant of all the costs involved in an accident, and that doesn’t even take into account any legal expenses that may arise if the other parties decided you were at fault and tried to sue you for damages.

So, you should first of all look into considerably bolstering the liability cover and property damage limits on any policy you do get.

(You can keep up to date on the New York Motorcycle Insurance minimums at the New York Insurance Department website.)

https://www.dfs.ny.gov/insurance/dfs_insurance.htm

Secondly, you should explore what the cost of Comprehensive New York Motorcycle Insurance would be, because this would cover you for theft, vandalism and weather damage which are all very significant causes of damage to motorcycles every year.

To illustrate this point simply consider that not only are 8 motorcycles stolen every minute in the United States (yes, every MINUTE!), but there are also an estimated 27,900 motor vehicle fires every year that are deliberately started according to the US Fire Administration. So not getting cover for these extra elements would be unwise, because both theft and fires are very real risks.

The same is true of vandalism such as scratches on the chrome work, or someone keying your paintwork. This kind of thing can be extremely annoying, because not only does it make your bike look shabby, it also costs considerable sums of money to fix.

And yet, each of those areas would be covered properly if you got yourself a comprehensive policy.
Lastly, with 15% of all driver doing so without insurance,  it is important that when you take out you New York Motorcycle Insurance that you also add-on Uninsured Driver cover, so that you no longer have to give any thought to what the other driver has done in the way of insurance, as you would be covered anyway.

The bottom line is to do your research thoroughly and not to just buy a policy because it is the cheapest.

It may be that it only has minimal levels of cover, so instead do some price comparisons by looking at several NY Motorcycle Insurance Quotes and then basing your judgement on solid facts and not hearsay.



 

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