Is this the most uninsurable thing in Bermuda?

As an island that prides itself in providing insurance for everything and anything the world over, Bermuda is finding that the Honda Scoopy - the bike of choice for the Island's thieves - a hard thing to cover.

Buildings threatened by terrorists, directors facing costly lawsuits and the rich and famous whose lives are threatened may find cover through Bermuda insurers.

But the hundreds of Honda Scoopy owners on the Island will be hard pushed to get a reasonable rate for their bikes.

The Royal Gazette can reveal that Argus Insurance has stopped cover for the bike after "staggering" losses taken on the bike due to the high number of thefts.

BF&M is also now considering halting the cover with the company's president and chief executive officer Glenn Titterton stating that it was such a problem they did not know what to do with cover for the bike.

The Island's largest motorcycle insurer, Colonial Insurance, was considering pulling the plug on insurance for the bike, but has, after deliberations, hiked up the price to more than that of a car.

"We stopped insuring them in February," said Larry Osborne, vice president property and casualty at Argus. "That was a difficult decision to come to. We tried everything and it was the one course of action left open to us after we had exhausted all the options available. We felt that the cost was going up and up. We saw the Scoopy as a problem bike and took that option.

"We are not the biggest writer of motorcycle insurance on the Island - BF&M and Colonial are ahead of us - bur from the figures from police it was staggering to see the number of Scoopys. It wasn't a surprise as we had seen the number of thefts, but it was a large percentage of the claims."

Mr. Titterton said that his company now had to seriously consider if it would continue to insure the Scoopy.

"This bike costs us a great deal in terms of claims," said Mr. Titterton. "We can't keep having things like this. We are paying for the losses out of other businesses.

"Most motor insurers would heave a sigh of relief if they weren't losing money. Just not to be losing money would be a huge step forward."

On average there are about 100 bikes (of all brands) stolen a month which works out to be about three a day.

Malaika Binns, the supervisor of the motor department at Colonial Insurance said that her company was still insuring the bikes - but that the rates had gone up.

"It is very expensive to insure one," she said, "If your bike is based on the for new value of $4,800, the cost of buying the bike new, then the fully comprehensive cost of insurance is $1,129.

"But it is not chasing people away from buying them, as they are still coming in to get the insurance."

But she confirmed that just recently Colonial had been considering not insuring the bike due to the high number of thefts.

In December William Madeiros, senior vice president of Colonial, said the company was considering pulling out of the bike insurance market altogether.

There are currently about 1,200 bike thefts each year, costing the insurance industry an estimated $2 million in claims each year. All three insurers say that their motor departments do not make ends meet with the high number of thefts and the high cost of repairs.

The Honda Scoopy remains the most stolen bike with the Suzuki RC the second most popular but cycle theft figures for March and April were down from the same period last year.

Cycle theft began to escalate in the early 1970s with Mobylettes and carried on into the 1980s with the Peugeots.

Other bikes to be targeted include the Yamaha V-50 and V-80, the PGO, the Akros and Malaguti.