My nan was a proper trailblazer. Her husband died young, and she raised my mum and uncle on her own whist working full time.
She also rode a motorcycle and there are photos of my mum and uncle as kids sitting in a sidecar. My nan’s the reason I got into biking, and for more than 25 years we’d regularly ride together.
She died recently and as a tribute I wanted to ride her old Enfield 350 to her funeral with a convoy of our friends. Without doubt, she would have given me permission to ride her bike on her insurance policy; or allow me to ride it via my own. However, unless she is going to speak to me from “the other side” she can’t do that. So, my question is can I legally ride her bike to her funeral?
Answer
Firstly, you have my sincere condolences. Losing a family member is always difficult. Regarding your particular question, my heart wants to say you should ride it, but my legal head says no and there are alarm bells ringing. Do not assume you are insured without looking carefully at the policies (do not just rely on the insurance company call handler). Many terminate on the death of the policy holder, and this may leave the bike uninsured and/or another rider uninsured if they ride it. Further, if you wanted to ride the bike third party by way of your own policy, it usually states the owner of the other bike must give permission for you to do that. Clearly, your nan can’t do that and it will need to be the “new owner” after the bike passes in accordance with her Will.
The general gist is that when someone dies you are meant to tell the DVLA. Ultimately, the Enfield will pass to the correct person under the Will at which time the V5 will need to be sorted, and the bike can be insured etc. If you can get all this done before the funeral, then no problem. If you can’t and you were involved in an accident whilst riding the bike, I could see all kinds of issues either with the police and/or an insurer trying to unpick it.
Whilst I don’t want to scare you, I had a client a few years ago whose insurer had to pay out £130,000 to someone he hit. The insurer was then seeking that money back from my client for failing to comply with the policy and they had a strong case. I wouldn’t want+- you to end up in the same position, especially as your intention is entirely honourable.
Andrew Prendergast
Motorcycle Sport & Leisure – December 2025