Navigating Historic Motorcycle Insurance

While the Aermacchi was in the process of getting restored, we were diving deep into an endless cycle of trying to find vintage vehicle insurance for the bike.

A majority of the top collectible vehicle insurance companies (Hagerty, Grundy, American Collector) requires you to own a CAR in order to qualify for vintage car insurance. I realize a bunch of people must have attempted to game the system by purchasing cheap insurance for their old Toyota Corollas. The underwriters seem to play by the book, not taking into consideration – on a case by case basis – that as city dwellers, we actually choose to use motorcycles as our daily commuters, in lieu of a car, for the sake of economy and practicality. The Aermacchi's a great bike, but a little too precious to use every day.

Thanks to Facebook, which pointed us to State Farm Insurance Agent Lynne Barnhardt who's a bit of a legend in the motorcycle community, we finally got a perfect policy for the bike! It's now insured at the value we see the bike at, the ID card is marked with "historical" so we can get the right plates, and at a reasonable price. Feels like a home run after a lot of frustration.

Now, it's a matter of trying to get the bike registered and acquire plates for it while the DMV is at a standstill thanks to the Covid-19 shutdown…