Is your bike frame broken? This is how you’re covered

Bike frame breakages are happily pretty rare. However, replacing or repairing the frame can quickly rack up considerable costs, regardless of whether you ride a racing bike, e-bike or road bike.

Generally, manufacturers and retailers offer warranties, although these differ in what they cover. Often, they last somewhere between two to five years, while others will offer a lifetime guarantee. For electronics and components such as gear mechanisms and suspension, the limit is generally two years. It’s well worth knowing that the statutory warranty obligation generally relates only to product defects (e.g. manufacturing faults) and product features guaranteed at the time of purchase. Subsequent damage that cannot be traced back to product faults, but results from a rider-induced fall, for example, is not included. In these cases, therefore, the consumer cannot claim against the guarantee.

No. Sports equipment such as e-bikes or ski gear is considered part of the household contents, but the basic insurance only covers damage resulting from incidents like a flooded basement, fire or theft. For comprehensive protection, it’s worth adding cover for accidental damage to contents. What exactly is that? 

The basic insurance for contents covers all of your household contents at replacement value. This includes cover for damages resulting from fire, natural hazards, water or theft. The household contents include all movable furnishings within your home.

Accidental damage insurance can, meanwhile,  be arranged with additional modules on top of your contents insurance. These also protect your insured items against unforeseen, violent impact, while electrical equipment is likewise protected against damage from moisture and humidity. This includes, for example, damages incurred as a result of rough transport or impact from a fall. That means that, with cover for accidental damage to electrical equipment, you avoid purchasing separate cellphone insurance but are still protected if your phone slips out of your hand while you’re taking a mountaintop selfie. Or when you accidentally spill coffee over your laptop while editing your holiday photos. In both cases, the module for accidental damage to electrical equipment would cover you, whether you’re at home or out and about. Similarly, the cover for accidental damage to sports equipment covers all kinds of sports equipment in your home, while cover for accidental damage to contents includes both sports and electrical equipment, so you ultimately get comprehensive protection for your entire contents.  

It’s even easier with household insurance. This isn’t an insurance policy in the strictest sense, but rather an overall solution comprising all the basic and supplementary insurance cover. It’s the full spectrum, so to speak, of everything you need for your apartment, house, or leisure time. The household insurance might include contents insurance, personal liability insurance, and building insurance. This way, you can cover precisely the risks that concern you in one single policy. With the addition of “simple theft outside the home”, your bicycle, for example, is also insured against pilferers in the mountain hut. 

To find out whether it’s worth your while to get accidental damage insurance for sports equipment, the best thing is to look at a sample calculation. Let’s assume that during the cycling weekend we mentioned at the beginning, the frame of your bike gets broken. 
Cost of the repair: CHF 1,900
Deductible: CHF 200 (waived after 3 claim-free years)
Cover from Zurich: CHF 1,700 (since damages are covered up to an agreed insured sum of CHF 2,000).

The supplementary insurance for sports equipment can be purchased for a premium of CHF 64 per year for an insured sum of CHF 2,000. In case of damage, the sports equipment of people living in the same household is also covered. 

Still not sure? A personal consultation will help you make a decision.