Chicago Region BMW Motorcycle Owners Assoccrbmw

I posed the following question to a good number of members and fellow riders looking for input relative to Progressive vs. Allstate. This was prompted because Progressive had reduced my annual premium by about $100 but when I called Allstate, they came in at $90 under Progressive. Here was the question and circumstance.

Guys- I need your quick assistance on something. Bottom line, I'm trying to collect feedback on the quality of Allstate Insurance coverage for motorcycles only. All my other coverages are with State Farm.
In my 40 plus years of riding, I've only been insured with 2 companies. State Farm for the first 20 years and Progressive for the last 20 years. Back when I switched from State Farm to Progressive, I was able to cut my policy premium by about 50%. I've always had between 4-8 bikes insured at any one time. Currently I'm insuring 4.
My recent premium for the 4 bikes (Gold Wing with full coverage and Beemer, Vstrom and SV650 with all but collision) went down with Progressive from $525 to $435. I decided to price check Allstate on an apples to apples comparison and they come in at $345. The only significant difference is the roadside assistance. Allstate has a rather anemic coverage of $100 per incident (regardless of circumstance or distance). Progressive offers towing to the nearest facility that is prepared to work on whatever requires repair. If you are out west or in the boonies, a single towing bill could easily blow away any premium savings. The other key question relates to Allstate, as a motorcycle insurance provider, is a total unknown to me. I know they have gotten aggressive in their marketing the past couple of years, but I have no knowledge of their history related to customer service or promptness/completeness as it relates to claims.
To try to keep my request as brief as possible, 1) can anybody give me their best insight as to your experience with towing/roadside assistance coverage for your provider AND 2) can anybody comment from either personal experience or second-hand knowledge about Allstate as a provider. I need to make a decision by Monday, April 4th, so please comment ASAP. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

I got quite a few responses but only a couple of people could reference Allstate and nobody had specific claim experience with them. Thanks to all who responded. I called Progressive one more time to ensure I had the roadside assistance question clearly answered. Here is what I concluded:

I decided to stay with Progressive. Allstate's roadside assistance is limited to $100 maximum per occurancere whereas Progressive's is towing to the nearest repair facility regardless of distance and they also include up to one hour maximum for labor per disablement. Given my likelihood to break down in the boonies (especially if I were out west) and that labor rates typically exceed $70 per hour, the $70 annual difference in premium could get chewed up in one occurance. As a side note, I responded to a flyer from AARP touting discounts to members for motorcycle insurance from Foremost Insurance. On an apples to apples comparison, they came in at $671 versus the $345 for Allstate and the $415 for Progressive. I'm sure there are a lot of folks out they paying too much for their cycle coverage.

I am not posting the specific responses I received, but would urge members to use this forum to swap stories and compare notes on things such as this. One tip from a fellow member can more than cover your membership dues for multiple years and make us all smarter, better consumers. Because remember the old joke....."Whats the cheapest thing on a BMW?.........The rider." Take care. Anybody else, feel free to add to this thread.

Dan,

I went to Progressive about 8 years ago. Their prices are very good and the claims process is great. I switched over from USAA and my rates were cut in half. A few months ago I checked with the company that does full page ads (Markel?) in the BMWON magazine and they were considerably higher for like coverages.

Thanks for bringing AllState into perspective, Larry