Recommend a breakdown recovery service

[dern]

Can anyone recommend a breakdown recovery service specifically based on successful and timely recovery or repair of bikes and *not* cars?

Specifically can anyone recommend a breakdown recovery service that isn't the bastard rac who left me at Hilton services for 8 f*cking hours before admitting they couldn't recover me and that they had to get a taxi to get me and take me to a local hotel where I finally got to bed gone 1am having broken down at 5pm. According to the bike mechanic from a local shop who came to see me this morning at 8am they have a policy of only passing the jobs on to bike specialists when they can't get anyone from their pool of contractors who can do bike *and* cars. What this means practically is that instead of phoning a specialist bike mechanic at 5pm who could have got me going in 5 bloody minutes as he did this morning I sat on my arse for 8 hours at a service station (where incidentally I got threatened with an £80 parking fine if I didn't fork out £8 quid for a parking ticket that won't affix to a bike) and then get 5 hours sleep in a poxy hotel in birmingham wrecking my bloody weekend. Bastards.

Thanks for listening and any recommendations would be very welcome.

Cheers,

Mark

[Andy OH]

My breakdown & recovery is with Europ Assistance and costs me £50 a year. I've had no problems at all with them apart from one little incident which resulted in them giving me £40 compensation which I was happy with. The cover is for UK & Europe.

[dern]

Cheers Andy.

No one else broken down on a bike recently and used a recovery service?

Has anyone else ever seen one of the rac's dedicated bike units that they claim exist?

Thanks,

Mark

[sjtscott]

dern said:

Cheers Andy.

No one else broken down on a bike recently and used a recovery service?

Has anyone else ever seen one of the rac's dedicated bike units that they claim exist?

Thanks,

Mark

Don't expect anything better from the AA, I'll be moving in when my membership is up soon. They totally messed me around when I had an instant front puncture last year.
Thread here
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

I was recommended http://www.ncionline.co.uk/ in that thread, I'm gonna give them a go.

[Momentofmadness]

Britannia Rescue - I've always had excellent service and have used the service more than I care to admit (car and bike).

They use local companies, but then again even the AA/RAC subcontract when busy and I've never waited more than an hour ever! Usually very accommodating, will take you anywhere, not just the nearest approved garage. I've been brought back home and then arranged for onward transmission to the garage of my own choice before - I really can't sing their praises enough.

I believe there have been a few threads on GG about this and I've never heard a bad word against them.

Edited by Momentofmadness on Sunday 17th June 10:25

[dern]

Cheers. The reason I haven't raised this on GG is that the service I receive for the car from the rac is generally excellent. The first person to any breakdown from the rac is generally an rac staffer and if they can't get the car going then they have the equipment to recover me or equipment isn't that far away.

This isn't the case for bikes. On friday the rac guy got to me within 20 minutes which is excellent. However it was a full 15 hours and an overnight (well, 5 hours by the time they got me there) stay in a hotel for a problem that took an experience bike mech 5 minutes to fix. It's this that I find unacceptable and it's specific bike related recommendations that I'm after.

Regards,

Mark

[simonrockman]

The RAC quoted me two hours to turn up yesterday. When I phoned after two hours they then quoted another 60 to 75 mins. I spoke to a supervisor and they've extended my membership by six months for free.

AA quoted two hours and took two hours 15 mins.

Both rubbish, but at least theAA texted before the two hours to say when they would be there and they were.

Simon

[biker's nemesis]

Green Flag, got me home within Three hours, bike was not fixable.

[sjtscott]

dern said:

Cheers. The reason I haven't raised this on GG is that the service I receive for the car from the rac is generally excellent. The first person to any breakdown from the rac is generally an rac staffer and if they can't get the car going then they have the equipment to recover me or equipment isn't that far away.

This isn't the case for bikes. On friday the rac guy got to me within 20 minutes which is excellent. However it was a full 15 hours and an overnight (well, 5 hours by the time they got me there) stay in a hotel for a problem that took an experience bike mech 5 minutes to fix. It's this that I find unacceptable and it's specific bike related recommendations that I'm after.

Regards,

Mark

Totally agree the major breakdown companies tend to do a good job on cars and say they will cover bikes to get the business only to deliver poor performance for bike callouts. I've had v similar good experiences with the AA for cars, I used them recently to sort a naff battery on a mates car I was looking after when he was out of the country, turned up within 30mins and sorted it. AA seems to not want to send out recovery trucks at ALL costs esp for bikes it seems eventually they relectantly do.
I was a member of the RAC for years when I only had cars before my biking days, made use of them many times with my student funded heaps.

This is the reason that I want to try out NCI as they state they have a specific bike policy developed in conjunction with MCN. Does this not make sense to try as well?
Looking at their site they will do you a personal cover option that will cover any vehicle be it bike or car. Also adding at home and optional recovery (vandalism, accidents) that the AA won't cover with out charging its still cheaper than I've been paying each year at the AA.

[dern]

sjtscott said:

This is the reason that I want to try out NCI as they state they have a specific bike policy developed in conjunction with MCN. Does this not make sense to try as well?
Looking at their site they will do you a personal cover option that will cover any vehicle be it bike or car. Also adding at home and optional recovery (vandalism, accidents) that the AA won't cover with out charging its still cheaper than I've been paying each year at the AA.

I had a quick look before the kids took me out for the day but I'll have a closer look later. Unfortunately we have to cover 2 cars and me and the wife so it'll take some jigging about. Can't even remember what I pay the rac so I've requested a breakdown of what I pay against what I get from them.

Cheers,

Mark

[Momentofmadness]

Haven't read the whole thread but Britannia Resucue also recover you in the event of a accident - I'm sure the big two don't.

[The T Boy]

I get breakdown cover as part of my insurance and it costs something stupid like £16 for the year. It is specific bike cover and I've only had to use them once when I managed to snap my gear lever off. The guy turned up within half an hour with a proper enclosed bike transporter, took it to the dealers 5 miles away (the only place that had the part in stock) and it was fixed in about 30 minutes by their mechanic.

I can't for the life of me remember what they're called but the policy is via Motorcycle Direct. I've got a credit card type thingy with all the details on conveniently stored under my seat so will have a look when I leave for home.

T

[natnokes]

A RAC guy arrived promptly when my bike had broken down, his first question was to ask me what I thought was wrong with it, to then ignore my answer and suggest I had run out of fuel (even though you could hear there was still loads of fuel in the tank). Helpful hey? I'd be interested to hear about the breakdown for £16 - I get mine with H&R now but it cost me about fifty quid at least.....

[Busamav]

Log on to any Ducati forum , they will be able to give you chapter and verse

[biker's nemesis]

Busamav said:

Log on to any Ducati forum , they will be able to give you chapter and verse

[speed8]

I used Vehicle Rescue Direct for a Euro Trip who sent out a loader to me in Slovenia to get me to the nearest Triumph knowledgable mechanics. Only hiccup was that they thought I was in Czech Republic and tried to send a loader from there. After that was sorted out they got someone to me fairly quick.