Breakdown/Recovery.......?

[CJ.OK]

Just realised the 12 month free recovery has run out on my 2006 Kawasaki 636R....

Can anyone recommend a good/well priced recovery service for bikes and how much should i be paying?

[Twit]

Before you do anything check with your insurance co as many of them chuck recovery etc in with insurance. I get mine through my insurer and it was great when I had to use it!

[viper123]

I have just joined the AA it covers me as a rider or any vehicle im in and that cost me 67 pounds for the year with rescue and relay to any garage or my house

[Steve11]

Do you have cover for your car?

Most policies cover a bike as well although you may have to check as some only cover you up to 600cc.

[dern]

To my cost I found that the RAC (and I understand the AA have the same policy) are not all they're cracked up to be for bikes. We have a car policy and they've been pretty good on the car and I assumed I'd get the same cover for the bike. The problem comes with their policy of using subcontractors. What happens is that they have to call all of their subcontractors that do cars *and* bikes before they call the ones that only do bikes. I guess it's part of the deal that the car/bike boys sign up to, a sweetener if you like. Anyway, what that means is that the first person you see when you call them out is a standard RAC guy (unless you call in with a puncture in which case you'll just get recovered). The standard RAC guy will probably know a lot more about cars than bikes so won't be able to get you going as well as a bike shop mechanic. The next step is that they'll call all their car/bike people. The chances are that they will simply recover you. What this means in the best case (I'll come to the worst in a minute) is that instead of you getting fixed and continuing on it's much more likely that you'll get recovered to a garage or home. If you're on your way somewhere then this will be inconvenient and in the case of a simple fix than a bike mechanic could sort out by the roadside it'll be an unnecessary trip home.

An illustration of the worst case: A couple of months ago I was heading for Lancaster from Newbury and had stopped at the Hilton services north of Birmingham. It was the weekend of the first of the really bad rain. I went for a piss and then tried to disarm the bikes alarm. I then found out the alarm fob was full of water. I emptied it and dried it under the hand driers but it was fried. I call the RAC and they send a guy who had a good go but was unsuccessful. They then call a truck to recover me to Newbury where I'd have picked up the car (or the spare fob if it worked) and headed back up north again as I had time. This was all at about 5pm. At midnight they finally found out that none of their car/bike boys couldn't recover me because they were too busy. They then call a bike shop who explained that he couldn't come out but fixing the problem was relatively simple and that if they had called him at 5pm he would have been there in 10 minutes and would have me on my way. Sounded like a bold claim but I'd been there 7 hours and understood completely that he couldn't come out at that time of night. It wasn't his fault. The RAC put me up in a hotel and I met the same bike guy at 8am and as good as his word he bypassed the alarm in 10 minutes and I was running again. I then drove home the weekend a washout and me utterly knackered from spending 8 hours at the services and 6 in a hotel (by the time a taxi collected me). If they had called the bike guy first I'd have been on my way having only lost an hour.

There are specialist bike companies that provide a service to a broker (the name escapes me but a google will find it) such that you get a call out service tailored for bikes with bike mechanics.

There are also car recovery firms that only charge a fee of £30 odd for a year. With these guys you pay for your recover that they organise by credit card, keep the receipt and claim back the whole charge. They're obviously relying on the fact that some people won't claim for whatever reason using the same business model as the cashback phone deals you can get. If you're smart and claim back properly then your years membership will cost you £30 odd.

After 15 years with the RAC I'm going to let my membership expire (they won't let me cancel it and refund the unused money paid) and then join one of each of the above. I'll get the same cover on paper but hopefully a much more targeted cover for the bike and I'll be better off financially.

I personally wouldn't recommend the RAC or the AA if you want bike cover.

Regards,

Mark

Edited by dern on Friday 3rd August 22:02

[sjtscott]

Just joined nci as recommended by a number of bikers on this forum. Have yet to use it in anger but I guess I'll find out at some point.
http://www.ncionline.co.uk/
I've got personal cover which covers me for my bike and car at home and they will recover me from an accident too as I selected this option too. It was cheaper than my equivalent AA renewal too. Note AA will NOT recover you from an accident so its even better value.

AA got dumped at the end of july (when my membership was up) for the front puncture farce where they showed their true level of incompetence at dealing with bikes since stopping using SOS motorcycles for London bike jobs.
Full incompetence detailed here along with nci recommendation

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[MTBR]

Slightly off topic, but it’s important not to ignore the valuable help the biking community provides to it’s own. On each of the three occasions I have been stranded at the road side, it has been other riders who have helped me out, not the commercial breakdown companies.

I almost always stop to see if I can help a stranded biker, I have even taken crashed bikes home on my trailer (I live at the end of a popular Sunday ride out route) on one occasion all the other rider needed was the loan of a cell phone because his was out of charge.

Six or seven years ago, I was stranded in Cavaillon (nr Avignon) with a broken fuel line inside the fuel tank on my Ducati and a local motocross rider took me and my bike all the way to the Ducati dealer in Toulon in his van.

On another occasion I had a puncture on the M3 near chandlers Ford on a Sunday morning. The recovery people were talking about “maybe” 5hours wait, when someone stopped in his car. He called a mate who owned a bike shop. This bloke then came and collected me and my bike, took me to his shop, had the correct tire in stock, fitted it and sent me on my way all within about an hour and a half.

When you have received help like this, it’s not too much trouble to stop and help others.

[dern]

MTBR said:

Slightly off topic, but it’s important not to ignore the valuable help the biking community provides to it’s own. On each of the three occasions I have been stranded at the road side, it has been other riders who have helped me out, not the commercial breakdown companies.

I almost always stop to see if I can help a stranded biker, I have even taken crashed bikes home on my trailer (I live at the end of a popular Sunday ride out route) on one occasion all the other rider needed was the loan of a cell phone because his was out of charge.

Six or seven years ago, I was stranded in Cavaillon (nr Avignon) with a broken fuel line inside the fuel tank on my Ducati and a local motocross rider took me and my bike all the way to the Ducati dealer in Toulon in his van.

On another occasion I had a puncture on the M3 near chandlers Ford on a Sunday morning. The recovery people were talking about “maybe” 5hours wait, when someone stopped in his car. He called a mate who owned a bike shop. This bloke then came and collected me and my bike, took me to his shop, had the correct tire in stock, fitted it and sent me on my way all within about an hour and a half.

When you have received help like this, it’s not too much trouble to stop and help others.

I don't think anyone ignores it but it's not something you actually want to rely on.

[wolf1]

dern said:

To my cost I found that the RAC (and I understand the AA have the same policy) are not all they're cracked up to be for bikes.

Slightly wrong about the AA. A large amount of the patrols carry a bike trailer in the back of their van (nifty little number that dissasembles to fit in a small space) and there is an adaption kit under development to allow the later vans with the winch out towing dolly to be able to do the same.

[dern]

wolf1 said:

dern said:

To my cost I found that the RAC (and I understand the AA have the same policy) are not all they're cracked up to be for bikes.

Slightly wrong about the AA. A large amount of the patrols carry a bike trailer in the back of their van (nifty little number that dissasembles to fit in a small space) and there is an adaption kit under development to allow the later vans with the winch out towing dolly to be able to do the same.

That doesn't affect the policy where they have to call all their local contractors who recover cars *and* bikes before they call the bike only boys... I was told that by the bike guy who bypassed my alarm who does work for both. Also the RAC have a 'large number' of bike recovery trailers according to them. However, what a 'large number' means I don't know... I've never seen one on any of the occasions I've called them out and I've never seen a bike on one either on the back of an RAC or AA van.

Edited by dern on Sunday 5th August 20:55

[CJ.OK]

Thanks for the advice guys.... i'll check whether my car cover (AA) covers it in the first instance and secondly whether my bike insurance has it as an add on.