Roughly how much is insurance typically for a diesel?

[mattm]

Just thought I should ask what roughly insurance is likely to be for a diesel motorbike in uk? Given the point in the exersize is cheap transport and my current bikes are covered for any one of 3 riders on any combination of 5 bikes, at £158 on a classic policy where the biggest bike is an Ntv 650 that returns a fairly respectable 60mpg for most commuting use, though it can drop well below that if the taps are opened up.... I have to figure out if the better mpg will pay back the cost ( or set a budgett for such a project). For optimum payback it needs to be a sidecar outfit for winter use, I dropped a bike on my foot 2 years back on ice, only a 250 but it hurt ( my wallett worst, 9 weeks off work), don't want a repeat. That probably means a kubota twin into a bmw r90 ( got the bike already) , or go cheap and drop a ruggerini into a rebel 125 with a 3 speed gearbox ( got the major components already) or sell what i have and buy everything specifically using the proceeds.
I know insurance is a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' question, but I just want to get some sort of feel for the markett for covering oil burners, I sort of doubt my current cover company would add sutch a creation though they might, Carol Nash refused to cover my bmw r90 because the engine was a r80 with 1000cc heads, but were not bothered by the twin plugging so there really is no knowing with them, but still, some kind of ballpark might be usefull. What are peoples thoughts?

[gilburton]

Forget the mainstream insurers for a start and start phoning the smaller brokers who deal in custom machines etc.
Expect the long silence/sharp intake of breath etc.
The online forms are a waste of time especially when you get to the "modifications" bit.
Fortunately I built a MZ/Robin so as they were built commercially a few years ago they were actually listed on some databases so I said same as that but home built and sent some pics to the broker.
How do you explain you have installed a larger engine but now get less speed/power than a 125 lol
In insurance terms larger engine equals speed equals higher premium.
They're very likely to charge extra for the risk so don't expect miniscule quotes.
I think I was with Footman James at the time but even they had problems with underwriters.

[sbrumby]

I am with footman james, if you join the VJMC £25 per year you get more than that off the insurance. I think the bike has to be 20 years old. Certainly I can drive any other bike but it has to be 20 years old.

[UAofE]

Lucky insurance is easy in the USA. I just register and insure mine for the make/model its listed as.

[mattm]

Looks like an investigatory phonecall to Lynbrook is my best bet, see if they would allow a diesel to be added, and maybe get a ballpark figure for each of my 2 most likely builds. At least with the bmw I would be downsizing the engine with a kubota twin, and it was only a saving of £10 when I took it off the policy and its engine already classed as a modification.
Thanks for the input so far.

[Mouse]

I ended up with a custom build policy from Bikesure. That's two modified bikes One being the Kubota Z482 BMW and the other being the VW 1900cc Dnepr. It has all the bells and whistles, business use, breakdown cover and foreign use and it costs me about the same as when I owned an old 1200 Bandit. My premium is about £250 which I think is reasonable and I am approx 45 and have a fairly clean driving and insurance history if you were wondering.

I fell out with Carole Nash who simply stated they did not insure diesel bikes at all despite me having an active policy at the time of renewal and had an apology from their underwriters over it.

Also try Footman James for a quote (I could not use for technical reasons)

NOTE: If you are going for a CUSTOM BUILD policy rather than a tweaked / engine swapped bike on a STANDARD policy be sure to declare this at the start of the phone call because it affects the department you end up getting a quote from and how they can react to you and it can be worth ringing back again to get this right. ie the standard insurance dept can bluntly refuse to talk to you whereas the custom dept will have you insured in 15 mins.

[Stuart]

I have a multi policy with carol Nash which includes the diesel Tiger. But they wouldn't agree a value on it.

[mattm]

Thanks again, gives me a few numbers to play with and companies to call, plus interesting about the getting different departments giving different answers. I had similar expiriences with CN with my bmw outfit after years of them covering my cb500/4 sidecar, with a cb550 engine, which they noted and were not fussed about, the bmw that had gone from 900 to 1000cc but otherwise identical, they point blank refused cover on any terms without an engineers report, which lost them my custom.
Ps, Mouse, I was wondering what progress the vw dneper revival is making if any? The doner car is still here if any further bits are needed and my in laws are thinking on getting rid of the doner cars twin soon.