Bigger engine swap insurance

[Doom64]

Hello

I recently put an ft500 engine in my cb250rs, does anyone know if on the insurance site the 'non standard engine' covers engine swaps or is it different standard engine internals that it covers?

Also has anyone had any experience dealing with the dvla and telling them about engine swaps? Does it go very smoothly? Or can they be picky with information they need?

Thanks.

[fastbob]

Hello

I recently put an ft500 engine in my cb250rs, does anyone know if on the insurance site the 'non standard engine' covers engine swaps or is it different standard engine internals that it covers?

Also has anyone had any experience dealing with the dvla and telling them about engine swaps? Does it go very smoothly? Or can they be picky with information they need?

Thanks.

Can't help with DVLA advice but I'd love to see some pictures of the bike ! I'm a big fan of the FT having owned two of them in the past and I've also owned a CB250RS . What's the story ? Does that mean there's an FT knocking about with no engine ? I've just done an engine swap myself but it was out of the same size of bike ( ER5 ) I'd better get round to telling DVLA myself, thanks for the reminder .

[fastbob]

Hmmm...., an FT 500 with an ER5 engine .... That could work . EDIT, no it wouldn't, nowhere to put the rad on a single front down tube .

[M620]

Hello

I recently put an ft500 engine in my cb250rs, does anyone know if on the insurance site the 'non standard engine' covers engine swaps or is it different standard engine internals that it covers?

Also has anyone had any experience dealing with the dvla and telling them about engine swaps? Does it go very smoothly? Or can they be picky with information they need?

Thanks.

 

Sorry but from personal experience of shoehorning larger engines into cars, I think you will have a lot more problems with getting insurance than with the DVLA. I wouldn’t be surprised if you need an engineers report befor anyone would even start to quote. The DVLA may also want an inspection on the vehicle to confirm it’s safe and roadworthy.

[xMachina]

Yep, these days DVLA really don't like home swaps and will want a garage inspection and report on headed paper at a minimum. Insurance will also be a real pain, on one of the Bandit groups a lad put a 1200 lump into his 600 (why you would build a bike you can buy is beyond me) and the quotes he was getting were 3-5 times more than a standard B12!

[Doom64]

Hello

I recently put an ft500 engine in my cb250rs, does anyone know if on the insurance site the 'non standard engine' covers engine swaps or is it different standard engine internals that it covers?

Also has anyone had any experience dealing with the dvla and telling them about engine swaps? Does it go very smoothly? Or can they be picky with information they need?

Thanks.

Can't help with DVLA advice but I'd love to see some pictures of the bike ! I'm a big fan of the FT having owned two of them in the past and I've also owned a CB250RS . What's the story ? Does that mean there's an FT knocking about with no engine ? I've just done an engine swap myself but it was out of the same size of bike ( ER5 ) I'd better get round to telling DVLA myself, thanks for the reminder .

 

Well I got the cb250rs a couple years ago and was reading about them online and saw people used to put 500cc engines in them and since then I wanted to do the same:) last August there was an ft500 engine for sale on eBay and I won it for £168 bargain! Swapped the engines over with a bit of persuasion and violla. Definitely worth swapping over, the 250 is so light and with a 500 engine in it, it goes lovely.

Unfortunately no empty ft laying about.

Let me know how the dvla respond though.

Thanks for the replies.

Do you think an up to date mot would be enough? That would prove it's Road worthy.

Rang up an insurance company today but have to ring back tomorrow for a quote will have to see what sort of price they come up with.

[Doom64]

Some pics.

[fastbob]

I like that a lot ! A CB500RS badge would be a nice touch . I presume you know about the weird electromagnetic starter gear and its potential to go wrong ? I believe that having a strong , well charged battery is essential on this bike for this reason.

[Doom64]

Thanks, I would put a 500 badge on it but I want to surprise a few people

Yeah I have heard about the starter gear going wrong but the engine didn't have one fitted when I bought it and they are pretty hard to come by so I fitted the kick start shaft from my 250 engine inside it so it is kick-start only now. I still need to fit the decompression setup to make kicking it over a bit easier though.

[M620]

Nice bike hope it all works out okay for you.

[Doom64]

Thanks, I hope it does to, spent a lot of time doing it.

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

That does look like a fun project. Let us know how you get on with the DVLA and insurance - the rules have changed so much in recent years it will be interesting to know how that goes.

[Doom64]

Just sorted out insurance, first I rang up a big insurance company but it seemed to have taken them three days to refer my policy request to a specialist so I got a quote from mce online and chose the 'non standard engine' option the total price was £358 I bought it looked at my policy docs but it still said 248cc so I rang them up and told them it should be 497cc I had to pay an extra £20 for the change but they changed it straight away and I got the updated docs.

They didn't even ask for an inspection or any other documents. Hopefully they won't later.

First part out the way hopefully dvla will go just as easy.

[M620]

Result