West Norfolk-based motorbike insurer Bikesure celebrates 30 years
Watching his Bikesure baby grow has been a labour of love in more ways than one for Rob Balls.
When the motorbike insurance broker launched in November 1990, he was part of the initial three-man team that worked out of a small office in Downham. Now Rob can celebrate Bikesure turning 30 alongside more than 160 colleagues, many of whom work out of a dedicated office in North Lynn.
But it’s not just the growth of the company, part of the Adrian Flux Insurance Group, that has filled the father-of-one’s heart with joy. He met his long-term partner at work and has also fallen head over heels with motorbikes thanks to his involvement with the growing specialist insurer.
“I had no interest in bikes at all,” said Bikesure’s general manager, who formed the brand’s first team with Carl Pickett and Pat Wharf.
“What would happen is when you were talking to bikers on the phone, sometimes the question would be asked of me; ‘Well what do you ride?’ And I’d have to tell them I wasn’t a biker and what they needed was an expert in motorbike insurance, not motorcycling, and that’s what I am.
"But it just got to a point where I got fed up with saying that to customers and I thought I really needed to get under the skin of motorbikes if I wanted to help take Bikesure forward.
“So, I took my test and once I started to learn to ride, I wondered why I didn’t do it years ago.”
The 49-year-old’s first bike was a Honda CBR 600. His second purchase was a Yamaha FZS 1000 Fazer before he gradually moved away from sports bikes to naked bikes. A Kawasaki Z750, Triumph Speed Triple, his favourite set of wheels, Triumph Scrambler and Triumph Tiger 800 followed.
An “absolutely amazing” three-week trip around the Himalayas, touring around Europe and a track day with Bikesure’s brand ambassador since 2012, Carl Fogarty, remain some of his highlights since learning to ride.
Rob joined Adrian Flux, now one of the UK’s largest specialist motor insurance brokers, in 1989. Within a year an increasing number of inquiries around motorcycle and trike insurance saw the need for a specialist motorcycle department, named Bikesure, to be formed.
Within 10 years a series of new types of cover were launched which helped secure more than 10,000 live motorcycle policies and a second office switch, this time to a larger premises at East Winch.
Twenty years on, Bikesure now mainly operates out of its North Lynn base and has more than 200,000 live policies. The award-winning insurer has formed a host of partnerships across the industry as well as sponsoring headline events such as Motorcycle Live, hosted online in 2020 thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.
Rob said: “Bikesure has been successful because of the focus on our customers and understanding the needs of bikers. We have continued to develop and innovate with the changing markets and environment.
“The aim now is to become number one and the UK’s biggest motorcycle insurance broker. That’s our ambition and I don’t think it will take another 30 years of hard work for that to happen. We want to remain at the cutting edge of motorcycling by working with bikers, our insurers, manufacturers and continuing to do what we’ve done for the last 30 years.”
