Third Party Liability Insurance when Touring by Bicycle in Germany

Now that the lockdown in the UK is being loosened, holidays abroad have become feasible. Germany is an excellent place to cycle with 1000s of kilometre cycle routes, reasonably priced accommodation and dining. Something to bear in mind while planning a German tour is that the majority of Germans have taken out a Haftpflichtversicherung - a third party liability insurance that covers claims against the holder for damage to person or property and the legal costs arising. An accident to third parties can be eye-wateringly expensive in Germany. It's an excellent wheeze to have a third party liability insurance yourself. If you don't and you damage somebody else's property or person in Germany, the injured party's insurance will be talking to my learned friend quicker than you can say knife. We have a liability insurance policy from our (German) bank. 

This type of insurance does not seem to be usual as such in the UK, but cover is often provided under other insurance policies, for example, travel insurance policies may cover you for accidents that may happen while you are abroad, but it's better to check before you leave home. Members of Cycling UK have third party insurance that will guard against claims made by others for any accidental damage or injury caused by you or your bike. With third party liability insurance, you are covered for any claims made against you for damage or injury. Cycling UK members are automatically covered up to £10 million by this policy. Electric pedal bikes are also included.

Why don't cyclists stick together?

In the past we spent a fair amount of time cycling around the Alps. We noticed that if a motorcyclist sees a fellow candidate for the emergency room on a motor bike on a quiet road up high in the Alps, she or they give the other a cheery wave, without checking whether the other is riding an inferior motorbike or a moped. If cyclists meet the first thing many of them will do is to check what kind of bike the other/s are riding. There appears to be a division into:

• road bikes,
  
• touring bikes,
  
• MTBs,
  
• commuters including folding bikes and e-bikes
• day trippers
  

Cyclists then basically greet people on the same type of bike. We in the past have had enjoyed seeing the looks on the faces of road men as we panted our way over the odd Swiss Pass on our Brompton folding bikes. There was no sign of recognition that we were fellow cyclists. This kind of snobbishness is typical for cyclists. Fine, the last thing you need on a busy city street in Amsterdam, Cambridge, Copenhagen or London is a greeting, but on a lonely road it is a friendly act.

There may well be an inverse snobbery as well. If I understood the history of the Kalmit Klappradklub in Maikammer, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany correctly, this came into being  when various local citizens were choked off by the basically wealthier ones among them boasting about their 27 and more geared super lightweight carbon fibre titanium mountain bikes. They planned and organised a race up the road to Kalmit the highest peak in the Palatinate Forest from Maikammer, Rhineland Palatinate on Klappräder the cheap single geared mass produced bicycle with 20" wheels. The race up Kalmit is an annual event where variously costumed riders set off up the 400m climb over 6km to the summit. It's great fun and I can recommend a visit on the first weekend in September. There are some keeny beanies who make it up the hill in respectable times, but the costumed majority take their time. A whole sport has now developed racing single gear Klappräder on various circuits.

Then there are at least three topics that divide cyclists:

• Helmet wearing. Some of our fellow cyclists count the number of photographs showing helmet wearing or bare headed cyclists in club magazines and complain about propaganda for or against helmet wearing. Personally if I want to wear a helmet fine! If I don't, it is to quote the Germans "my beer", my decision. However I suspect if you want to found a new cycling club section then put forward a motion at a British cycling club's AGM that in future helmets must be worn on club runs. This only applies to the UK and Australia. In the USA helmets are worn without question. Odd actually, in the time of Covid-19 many groups in the USA feel that wearing face masks is somehow unmanly but every American cyclist I know wears a helmet when cycling without question. I suspect one is more likely to pick up a Corona virus when unmasked in a group than suffering serious head injuries when cycling helmetless.
  
• Trailers It would appear that some of the cycling community feel that towing a trailer is letting the side down. I don't know why. I have yet to come across it.
  
• E-bicycles. According to some of our cycling brethren if you ride a pedelec you are a traitor to the cause of zero energy transport along the lines of "e-bikers are not real cyclists!". This does conveniently overlook the energy needed to produce bicycles from ores or scrap metal. Then there is the suspicion that e-bikers are actually riding mopeds and are not exerting themselves sufficiently, or should that be suffering enough. We have joined the group of assisted cyclists. In my case after major heart surgery I suspect it would not be good for me to slog my way up hills. However normally we cycle on minimal assistance and I do not notice any difference when I turn the motor on at the lowest setting. When we hit a steep bit I push up the power.

Obviously although mud spattered mountain bikers with or without e-power, road racing types on a club run, commuters, families with children on cargo bikes, tourists, etc. etc. have different interests and aims, most of us are interested in safe cycling, adequate facilities, clean air and good investment by governments in cycling. If we speak with a joint voice we might have chance of being heard over the motor lobby and can convince politicians in spite of their longing to be photographed in hiviz waistcoats and a hard hat next to an incredibly expensive highway moving a traffic jam a few kilometres from one side of a town to the other.

Emergency Services for Cyclists

Like a lot of cyclists over the age of 18 we also own a motor car. When we are travelling in the thing we know that if it starts to make funny noises, a tyre punctures or the gears stop functioning we can ring a motor club hotline and sooner or later a representative of the club or a contract garage will appear and repair the damage. Until recently these services were not available in Germany for cyclists. If your bicycle gears went belly up, you needed to walk or get transport to the next town or village to find a bike shop or if your bike was stolen, you had to find a bike hire station, etc. This service for cyclists has been available in the Netherlands from the ANWB for some time. I was pleased to read that the German ADFC is now offering a similar service (ADFC-PannenhilfePLUS) as an additional package to members for 11.90€ (individual) or 19.90€ (family) annually covering the EU and Switzerland and Norway. A 24 hour hotline will provide those insured with information about bike repair workshops and bike hire stations, send a sag wagon if the bike is damaged beyond repair or organise a return home. This applies to all bicycle problems except punctures. This could well be adopted by other bicycle clubs, even the CTC, the cycling charity. Then of course the various clubs could cooperate to make life easier for cyclists travelling abroad, but is this asking too much?

An idea for cycle clubs

The ADFC section in Ottersweier, a village south of Karlsruhe in the Rhine Valley, organises free bike parking for the annual Dorfbachfest, a typical jolly German weekend fest with grilled sausages, beer and umpah bands. The village council supplies a car park and galvanised wire builders' fencing. The ADFC supplies volunteers to guard the bike park, organises a ticketing system and has an information stand. The chairman of the ADFC group and the organiser of this action wrote that cyclists are overjoyed to find secure parking and it is a good way to acquire new members.
I realise that do's with umpah bands and beer are few and far between in Britain, but there will be large numbers of cyclists to watch le Tour next year in Yorkshire and there will be more mass cycling events in London, so CTC local groups could help themselves and the cycling community by laying on bike parking at various events.
5 January 2014: I suppose it could even be seen as one of the ideas supported by David Cameron in the Big Society project.

Everything runs like it's just been oiled.

The city of Mannheim, Germany offers free bike checks in the summer at various events and it is an excellent way of showing folk who don't cycle much how make their cycling easier, by pumping up tyres, oiling chains, adjusting gears and making sure brakes work. It's a very popular service. The queues can be very long. When I first saw this I was impressed, although the ADFC Bergstraße has organised a stand for years at the biannual closure to motorised traffic of the Bergstrasse between Heppenheim and Darmstadt. We have even helped on the stand. I was also impressed to realise that the CTC had organised a similar service at the Prudential RideLondon weekend. This is obviously something that meets a public need.