My experience with bike insurance

Tell us a little about yourself

Hi, I’m Tom, a road cyclist from Coventry. I’ve been cycling for around 10 years, becoming a bit more serious in the last few years. I started cycling around my local area with my brother-in-law and his mate.

The routes gradually got longer and then I started doing some sportives, including the Birmingham Velo in 2019. In 2023, I did my first L’etape du tour, which was amazing, so I signed up to do it again in 24.

I completed the Fred Whitton Challenge and L’etape du Tour last year and joined Warwick Lanterne Rouge Cycling Club.

I Have three road bikes from Ribble, the endurance SLR rim brake, endurance SLR disk and the absolute weapon that is the Ultra SLR! Some might call this an obsession!

How did you hear about Yellow Jersey?

At the beginning of 2023, my current insurance was coming to an end, and as I was doing my first L’etape in July, I needed some comprehensive coverage that they didn’t provide.

So, after some extensive research online, Yellow Jersey seemed to be the only company that covered everything that I required. Conveniently they also provide excellent cycling race-specific comprehensive travel insurance

Tell us about your accident

My friend and I had been planning a long ride before Christmas into the Cotswolds to take in a few of the bigger local climbs. We had booked a day off, and the weather looked okay. Unfortunately, there had been a drop in temperature overnight, but the roads looked okay, so we decided to go.

All was fine if a little cold until we got out of the city, we were on a straight bit of road and whilst passing the entrance to a field the bike just went from underneath me and I hit the deck!

My friend heard me go down, turned to see what happened, and went down himself. There had been black ice from field run off on the road that you couldn’t see. There were cars behind us that thankfully managed to stop so this could have been much worse!

We got off the road to check ourselves and the bikes. Tim, me and the bikes seemed to have only superficial damage, but we decided to call it and slowly made our way back home.

It wasn’t until I got home that I discovered that underneath the torn bar tape, my carbon intergraded bars were cracked, my Garmin Vector 3 pedals were damaged and my rear carbon wheel was cracked on the rim/braking surface!

How did your claims experience go?

I was concered about making the claim because at the time of the accident there appeared to be no significant damage so I didn’t take any photos of the scene or the bike. I put the claim in with as much detail as I could including photos of the damage I uncovered, the strava file of the ride and the accident/crash alert notification my Garmin edge had sent to my emergency contact when it happened.

I Got an email back from my claims Manager, Jonathon Ryan, and from that point on, the claim was easy! Jon was awesome and made the whole process seamless. All the damaged components were covered and I even ended up with an upgraded wheelset and pedals for a small additional fee!

What would you say to anyone reading this blog?

If you are looking for comprehensive bike or cycling travel insurance Yellow Jersey is the only company to go with