Self Made Panniers - Insurance for yourself and other road users
 

Hi there Folks,

I'm currently building my own panniers / top box and racks. With all the effort going into them I'd be interested in insuring them and though I know I'll make sure I'll do a good job. I'm a little concerned incase the worst should happen and a box goes flying past down a motorway etc.

#1 Is there a way to have your own made luggage system insured?

#2 If you purchase your system from a well known brand, is there come back if for instance your purchase developes a defect or causes an accident to you or others?

#3 If your system happends to be home built and causes an accident to a third party. Would any current insurance cover you? or would it only cover you if the system was purchased from a brand name?


Cheers for any help with these questions.

Regards

Conan
Norfolk, UK

If anything goes wrong the in-sewer-ants will squirm and blame you and squirm some more and try to get you at accept a one way bus ticket as complete settlement and sell your details to their lawyers regardless. Panniers home made or not won't make a jot of difference.

The premium on your panniers is better spent at Ladbrokes, they pay out no questions asked when the horse does what you said it might.

Andy

I've got a number of sets of home made panniers that I've been using for about 15yrs and one set of commercially made ones. Similarly with racks, I've had to make my own for bikes where nothing is available commercially or had to modify commercial products substantially.

In the dim and distant past no insurance company (that I've dealt with anyway) has had any interest in accessories such as these but in the current spirit of charging for everything they can think of I've mentioned racks and panniers at the time of buying recent policies. Nobody has asked whether these are home made or shop bought. If there was an insurance embargo on DIY additions most of my bikes would be off the road and I suspect a substantial number of others here would be in the same boat.

I've only ever had one pannier fall off - yes, it was the commercially made one.

If you think there's any risk of a pannier coming off at speed you might want to look at your design again.