Buying a bike for a friend to use

[GreaseNipple]

I've got a friend with a licence who hasn't ridden for 15 years who's going through a hard time. I've been thinking about buying a cheap old bike anyway for a bit of a project and to bumble around on and was thinking it would be good to get my friend insured on it so we could go on rides together. Anyone got experience of doing this, any pitfalls I'm not thinking about, is it a potential can of worms?

[Krikkit]

If you own it and he's just a named rider I can't see the issue. The only awkwardness could be if he bins it, are you bothered about the value? Otherwise I'd say no problem.

[DeanAngell1234]

If you were to do this make sure it's a cheap to fix bike, I'd recommend something like an old CB500. I race mine and the last time I binned it, it only cost me £80 to fix. You can get a good one for around 1k and it'll never really lose value.

[Moulder]

Did this with a Honda XR125L. They just had a CBT, insurance just for me was £186, and they added another £50.

Chose the XR125 as there was nothing off road in my collection, might as well get something you will use. Also, if the friend decides they can't be arsed it is still of benefit to you.

[Dingu]

The only major pitfall I can think of is if he is named on your policy and he crashes and there is a claim, it becomes declarable for you in most cases (depends on the exact question asked).

[srob]

We let loads of people borrow our old bikes, we just have them as named rider on whoever owns/insures that bike.

Accidents can happen but if you trust the person (which I assume you do!) then you just chalk it up to one of those things. It's nice to let people join in who may not be able to otherwise, if you can.

[Steve_H80]

That is a good and generous thing to do. The only downside I can see is if matey has an insurance claim it's your NCB that goes.
In your position I would to get your mate to insure it and you could ride it '3rd party only' on your current insurance.

[black-k1]

I've lent bikes to friends from the US and Australia, as well as the UK, for use in the UK and for trips to Europe. I lent my H2 SX to my Austrailan friend for this years Old Gits trip as he was visiting the UK at the time of the trip.

In all such occasions, I've taken out a second policy on that particular bike with the other rider as a named rider on that policy. It's worked fine (once the problem of their registered address is sorted).

However, the biggest risk is that if they have an accident it will hit your no claims and policy loading, making all your insurance renewals for the next 5 years more expensive.

In your situation, I'd recommend giving the bike to your friend free of charge but on the understanding that when he wants to get rid of the bike it has to be back to you. I'd then suggest you paying for the insurance on the bike in his name, with you as a named rider. That way, if anything does go wrong, it's all in his name.

The cost of both approaches are likely to be pretty similar so it's just about what would work best for both of you.

PS The other advantage of him "owning" the insurance is that he starts to build his own NCD so that, if the biking bug bites again, he has some NCD for his next bike.

PPS You're doing a wonderful thing. Well done!

[Bakazan]

Steve_H80 said:

That is a good and generous thing to do. The only downside I can see is if matey has an insurance claim it's your NCB that goes.
In your position I would to get your mate to insure it and you could ride it '3rd party only' on your current insurance.

There may be compications with this, when I bought my wife a bike my insurer wouldn't let her be the owner and me the main insured rider (she was awaiting CBT so couldn't ride it home).