Bike modification is a trend that is extremely popular amongst the youth in the country. Body wrapping, customization, and upgrades made to the bike give it a new and transformed look. It costs in thousands and sometimes even lakhs based on your choice and quality of customization. However, before you plan on making your bike a showstopper in terms of performance and looks, you need to also reflect on how these upgrades will affect your bike insurance cover.
In general, motor insurance covers are of two types- (a) third-party bike insurance and (b) comprehensive bike insurance. Now let us understand how bike modifications will affect each of these bike insurance plans.
How does bike modification affect different types of bike insurance covers?
Firstly, in the case of third-party bike insurance, your bike modifications will not affect your insurance plan since your bike is not covered under the plan. So, if you have a third-party bike insurance cover, you need not worry! You can work on your bike modification and give your bike a new Avatar.
While there are no implications of bike modification on third-party insurance plans but in the case of comprehensive insurance covers your insurance cover will be impacted severely. Let us know how? –
– Insured Declared Value (IDV): The general rule is the higher the IDV, the higher is the insurance premium. Hence, when you get your bike upgraded in terms of engine strength or battery power etc., it leads to an increase in IDV which means that the premium amounts will also increase.
Now that we have understood the basic relationship between bike modifications and bike insurance let us further understand these based on specific modification types and their effect on insurance premiums.
Modification types and their effect on insurance premiums
- Bike modifications to upgrade the look- These kinds of modifications are focused on upgrading the aesthetic value of the bike. The focus in making such upgrades lies around adding new graphics, advanced halogen lights, adding fiber parts, etc. These modifications add to the cost of the bike and hence increases its value. Also, with such attractive bikes, the chance of theft is high. Additionally, from the insurer’s point of view, the more accessories, the greater the damage to the bike. All these factors increase the insurance premiums for your cover.
- Modifications to enhance bike performance-Modifications such as engine upgrades, changes in mechanics to increase bike speed, etc., are those kinds of changes that revamp the bike’s performance. While this is an advantage for the bike modifiers, it is seen as a hazard for insurance providers. These legal modifications that lead to increasing the bike speed also mean high chances of accident and damage and hence your insurance cover will come with a higher premium than normal.
- Modifications to enhance bike security- This is the kind of bike modification that leads to lower chances of theft with advanced alarm systems, GPS systems, etc. Hence, with lower chances of theft, your bike insurance premium is also lowered. Insurance providers offer discounts to those adding security features to their vehicles. Here it is important to note that not all kinds of security features are acceptable by the insurance companies. Only those features that have been sanctioned by the Automotive Research Association of India are considered safe and legal and therefore are acceptable to avail discounts.
In case you make any modifications to your bike, remember to inform your insurer while availing of a policy or renewing it. Else you may end up not getting the benefits of your cover since there are high chances that the claim will be rejected on the grounds of these new modifications.
To know more about various motor insurance covers and their benefits, you can visit the Bajaj Finserv website.
