We know how important bike security and protection is to our customers.
Our Bikehangars are the most secure way to store your bike on the street. Although they are designed to be tough, they're not impenetrable to a determined and well-equipped thief. For peace of mind we recommend having suitable cover in place – especially if your bike is valuable. The advice on this page will help you understand what you should consider when it comes to Bikehangar insurance.
If you are interested in bike insurance, we’ve partnered with specialist insurer, Bikmo to offer you a 5%* discount (Cyclehoop Rentals customers receive a 10% discount – see your welcome email for details).
For Cycle Hub customers, we recommend using a cycle insurance specialist and checking their locking requirements to make sure your bike is covered.
Cyclehoop’s Theft + Damage Policy
Insurance is not included in your membership. You park your bike in our Bikehangars entirely at your own risk. That is why we recommend registering your bike and using a quality lock with an appropriate level of security for your bike value.
Home Insurance Cover
If you have home insurance and think your bike is covered under it, we strongly recommend reading the wording carefully to make sure you have the level of cover you want. If your policy covers cycles, they will usually need more details like the manufacturer, model and value. They may charge extra to insure higher value bikes, especially whilst away from home, which will apply to Bikehangars.
The cover can be limited, and there may be cover restrictions. Here are some tips on what to look out for:
Away from home cover
Nearly all insurers will consider a bike parked in our Bikehangars as being ‘away from home’. Many policies won’t cover your bike for theft or damage away from home, or may impose restrictions.
Maximum value
Your policy will come with a limit on individual items. If your bike is worth more than this limit then your bike may not be properly insured.
Excess payments
It’s important you check how much you would need to pay yourself if you make a claim. You could find that the excess on your home insurance policy is too high for your bike value.
Premium increases
If you make a claim on your home insurance, it will probably increase your premium for the following years. Many people choose to take out cycle-specific insurance when their home insurance doesn’t give the right protection. This may give you better suited cover and protect your home insurance ‘no-claims-bonus’.
Cycle-Specific Insurance
Here are some of the reasons why you might choose to take out specialist cycle insurance:
You don’t have home insurance, and your bike is your most valuable possessions.
Your home insurance doesn’t offer the cover required e.g. doesn’t cover bikes away from home or is limited.
The excess on your home insurance is too high for the value of your bike.
You want to protect your home insurance no-claims bonus by insuring separately.
You ride a lot and/or have lots of bikes and you find you get better cover, and it’s better value.
Unfortunately, as with home insurance, most specialist cycle insurance policies still treat your bike as ‘away from home’ in a Bikehangar (our partners Bikmo do not). This can mean your bike is no longer insured after 12 hours, if left unattended. The clause to look out for is usually defined as ‘abandonment’ in the policy wording.
To help you out, we’ve checked out some popular policies to compile the time limits for abandonment after which your bike would be uninsured in a Bikehangar.
| Company | Bikehangar definition | Hours unattended until uninsured |
| Cycleguard | Away from insured location | 12 hours |
| Cycleplan | Away from insured location | 12 hours |
| PedalSure | Away from insured location | 12 hours |
| Yellow Jersey | Away from insured location | 18 hours |
| Laka | Insured location | No time limit |
| Bikmo | At home | No time limit |
(information correct at date of last check on 21st March 2019)
Bikmo and Laka are the only specialist cycle insurers (as far as we know!) to recognise Bikehangars as a suitable storage option for long periods of time, by not limiting the cover to a time period or imposing inconvenient security requirements. With Bikmo, your bike must still be locked in accordance with their locking requirements, and your unit must be 500m or less from your insured address.
Bike Register
Bike Register is the UK’s national cycle database and the leading online bicycle identification initiative with over 1.35 million bikes registered. It aims to reduce cycle theft and enables owners to be reunited with their bikes in the unfortunate event that they are stolen. Bike security is a serious concern for cyclists and anyone who is thinking of taking up cycling.
Thousands of bikes are stolen every year as thieves believe that bicycle theft is a low-risk, high-reward crime, but BikeRegister offers an added layer of security. Thieves recognise bikes marked with BikeRegister as being ‘too hot to handle’, which is why a marked bike is 83% less likely to be stolen than an unmarked one.
