Ride And Prejudice
RIDE AND PREJUDICE
EDITOR’S LETTER
UP FRONT
MOTORCYCLE AS REGULAR-USE VEHICLE
Almost everybody wants to ride or be associated with motorcycles. After decades,American culture has finally come around to understanding the wonder and awesomeness of riding. Or so I thought.
When I first started riding a streetbike in 1986, walking into a restaurant holding my Freddie Spencer-replica Arai and clomping in wearing motorcycle boots often resulted in the jukebox stopping with that record-scratch sound and the place going quiet.
Okay, so it wasn’t quite that dramatic, but the number of negative interactions or reactions to a young punk on a motorcycle was surprisingly high back then.
As the Harley-Davidson phenomenon ramped up in the later ’80s, cultural acceptance grew. These days, the vast majority of non-rider people I meet think motorcycles are the coolest things on wheels. Because they are the coolest things on wheels.
And then...
I was recently shopping for insurance for a classic bike and car. Over a lifetime of trading in rolling stock, Fve managed to hang on to a pair of mid-’6os Jaguars (E-type and Mark 2), plus a 1958 MG Magnette. Fve written plenty about my ’54 Velocette and ’74 Norton Commando, both of which are, thanks to the gods of Britbikedom and the miracle of positive ground, running and registered. And insured. But a friend recommended getting insurance with a classic specialty company for improved coverage and a better understanding about old stuff, its value, and how it gets used.
I called Hagerty. We went through the usual line of questions, and all was good. Then it asked how many licensed drivers were in the home. I said two.
“What are the regular-use vehicles?” my rep asked.
I explained we had a Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen TDI and that I owned a 2013 Yamaha WR250R dual-sport bike, adding
that I primarily used test motorcycles daily because of my job.
This is where it got weird. “No, you need another regular-use vehicle. A motorcycle isn’t a regular-use vehicle. There has to be a regular-use vehicle for every licensed driver.”
I was caught so off guard that I didn’t even know how to respond and then asked the rep to please send me the quote.
After a few moments, it was plain the company just rejected my favorite segment of transportation as invalid.
So I called back and asked for a “manager” to have him explain this policy. I was that guy... And I was pissed.
His answer was the same: “A motorcycle is not a regular-use vehicle.”
“I live in Southern California,” began my reply. “It never freezes. It’s sunny 340 days of the year.”
“But those other 25 days it could be raining and you can’t ride your bike,” he countered, adding that the company was afraid I’d use one of the classic vehicles to get to work or run errands, prohibited uses on most classic-vehicle policies.
Hagerty is based in Michigan, and my call in November took place right when the first Icy Finger of Arctic Death had whipped down and stopped all outdoor molecular motion there. So I asked one question to be sure we were clear: “I can’t ride my motorcycle in the rain?”
“We wouldn’t want to encourage you to do that, no,” he said.
Hagerty says a car 20 years old or newer is a regular-use vehicle, and since there is only one post-’66 car in the fleet here, that I could not be insured, unless the underwriters could be convinced to accept my ’58 MG, which, like the VW, would have to be insured with a “normal” auto policy.
I hung up the phone, hopped on my regular-use vehicle, and rode to work.
MARK HOYER
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
THIS MONTH'S STATS
6
CLAIMED 200-PLUS-HP MOTORCYCLES IN THIS ISSUE
1
NUMBER OF 200-PLUS-HP MOTORCYCLES YOU CAN BUY FOR LESS THAN $17,000
5
POUNDS I’VE LOST SINCE MY “SIT DOWN. SIT UP.” COLUMN
