Florida - Bikers should protect their precious ride..

OFF THE WIRE
Hundreds of thousands of bikes have covered Main Street in Daytona Beach for Bike Week in a black sea of leather and rubber, and many still remain.




With so many riders in town, accidents are unavoidable. But for Florida-based bikers, motorcycle insurance isn't required.



With navigating the rules of motorcycle insurance a bit of a maze, getting Florida bikers to buy insurance probably isn't easy.



Still, insurance attorneys and salesmen say despite the law, it's wise to get insurance. If a biker wants coverage, it's usually more affordable than it is for a car, because motorcycles are generally cheaper.



"It's the same with a boat -- you're not required to carry insurance, but you want to protect it," said Mark Norcia, an Allstate agent in Ormond Beach.



Florida requires helmet use for riders under age 21 and anyone who does not carry a minimum of $10,000 medical-insurance coverage. And if insuranceless riders cause a wreck that's their fault, they can be penalized under Florida's financial- responsibility law. They can lose their license and registration, pay restitution in a civil-court judgment and have to buy expensive, high-risk insurance to keep their license -- even if they don't own a car, according to this year's Florida Motorcycle Handbook, a publication of the state Department of Motor Vehicles.



If a biker is financing a motorcycle, the lender requires the biker to buy collision and comprehensive coverage.Still, if something isn't required, some people are going to skimp on it.
"I had a guy who had his leg amputated -- it was someone else's fault, they T-boned him," said Michael J. Politis, a personal-injury attorney based in Port Orange. "There was no insurance all the way around. He was left with a $150,000 or $200,000 medical bill. That's why its so important to have insurance."
With a lot of bikers, though -- especially the older Harley-Davidson crowd -- insuring a prized possession is a no-brainer.
"A guy goes out and buys a $25,000 Harley, he's not really waiting in the soup line," said Charlie Wallace of Wallace Insurance Services in South Daytona. "He's got some assets and wants to protect them."
So, it makes sense to get insurance of some kind. And because motorcycles are inherently dangerous -- just a rider, two wheels and a whole lot of asphalt -- it might seem that premiums are high. That's not usually the case, though.
Premiums can cost as low as a few hundred dollars a year, Wallace said. Like auto insurance, though, the rate depends on a variety of factors. For a new Harley, coverage might cost the owner $500 a year for typical insurance, and about $800 to $900 for uninsured/underinsured coverage. That coverage allows the expenses related to the accident to be paid even if the at-fault driver is uninsured or underinsured.
Kelvin Mayner, an Allstate insurance agent in Daytona Beach, said insurance can be as low as $200 for the year, but important factors that dictate the price include how long a rider has been licensed (three years or more is considered an experienced rider); prior tickets and accidents.
If you're a young rider, though, motorcycle insurance can be costly. Young riders tend to favor speedy sport bikes, which are often expensive to insure.
"If you're under 25, you're going to pay as much for insurance as you did for the bike," Wallace said. The plastic parts on a sport bike are expensive to replace compared to the various metals on a cruiser.
Because of that, and a feeling of invincibility that young people tend to have, Wallace doesn't sell a lot of insurance to sport bikers.
"The dealerships are kind of in on that," he said. "They'll sell a guy the bike on a credit card so he doesn't need insurance on a loan."
So, how dangerous are motorcycles?
Motorcycle deaths accounted for 13 percent of nationwide vehicle-crash fatalities in 2009, even though they were only 3 percent of all registered vehicles. The number of motorcycle deaths increased more than 92 percent from 1994 to 2009, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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