Custom motorcycles are a completely different species than regular and mass-produced motorcycles. Café racers are all about quick speed and top-notch handling. However, it can be quite a challenge for you to obtain café racer insurance because of how customized they can be. Here is some information about custom café racer motorcycle insurance for you before you apply for one.

Regular vs. Custom motorcycle Insurance

Some regular insurance coverage policies have to be the same for both, regular and custom motorcycles. That’s because they are both vehicles eventually. However, what sets custom motorcycles apart from the mass-produced bikes is their modification, and the cost of it thereof. The parts you have installed on your motorcycle might be extremely rare. In fact, you might have made some of them with your hands or asked someone to. So, in a situation where you have to replace that part, someone has to make it with their hands again. This increases the value of a custom motorcycle way more than the cost of its installed parts.

Café Racer Insurance – What Options You have Available

First thing to get out of the way is standard insurance coverage. You must obtain standard coverage for your custom motorcycle like you do for a regular 2-wheeler. Oftentimes, it’s the state that makes it mandatory for every vehicle owner to obtain this insurance. Standard coverage is a liability insurance i.e. it does not cover your bodily or motorcycle’s damage. Instead, it covers the bodily and property damage that others suffer when they are involved in an accident with you.

Once you have understood that, here are some other important things you have to know about your café racer insurance.

The Appraisal

It does not happen commonly but at times, your insurance company will appraise your motorcycle. The insurance company is attempting to know the fair market value of your custom motorcycle with an appraisal. Here is what an appraisal entails

• Knowing the price of your motorcycle based on its comparison with other similar motorcycles that might be the same model, same year and from the same maker.
• Knowing the amount of money you have invested in the bike by assessing the upfront price and reinstallation/repair costs of the aftermarket parts.

In most cases, an appraisal is mandatory when you have built your motorcycle from the ground up.

The Agreed Value

There is something called agree value coverage. Motorcycles that are older than 25 years usually qualify for this type of coverage. As the name suggests, this is the replacement value of your motorcycle that you and your insurance carrier agree to. However, to settle the agreed value, you will have to give the insurance company some proofs. You will have to produce the receipts of the aftermarket parts, pictures of the motorcycle, costs of labor on installation, etc. The insurance company will pay you the agreed value if they consider your motorcycle totaled as a result of an accident.

The CPE Coverage

CPE stands for custom parts and equipment coverage. If your café racer is less than 25 years old, you might not qualify for agreed value coverage. The insurance companies have couple of ways to provide custom motorcycle insurance for newer bikes. They have ACPE (additional parts and equipment coverage) in addition to CPE for these motorcycles. It will only cover the aftermarkets parts you have installed on your stock/factory motorcycle.

You cannot obtain either CPE or ACPE alone. These are additional policies that you have to buy in addition to the standard café racer insurance policy that covers your physical and property damage liability. If you already have a sum of the amount you have invested in installing custom parts on your bike, the ACPE covers you for that additionally.

Some of the best places to get custom bike insurance are as follows:

• State Farm
• Nationwide
• Allstate
• Rider
• Geico
• Progressive
• Dairyland

Some Tips before You Buy Custom Café Racer Insurance

• Combining your motorcycle and homeowner policies can help you get a discount on your premiums.
• Present your clean motorcycle riding record, i.e. free of tickets and accidents, and you could shave some bucks off your premiums.
• Installing certain safety systems such as theft prevention equipment from LoJack can help make policy affordable for you.
• Completing a safety course can also help lower your premiums.

Concluding Thoughts

Before you make up your mind and say yes to a policy, you should always ask about discounts. When you don’t have a lot of information about custom motorcycle insurance, you can get help from insurance agents. Moreover, contrary to the common impression that modified and custom bikes are hard to insure, a lot of companies have coverage for them. Be sure to do a proper research and get quotes from multiple companies before you buy an insurance policy. Give small specialty custom motorcycle insurance companies a chance too.