How motoinsure Sources Its Numbers

motoinsure is an information site about motorcycle insurance in the United States. It does not sell policies, route quotes through affiliate links, rank carriers, or recommend a "best" insurer. This page documents where the figures and rules on every other page come from, how each source is hedged, and what motoinsure refuses to claim. A rider — or a regulator — should be able to read this page and check the work.

Cost data

Every premium figure on motoinsure is a published-average range, never a quote. The baseline is the all-50-state table of average annual full-coverage motorcycle premiums compiled by the consumer-research site MoneyGeek ^{[MoneyGeek, Average Cost of Motorcycle Insurance, 2026]} (national full-coverage average $364). Each state's published average is carried in the site's source data (data/state-cost-index.json) and drives that state's figures directly; the per-state multipliers are simply each state's average divided by the national average, so the numbers trace to MoneyGeek rather than to any hand-set constant. A range communicates the published average while signalling that an individual quote can land anywhere inside or outside it. A single "average" implies a precision that does not exist for an individual shopper, so motoinsure does not publish one.

The source grain matters and the site states it openly: MoneyGeek’s published averages are at the state-level, full-coverage line. Any breakdown narrower than that — liability-only ranges, minimum-coverage ranges, premiums for a specific bike class — necessarily carries wider uncertainty than the headline state range, and the page presenting it says so.

The longer-term plan, locked but not yet built, is to migrate the cost cluster off MoneyGeek’s published averages and onto a derivation from state Department of Insurance NAIC rate filings — the carriers’ own actuarial filings on file with the regulator ^{[National Association of Insurance Commissioners, 2024]}. NAIC rate-filing derivation is the same source class an underwriter would build a premium estimate from, and it allows a per-state, per-coverage-type matrix rather than a single state average. Until that build lands, MoneyGeek's 2026 published averages remain the baseline for any page that cites a state premium, and the source is named on the page where it appears.

How the cost model works

The premium ranges on state pages, cost-pillar pages, and the cost estimator are not hand-typed per page. They come from one published model, applied the same way everywhere, so a figure on a California page and the same figure in the estimator move together and can be checked against each other.

The model is a base figure scaled by a short, fixed set of multipliers:

• a base annual premium, anchored to the published-average range described above;
• a state multiplier (each state’s MoneyGeek published average divided by the national average — so it reflects the real cost spread, not a guess);
• a bike-class multiplier (a liter-class sport bike rates well above a mid-size cruiser);
• an age multiplier and a riding-experience multiplier (a young or newly-licensed rider is the single largest factor);
• a coverage-level multiplier (liability-only runs well below full coverage; full plus custom-parts runs above it).

The model multiplies the base by those factors, then widens the result into a low–high band rather than reporting a single point, because a single number implies a precision no model has for an individual rider. Every table built this way is labeled "illustrative, not a quote," and the rider profiles a table is built from (age, years riding, bike class) are stated next to it so the inputs are visible, not hidden.

These are modeled estimates, not figures pulled from any single rider’s policy and not fabricated cell by cell. The multipliers are documented in the site’s source so the same inputs always produce the same range. A real quote depends on a rider’s full record, ZIP, and the carrier’s own filing, and can land outside the band; the band is a starting point for shopping, not a price.

Regulatory data

State requirements — minimum motorcycle liability limits, helmet law, lane-splitting law, registration rules, reinstatement procedures — are sourced from state Department of Insurance pages and other state-government primary sources ^{[National Association of Insurance Commissioners, State Insurance Department Directory, 2025]}. Where a state statute or DOI bulletin is the authority, motoinsure cites it and notes the as-of date on the page. Where a state has no motorcycle-specific liability mandate (Florida is the canonical example), the page says so directly rather than reporting a number that does not exist.

State regulatory pages are date-stamped at the file level via the page’s lastReviewedDate frontmatter, surfaced as a visible "last reviewed" line on the page itself. The review cadence is quarterly: every state page is re-checked against its DOI source each quarter, and the file date is bumped whether or not the underlying rule changed. A bumped review date with no rule change is the signal that the page was re-verified; it is not a content-change marker.

If a rule changes between review cycles, the change reaches the page when a reader flags it (see "Limits and corrections" below) or when the next quarterly pass catches it — whichever comes first. The site does not claim real-time regulatory tracking, and it does not pretend a quarterly cadence is one.

Claim-cost data

The forthcoming /claim-costs/ cluster — figures on what a motorcycle claim costs a rider out of pocket — draws on four source classes, each named on the page where it appears:

• NAIC industry aggregates, for loss-ratio and average-paid-claim figures across the motorcycle line ^{[National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Auto Insurance Database Report, 2024]}.
• NHTSA crash-cost data, for the per-incident cost benchmarks underlying medical and economic-loss figures ^{[National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Motorcycles, 2024]}.
• Kelley Blue Book salvage and trade-in ranges, for total-loss valuation benchmarks at the motorcycle-class level ^{[Kelley Blue Book, Motorcycle Values, 2024]}.
• State reinstatement-fee schedules, sourced from the same state DOI / DMV pages as the regulatory data above, for the cost of a lapse or a suspension.

None of these sources publishes a single "what your claim will cost" figure, and motoinsure does not invent one. Claim-cost pages present ranges and benchmarks with the source named, and they state plainly which number is an industry aggregate, which is a per-incident benchmark, and which is a state-specific fee.

Who writes this and how it is reviewed

motoinsure publishes under the organization, not a personal byline. That is deliberate: the authority a reader should weigh is the source behind each fact — the state Department of Insurance, AM Best, NAIC, the named cost model — not the name of a writer. Every regulatory and cost claim is traceable to one of those sources rather than to an individual’s opinion.

Drafting and review are a two-step process kept separate. One pass writes a page against its sources; a second pass checks every figure and rule on the page back against the cited source before it ships, and again on the review cadence below. A page is not published until each load-bearing fact resolves to a named source or to the documented cost model. motoinsure does not employ licensed agents or hold any insurance license, and it does not present its pages as the work of one.

Update cadence

State regulatory pages are re-checked against their Department of Insurance source quarterly, and the file’s lastReviewedDate is bumped whether or not the rule changed — a bumped date with no rule change is the signal that the page was re-verified. Cost figures are re-checked against the source average whenever the underlying published data is refreshed, and at least once per cost cluster per year. Trust pages — this one, the funding disclosure, and the about page — are reviewed whenever the posture they describe changes, with the review date stamped at the top.

What we do not do

The four lines that define the posture, plainly:

motoinsure is not a licensed insurance broker, agent, or carrier. Everything here is general information about motorcycle insurance, not insurance, legal, or financial advice for a specific rider. Nothing on the site is a quote, a binder, or an offer of coverage — a rider who needs an actual policy should contact a licensed agent or the carrier directly, and a rider whose situation is unusual should confirm any rule with their state’s department of insurance before acting on it. How the site is funded, and the fact that it carries no affiliate links or ads, is on the funding disclosure page.

Limits and corrections

If a rule, range, or figure on motoinsure is wrong or out of date, the fastest correction path is to email corrections@motoinsure.example with the URL of the page and the source for the corrected fact. A correction with a primary-source citation is acted on within the next weekly publish window; a correction without a source is reviewed against the original source in the next quarterly pass for that cluster.

motoinsure does not retroactively rewrite a page silently after a correction. When a fact changes, the page’s lastReviewedDate is bumped and the change is noted at the bottom of the page if the fact was load-bearing for any conclusion above it.

Last reviewed

2026-06-04.