The Ducati Monster 695 is a fairly aggressive bike, its good looking and I’d say it’s also fairly “sporty” in nature. These are some of the things I would associate with high insurance cost. I renewed my policy in March 2009, I’ve been riding for almost two years now, I have 1 year no claims bonus (only 1 due to moving halfway through the year to a different insurer for the Monster) and the cost for this renewal was £195 TPF&T.
The Suzuki V-Strom 650X is built for touring; it’s big, it’s ugly and probably the least “sporty” a bike could be, in Ben’s words “It’s a Grandad bike”. When I phoned up the insurance company I was expecting to pay around the same price as I had done for the Monster and hopefully incur no additional cost, unfortunately I couldn’t have been more wrong. The insurance company wanted an extra £241 on top of the £195 I’d already paid for the Monster, more than double the price. To worsen this blow; if I had been getting the V-Strom a month ago and not had to change my insurance to a new policy (this is costing me money bizarrely) total price would’ve only been £359 instead of the £436 I’m having to pay now.
So just a tip to anybody planning on buying a new bike; get an insurance quote first!