If you own a motorcycle, particularly if it's a large one, then no doubt you're familiar with the cost of insurance in Canada.

It's expensive. For most riders, after the price of the bike itself, it's the biggest outlay of cash they'll make.

Says one insurance broker: "The plain fact is that motorcycle insurance is costly because, no matter who's to blame for a claim, the bike operator usually ends up seriously hurt or dead."

As well, motorcycle rates are not dependent upon the operator's previous insurance history; no "safe driver" discount here.

And in Ontario, where premiums are among the highest in Canada, there is also "no fault" motorcycle insurance, sometimes known as the Facility Association, which means your insurance provider pays for all claims, whether you're at fault or not.

Treatment for motorcycle injuries in Ontario are also paid for by the auto insurer or private insurance plans, not through the provincial health plan, so high-risk riders can expect no joy if they are forced to turn to the Facility Association.

In terms of dollars and cents, a rider that's over 30 and has been licensed for a while with a clean record, riding a typical large-displacement cruiser, can expect to pay between $800 to $1,200 per year for a decent insurance package, including comprehensive coverage (fire, theft, and vandalism) and collision.

But if you're a younger male rider and your mount of choice is a sport bike, you can look forward to paying four or five times that amount, depending upon your record. Unless he's independently wealthy, any male under 25 with a couple of speeding tickets to his name can basically forget about insuring a large-displacement motorcycle in Ontario.

Bike insurance in Ontario is grouped in with automobile insurance and the companies are mandated to offer higher levels of coverage than most other North American cities. Ontario also has the highest concentration of population in Canada, which has an impact on the number of claims.

Sport bikes are particularly pricey to insure because, to put it bluntly, when they're involved in an accident, the results are usually fatal or involve ghastly injuries.

Also, all bikes, regardless of category, are expensive to repair. If the damage is fairly extensive, they're just written off, with the insurance company paying the replacement value.

According to Mike Babineau of RidersPlus Insurance, a brokerage firm specializing in motorcycles and recreational vehicles, young male riders per se aren't the problem unless you give them super sport bikes.

Rates for standard motorcycles (cruisers, tour and small-displacement bikes, etc.) in this age category are still relatively quite reasonable. Unfortunately, a lot of young males come out of a weekend training course on a 125-cc bike and feel they are eligible to ride anything they want.

And, more often than not, what they want are asphalt-ripping, corner-devouring rockets like the Honda CBR, Suzuki GSX-R and Kawasaki Ninja.

"It has been proven that super sport motorcycles have carried terrible loss ratios every year," Babineau says. "The only difference is that now they have to stand on their own statistics instead of being grouped in with everyone else.

"The standard market will no longer be subsidizing sport bikes. In the long run, we expect to see rates for the standard market stabilize and possibly fall with better returns forecast."

The other important factor to consider about bikes is they are eminently theft-worthy. A couple of stout lads can make off with a Harley-Davidson in seconds, and, when the parts are sold off, some Harley engines alone are worth $5,000 or $10,000. Career thieves and scofflaws find that pretty hard to resist.

(Common wisdom has it that if you see some yobbos manhandling your ride into the back of a pickup truck, let them be, unless you're armed or want a beating. In the U.K., it's even worse. Villains have been known to follow a rider by car and when pulled over for gas or a burger, jump out and take the bike by force.)

There are a couple of things you can do mitigate the situation.

Lee Romanov of InsuranceHotline.com, a Web-based insurance consultancy and brokerage firm, suggests shopping around.

"There can be a difference of up to 400 per cent between the highest and lowest rates," he says.

You can also trim some money off your insurance bill if you put your car and home insurance through the same company. "This can save you up to 10 per cent, and the company will usually insure your bike as well," Romanov says.

Or, you could always consider getting a smaller motorcycle.

Nah.