To help illustrate how Balance can work, we’ve created the story of Angela, an avid cyclist who finds herself with a hefty bill after a crash.

The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is the most common scoring system used to describe the level of consciousness in a person following a traumatic brain injury. Basically, it is used to help gauge the severity of an acute brain injury. The test is simple, reliable, and correlates well with outcome following severe brain injury.

As cyclists, we know that crashes happen. That’s why cyclists emphasize safety so much. Usually, it’s fine – just scrapes, bruises, and a wounded sense of pride. But sometimes, it’s not. And when it’s not, cyclists do what any community would do – come together to support each other. Often, that takes the form of a fundraiser. But what happens at a fundraiser? We raise a few thousand dollars – which is great – but it isn’t enough.

If you ever have a crash that lands you in the ER, be prepared for the pain - in your wallet. The latest ploy to separate you from your money is something called the “trauma activation fee”. Basically, it’s an admission charge assessed when you go through the front door of the hospital emergency room, billed on top of the actual costs for any medical services you might incur.

As a cycling event organizer, you need liability protection, so you go out and buy it. No problem. What you may not have noticed, however, is that your liability policy may have automatically obligated you to purchase an additional coverage - something called participant accident medical insurance. If the fine print says that the participant accident coverage is “excess”, it is almost completely useless. Because the premiums are small and generally lumped in with cost of the liability insurance, many event organizers do not even notice that they are paying for this extra coverage. 

Cycling’s popularity continues to rise. Today, there are more than 66 million riders on roads, trails and tracks, and they ride for many reasons – exercise, sport, fun, commuting. As we’ve entered spring, I’ve seen more and more fellow riders enjoying the sport in my hometown. You see them whirring past you on the street, hear the bells dinging, and see bikes locked up outside of stores & restaurants. It’s the 21st century bike boom, and I for one love it. This certainly explains why cycling injuries are on the rise as well – there’s more of us. 

We’re often asked, “Does my homeowners policy provide physical damage or theft protection for my bicycle?” Your bicycle is considered personal property and coverage will vary depending on the type of homeowner policy you have in force.