Determining just how much motorcycle insurance you need requires consideration of numerous factors, all of which are geared to protecting your motorcycle, your health and your financial well-being. Living and riding in North Carolina, you’re required, as in most states, to maintain at least a minimum amount of motorcycle liability insurance. This is the coverage that helps protect you in the event that you’re held legally liable for losses to others resulting from an accident you cause while riding your bike.
In N.C., the minimum amounts of protection required for liability insurance are the same for automobiles as they are for motorcycles:
- $30K per person per accident for bodily injury
- $60K for all persons per accident for bodily injury
- $25K per accident for property damage
While it may be tempting to only carry the minimum required amount of liability coverage on your bike, experts generally agree that this is likely a mistake. With today’s costs for vehicle repairs and medical costs being so high, one liability claim against you for an accident you cause while riding your motorcycle could be financially ruinous. It may be prudent for you to carry five or ten times the minimum amounts required. You may also want to look into adding a high-value umbrella policy to bolster your liability protection.
Consider the Advantages of Full Motorcycle Insurance Coverage
Progressive Corporation, one of the country’s largest car and motorcycle insurance companies, has conducted research and found that the most frequent type of motorcycle insurance claim is for single-vehicle accidents. For cars, the most frequent claim is for rear-end collisions.
This suggests that, in most motorcycle claims, the rider is at fault. Your own liability coverage does nothing to pay toward losses you would personally suffer in a single-vehicle accident. This is why you need additional protection in the form of collision coverage. You should also have comprehensive coverage for protection against non-collision incidents. Just as with auto insurance, there are numerous additional optional coverages.
How Much Motorcycle Insurance Do You Need?
If your bike gets wrecked in an accident you’ll want to see it either repaired or replaced so your collision coverage should be in a sufficient amount to take care of that. The same holds true if it burns up, is destroyed in a storm or stolen by a thief. You’ll want enough comprehensive protection to replace it with a similar year, make and model.