I have a 3 week motorcycle trip of Europe booked from May 25th to Jun 16th, I am coming from the US. I will be borrowing a friend's motorcycle over in the UK and then I'll be covering France, Italy, Switzerland and Belgium before returning to the UK.

However I have run into a big problem. It seems that I need my own insurance. Unfortunately my friend told me that his insurance will not cover me as a rider borrowing his machine - if only I knew this sooner. I can't be added to his policy, since I am a non-resident. I don't know if this is the norm in the UK, but here in the US, if I lend my motorcycle to a licensed rider, my policy stays in force.

Unfortunately my policy (State Farm here in the US) does not do business outside the US and Canada.

So, now what can I do? I basically need to buy a temporary policy for 3 weeks, probably liability only will do. Does anyone know a company where I can buy this from? I called the Auto Club (AAA) who issued me the International Driver's License and they were of no help.

This is very important. I'm going to have to cancel my entire trip if I can't get insurance. I'm not going to put myself and my friend at risk, because if I have an accident then I will be in deep trouble.

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Better to be an idiot than a crook.

Have you tried either Carole Nash or Bennetts, they are probably the biggest 2 bike insurers in the UK, and deal with a lot of different underwriters - should be able to find you some cover

http://www.carolenash.com/

www.bennetts.co.uk

Also contact Motorcycle Express, they MAY be able to help. Ask for Gail. They advertise on HU and HU'ers get a discount.

More on them on the Links page.

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Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
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Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

That was a good tip. They are the ones here in the US who offer insurance for overseas motorcycle travel. However they don't normally insure bikes that are already registered overseas in another person's name - it's more like when you take your own bike, registered here in the US or Canada for examle, and travel overseas.

However I ran into another problem. Apparently they won't insure me because I've had a claim history within the past couple of years.

I had to cancel my trip, since riding without insurance is not worth the risk. The problem are possible check-points. If they found me without insurance, at the very least they would impound my vehicle. It would be very serious if I got into any kind of accident of course. I salvaged something from my flight because I was able to cancel 24 hrs in advance. It did cost me $200 extra to take the rain-check however.

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Better to be an idiot than a crook.

No need to waste the money - go anyway, and rent a bike - they won't check your claims history on a rental!

Or there's always Morocco - same goes there. Work something out with one of the tour companies to just rent a bike. See the links pages, there's plenty of choices.

Where there's a will, there's a way... you just have to be creative!

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Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
------------------------
Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Perhaps not, but OTOH they might. Besides the rental being rather expensive, not to mention the fact I would be scrambling to find one, as soon as I got there, part of the reason why I wanted to do the trip in the first place is to be on the bike that I bought.

Morocco sounds interesting, however a little too adventurous for my blood at this stage. I do understand it's right across from Spain I've heard some horror stories of going there, and in general it's not an easy ride. I do like to read about others' adventures there ....

__________________
Better to be an idiot than a crook.