Bike insuranceStreatham recovery
Road bike insurance that gets your bike back.
Carbon road bikes are a prime target — high value, light to move, easy resale. BackPedal fits a covert tracker, deploys a recovery team if the bike's stolen, and backs it up with new-for-old replacement cover. Built for sportives, commuters, and club riders.
- +80%Recovery rate
- ~48hTypical recovery time
- 24/7In-house ops team
Recovery with no exclusions
Even if you forgot to lock up — we still recover your bike.
Full insurance backup included
Underwritten by Sundays Insurance, FCA regulated.
Tracking kit & professional installation
Covert GSM, GPS & BLE tracking kit — expertly installed, all part of your subscription.
Watch one of our recoveries
Trusted by thousands of families, commuters, racers and delivery riders because we do more than just insure… we recover.
Why road bikes need specific cover
Carbon road bikes sit in a particular sweet spot for theft: high replacement cost, lightweight (easy to grab and run), easily disassembled for resale on second-hand sites, and organised theft rings actively shop for them. The average UK road-bike theft loss reported to police is over £1,800.
Standard cycle insurance treats every bike the same. BackPedal's recovery service is what actually changes the maths for road bikes — the bike comes home before the parts hit a market. Replacement cover is the safety net for the cases recovery can't fix.
What your cover handles
Day-to-day commuting, weekend club rides, organised sportives, and the bike sitting in your garage.
Sportives & audax
Theft and theft-damage cover during organised endurance events. The bike is insured during transit to and from the start line.
Club rides & training
Standard commute and group-ride cover. Strava-tracked sessions and post-ride café stops included — no daytime exclusion windows.
Storage at home
Covered at your registered address — garage, shed, hallway, or wheel-bagged inside. No 'locked to an immovable object' clause for storage.
New-for-old replacement
If recovery can't get the bike back, premium bikes are replaced like-for-like rather than at depreciated value.
Race day and event cover
Closed-circuit racing (criteriums, BC road racing) sits outside standard cycle insurance and requires a racing licence with insurance through British Cycling or your governing body. The bike itself is still insured against theft during a race weekend — it's the racing component that needs separate cover.
If you race regularly, talk to us and we'll point you at the right setup. For sportives, audax, time trials, and gravel events, standard BackPedal cover applies.
How BackPedal works
Three steps. Covert trackers go on your bike, you call us when it's stolen, and our agents go and get it back. We've recovered over 80% of bikes reported to us.
01
Install trackers
Our mechanics fit covert GSM, GPS & BLE trackers to your bike anywhere in London — at the time and place you choose, 8am to 8pm, every day.
UP TO £149 OF KIT8AM–8PM, DAILY
02
24/7 Recovery OpsReport a theft
When your bike goes, you call our 24/7 hotline. We deploy recovery agents the same hour and keep you updated until it's back.
24/7 HOTLINESAME-HOUR DEPLOY
03
RecoveredOn its way homeBike recovered
We track it down, check it for damage, return it to your door, and handle the police report and any insurance claim on your behalf.
+80% RECOVEREDCLAIM HANDLED
+80%
Recovery rate
~48h
Typical recovery time
24/7
In-house ops team
Real recovery footage · updated weekly
Watch us
get them back.
Every clip is real footage from a BackPedal recovery, filmed by our agents on the ground. New recoveries land every week.
Watch the recoveries
Streatham6 hours to recover1:19
Stratford22 hours to recover1:12
Brighton2 days to recover1:15
Twickenham13 hours to recover1:11
London9 days to recover1:06
Hounslow23 hours to recover1:11
Kensington10 days to recover1:03the wall
Traditional bike
insurance vs
BackPedal
A bike is stolen every 2 minutes in the UK. Fewer than 2% of thieves are ever caught. Traditional insurers don't care — they just price it into your premium. The thief profits. You start again. Nothing changes.
BackPedal is different. We track your bike, recover it, and return it to you — so the thief gets nothing. Insurance is our backup, not our business model.
What you get
RecommendedBackPedalRecovery + Insurance
Other Bike InsuranceTypical Policy
01Recovery & Protection
Get your actual bike back
Covert GPS tracking included
24/7 recovery team deployed
Bike stolen? One call and we take over
02No exclusions on recovery
Forgot to lock up? Still covered
Left outside your house? Still covered
Stolen whilst riding? Still covered
03Insurance
If we can't recover your bike, our backup insurance by Sundays kicks in — the same kind of cover you'd get from any other bike insurer. Standard terms apply and claims are subject to approval.
Financial cover for a replacement bike
Accessory cover
Theft damage cover
Excess
£50*
Varies
* No excess on recovery claims. £200 excess for battery-only insurance claims.
★ ★ ★ AS SEEN ON TV
On the hunt
with TV crews
Three film crews. Three networks. One question — what does it actually look like to recover a stolen bike? Press play and find out.
45 minFeatured · BBC One
Trace, Track, Get My Car Back
In London, bike recovery specialist Bilal hunts down an ebike's GPS signal to a block of flats — and is shocked to discover what looks like a bike chop shop inside.
Watch on BBC iPlayer Series 1 · Episode 15 · 45 min
Crime + Investigation · 60 min
Bike Theft: London's Recovery Crew
“A routine recovery spirals into public confrontations, police involvement and a chase across multiple thefts — showing how unpredictable stolen bike recoveries can be.”
Watch on YouTube
Channel 4 Dispatches · 30 min
Britain's Bike Theft Capital
“Dispatches secretly films suspected handlers and goes on the trail of stolen bikes with our team.”
Watch on YouTubeThe kit · £150 of trackers
Covert trackers,
disguised & hidden
Every bike we protect gets a covert tracking kit — hidden away within the bike itself, or tucked into one of 17 disguised casings, so no two bikes look alike and thieves never learn the hiding spots.
Depending on your bike, that's some mix of an always-on Live GPS, a no-wires Sleeper GPS that wakes the moment your bike's reported stolen, and a short-range Proximity Beacon that leads our agents to it indoors. Read more about the trackers.
Handlebar cable coverCovers any brake, gear and electrical cables whilst hiding the tracker
Browse the disguises · tap to preview
1 / 17
Our customers love us
My bike was stolen… BackPedal took over the whole operation to get my bike back. Kind and caring and excellent at their job!
Alexandra Stratos
Chef, Highbury
My ebike is essential to our lives so I love the peace of mind knowing you've got a team there ready to go if the unthinkable happens.
Elan TamSey
Musician, Walthamstow
BackPedal gives me a way to protect my kit and fight back against bike theft at the same time.
Mat Shreeve
Engineer, Camden Town
BackPedal have recovered my ebike twice now. It is still a horrible experience having my bike stolen but the team are so resourceful they got a quick result.
They could not have been more conscientious on my behalf.
Frances Kelly
Kensington
Road bike insurance FAQs
Are road bikes covered for sportives and audax events?
Yes. BackPedal cover extends to organised sportives, audax, gran fondos, and Strava-tracked endurance rides. Recovery service applies during transit to and from events as well. Note that closed-circuit racing (criteriums, BC road racing) typically falls under British Cycling racing insurance instead.
What about timed race events and criterium racing?
Standard cover handles non-competitive cycling. Closed-circuit racing under BC rules requires a separate racing licence and insurance through the governing body. The bike itself remains insured against theft during a race weekend, but crash damage during racing is typically not covered.
Is my carbon road bike worth insuring?
If it's worth over £1,000, almost always. Carbon road bikes have high theft appeal — lightweight, high resale, targeted by organised theft rings. Replacement cost when you do lose one is brutal: new-for-old on a £4k bike pays for years of premiums. And BackPedal's recovery service means most subscribers never claim — the bike comes back.
Does my cover extend abroad?
For short trips (under 30 days) within the EU and select non-EU destinations, yes. For longer trips, talk to us in advance. The active recovery service is UK-only currently — abroad, you'd rely on the insurance side of the cover.
Are wheels and components covered if stolen?
Wheels and components stolen from a locked bike are covered under theft cover. Standalone wheelset theft (e.g. a £1,500 wheelset stolen from your garage while the bike's elsewhere) requires the wheels to be named accessories on your cover — talk to us about adding them.
Cover for the bike you actually paid for
Covert tracker, recovery service, new-for-old replacement. See a real price for your bike's value in 60 seconds.