Is any 'special' insurance required when taking a pilly abroad?   As a pillion, would 'normal' travel insurance and European Health Insurance Card be enough?   Any advise gratefully received . . .  thank you                                                                                                                                                                             

I would always take additional insurance, we have yearly insurance covers us from insure and go this covers as many trips as we take in a year                                                                                                                                                                             

i normally take my baseball bat !!!                                                                                                                                                                              

Dunno about pilly insurance, but as a rider i normally take out European cover with NCI, because it seems that your normal insurance cover only covers you if you ride a 125cc machine, if you go abroad...   But just how many 125cc riders would venture over the pond is questionable                                                                                                                                                                               

i have carol nash travel insuarance, it covers you, your bike gear and your camping gear,  only bike specific policy i know of                                                                                                                                                                             

I think i got a bit confused, your normal insurance cover should cover you for travel abroad, but not for breakdown, which is what i meant to say about 125cc going abroad, which is why i use NCI or RescueMyBike.com as they seem to called these days     linkylinky: http://www.rescuemycar.com/Breakdown/Motorcycle/                                                                                                                                                                             

as with brumax, carol nash, tho also the optional european breakdown n legal cover, which is not much extra. (i do ride ducatis after all....breakdown cover!!)   and tend to have documents, spare bulbs n flourescent bib in luggage as this makes any talks with the local plod a lot nicer, as well as being an extra waterproof bit, and warmer when the snow hits!   if in a small group we also carry one biger tool kit and a small bike spescific warning triangle between us too.                                                                                                                                                                                   

Daftun,   on the occasions I've ridden abroad standard travel insurance didn't cover motorcycling, I had to obtain that through a co that provides this cover (not all do). I think it's classed as a hazardous pursuit . As a pilly I would think you would be considered as riding a bike, but's worth checking.                                                                                                                                                                             

Be really careful with your choice depending on what you intend to do whilst on holiday and where. I wanted a policy to cover me whilst  motorcycling and on an annual basis with some medical conditions declared for Europe I did quite a bit of research most insurance companies only cover either a 50 cc or up to 125 cc I ended up with www.direct-travel.co.uk  who will cover me for multi trip up to 45 days in one go and for riding my 1200 cc bike the premium was 90 quid for the year for lots of different things that could happen to me ! This is seperate to the bike insurance which covers the bike and breakdown cover but not personal accident etc Please have a good read of the policy before parting with the dosh HTH Regards Twin                                                                                                                                                                                

Thank you everyone . . . lots of info posted - much appreciated                                                                                                                                                                              

I used these guys http://www.travel-insurance.net/motorcycle/