The General Motorcycle Insurance Review (2026)

The General is built for the high-risk rider standard carriers turn away — an SR-22 filing on record, a prior lapse, violations that priced you out elsewhere. If a preferred carrier has declined you, The General will often still write the policy and file SR-22 forms as routine business. You pay for that access with a higher premium, and you give up coverage depth: The General's customization menu is thin. For a rider who qualifies for preferred rates, this is the wrong carrier.

Verdict

motoinsure rates The General 3.7 out of 5 — the lowest score in this review, and that needs the right context. The five sub-scores behind it — coverage, pricing, claims, customer service, and financial strength — all trace to our published methodology. The General scores low on coverage breadth and price because it is not competing for the same rider as Progressive or Geico.

A 3.7 is not "avoid The General." It means a clean-record rider with full coverage options at a standard carrier should not pay The General's non-standard pricing for a thin coverage menu. For the rider The General is actually built for — someone who cannot get a standard policy at all — the comparison is not Progressive's 4.6. It is whether they can get covered, legal, and back on the road. On that question The General delivers, and that is the verdict that matters for its intended buyer.

At a glance

Permanent General Assurance Corporation, a Sentry Insurance Group company, underwrites the policy. Sentry Insurance, A Mutual Company, acquired The General in January 2025 ^{[The General, 2026]}. The General was founded in 1963 ^{[The General, 2026]}. AM Best assigns the underwriter an A+ ("Superior") financial-strength rating as of 2025 ^{[AM Best, 2025]} — the second-highest tier, and a reassuring figure given that The General's customers are riders other insurers consider higher risk. A strong rating means the reserves are there to pay claims regardless of the book's risk profile.

Two facts we will not state as settled. The General's motorcycle availability by state is not something we can confirm here — check your state before counting on it. And the NAIC does not publish a motorcycle-specific complaint index; its data folds motorcycle into the broader auto line.

Coverage and options

The General's base policy carries liability as standard. Comprehensive and collision are optional, which is a meaningful structural difference from a carrier like Progressive that bundles them in. For a non-standard rider buying the minimum to get legal and back on the road, a liability-first structure keeps the entry price down. For a rider with a financed bike, that structure is a trap: a lender requires collision and comprehensive, so a financed-bike owner has to add both and should price the full policy, not the liability quote.

The General's coverage menu is the thinnest in this review. Its published motorcycle material lists the standard set — liability, collision, comprehensive, personal injury protection, and uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage — but does not document custom-parts and equipment coverage, gear and luggage coverage, a lay-up option for winter storage, or new-bike total-loss replacement, and it tells riders to check their own policy for whether custom parts are covered at all. Treat any of those as not publicly documented until a rider confirms it directly at quote. A rider who needs any of them should ask directly — and a rider whose bike depends on a deep customization menu should treat the gaps as a clear reason to look elsewhere. The General is built around access for high-risk riders, not coverage depth for custom bikes.

Pricing by rider profile

The General's price sub-score is 3.8, and that is the cost of access. A rider The General accepts after an SR-22, a lapse, or a violation will typically pay more than Progressive or Geico would quote a clean-record rider on the identical bike. That is not a markup for the same product; it is the price of coverage a standard carrier would not extend at all.

The General does offer discounts that pull the figure back down: an MSF-recognized safety course, a multi-policy bundle, good-driver status, and paying in full, with the full motorcycle discount list not something we can confirm here. Stacking what is available is the practical lever a non-standard rider has. Premiums vary heavily by state, bike, and the specific record that sent the rider to a non-standard carrier; treat any single quoted number as a sample, and pull a live quote.

Claims and customer service

The General's claims and customer-service sub-scores sit at 3.6 and 3.7, the lowest pair in this review. The carrier handles claims by phone and online. The score reflects a functional process rather than a high-touch one — consistent with a non-standard book and a leaner service model than the largest national carriers run.

Our claims sub-score draws on The General's overall complaint record and claims structure, not a motorcycle-specific NAIC figure, because that figure does not exist as a separate line. A rider choosing The General is generally choosing it for access, not for a premium service experience, and the score is an honest reflection of that.

Pros and cons

The General's strengths are specific. It writes coverage for high-risk riders other carriers decline, files SR-22 forms as routine business, accepts riders with prior lapses or violations, and is backed by an A+ AM Best rating that holds up despite the risk profile of its book.

The weaknesses are the flip side of the same model. The coverage menu is the thinnest in this review — comprehensive and collision are optional, and custom-parts, gear, lay-up, and total-loss-replacement availability are unconfirmed from published material. Pricing runs above standard carriers for an equivalent bike. Claims and service score the lowest here. And state availability is not something we can confirm — check before relying on it.

Who it's best for and who should skip

The General is the right call for a high-risk rider who has trouble getting coverage, for a rider who needs an SR-22 filing, and for a rider with a prior lapse or violation who needs to get legal again.

Skip The General if you qualify for preferred rates with a standard carrier — paying non-standard pricing for a clean-record profile is money lost. Skip it, too, if your bike depends on a broad customization menu: The General's menu is the thinnest in this review, and a custom or show bike is far better served by a carrier built for it. The honest version of this review names the rider The General is wrong for, because a non-standard, thin-coverage carrier is the most expensive place for a rider who never needed one.

Alternatives

If your record is clean and you are paying non-standard rates by mistake, the standard carriers in motoinsure's provider reviews — Progressive and Geico in particular — will almost certainly quote less for more coverage. If you are a genuine non-standard rider comparing options, Dairyland occupies the same high-risk, SR-22-friendly space as The General and is worth a competing quote — it generally carries a deeper coverage menu. Compare the full lineup and the rating math in motoinsure's provider reviews and the scoring methodology.