ANYONE wondering if they can afford Kawasaki’s £22,000 Ninja H2 might be well advised to do some insurance research before agreeing a bank loan.
Visordown has been experimenting with insurance quotes for the 200hp supercharged Ninja on a price comparison website, using details of a middle-aged motorcyclist with a long, clean riding record. As an Essex home owner, the only quote he received was £5,752. Changing his address to north London pushed it to £7,183.
We used a high-profile price-comparison site that instantly retrieves quotes from 44 providers.
We said the rider was a 43-year-old married accountant who had held a full motorcycle licence for 25 years and had over nine years’ no-claims bonus, with no accidents or convictions. We gave the machine's value as its price, of £22,000, and said it would be kept in a garage.
Both the London and Essex addresses resulted in just one quote from the same provider. The quotes remained the same when we changed our rider's occupation to 'editor'.
The quotes were for fully-comprehensive cover and social, domestic and pleasure use. Asking for third-party-fire-and-theft cover resulted in no quote being retrieved.
We've contacted the insurance provider directly and are waiting to hear if the firm can offer a better quote. A call handler said that, as the bike was valued at over £20,000, it must be dealt with by a separate 'private client department'.
A quote from Kawasaki's own insurance provider came in at £899, for the same north London address and rider, on the condition the machine be fitted with a tracker.
A spokesman for Kawasaki Insurance said underwriting risk was analysed on a ‘bespoke basis’ for the Ninja H2, adding: ‘Because of its value and desirability a tracking device is essential.’
We decided to get some insurance quotes for Kawasaki’s 998cc Ninja H2 after problems were raised by a Visordown reader.
Commenting on our Ninja H2 video review, the user said he was 53, with a clean licence and 30 years’ no-claims bonus, and that his cheapest quote was £5,752 – the same as our lowest online quote.
The reader wrote: ‘I put my £5,000 deposit down on an H2 back in October. Just got an insurance quote – 53-year-old rider, full licence 33 years, 30 full comp insurance, 30 years’ no-claims, clean licence, always rode Kawasaki's flagship sports bikes. Best and only quote £5752.44.
‘Looks like another ZX10. I can insure that for £180.’
- Sign up for Visordown's weekly newsletter, Bugsplat, to get the best motorcycle news, road tests and features plus exclusive competitions and offers direct to your inbox. Register as a Visordown member here and tick the box for Bugsplat in your newsletter settings here.
