Breakdown cover

I'm looking at getting some cover ready for my trip down to Peterborough this weekend.
I've done the comparisons etc but there seems to be a lot of companies out there that cover bikes now.
Are they all same thing and should I just go for the cheapest? Or is it like insurance and there are companies to avoid?
Any help would be great.
thanks

Check your insurance, you may already have breakdown & recovery in the policy. Carole Nash, Bennetts & MCE do for sure.

If you do opt for an independent, check that they do motorcycle specific cover.

I have breakdown cover with my bank account. Have used it in anger as well.

Haha and how do you go about using it in anger then dave?

And oldcat, I'm with bikesure and don't think they supplied cover. My insurance is up for renewal next month too so it's not worth trying to add it now.

I used it when my rear bearing collapsed on me on the Thundercat
I think it's the person thats covered not the vehicle so it shouldn't matter car or bike.
Even if it's not your vehicle, as long as your present at the breakdown and make the call they will recover you.
Was the AA who recovered me.

Think it depends on the cover, some will cover the person irrespective of the vehicle whilst others are specific.

I'm sure my Carole Nash embedded cover is for the bike only. I've also got Yamaha Assist (RAC) which is supplied by Yamaha (bundled in with a new bike purchase), the policy states that it is only for that specific bike.

The only ones I've successfully had come to my rescue have been the AA and the RAC, all cover was done via my bike insurance either as included or an add on. There was once whilst I was with MCE and needed help with a puncture and Equity Red Star had no record of my policy

I use AA which covers me and my partner on/in any vehicle, plus it gives me on-going travel (courtesy car) if needed. Which for £18 per month is great value as the on-going travel certainly saved me a couple of times.

I have found Green Flag to be very good with bikes as they invest in the equipment (exprienced through 3rd party who hit my bike and GF recovered it), whereas AA don't seem to have a lot and I have had to complain and get compensation from AA once after a 9 hour long recovery!!

If Green Flag provide the same cover i.e. on-going travel, then I may well be going with them next time.

We have an RAC joint policy which is person specific, I.e cover of you are in or on the vehicle which costs about £130 a yr and is home start, onward travel etc. also through my bike insurer, Carole Nash full UK and European breakdown cover is included. The euro aspect is especially important for me as I do travel abroad on the bike and it's worth £60 a year as that's what European costs as a standalone policy. Do check the policy carefully if you opt for cheaper cover as not all cover bikes and a lot of the cheaper providers farm the jobs out to 3rd parties in the event of you claiming, for example if breakdown in the sticks farmer Giles could rock up to recover you on the back of his tractor!!

Thanks guys, so sounds like the usual suspects are the ones to go for then. I'll be sure to check everything with a fine tooth comb. Pain in the Arse really as it's only for this trip.
My insurance is up next month so I could have just got it with the renewal but hey ho, that's sods law I suppose lol

If it's for only 1 trip, maybe check with the companies if they will do a call out policy, if you need them to come out some will charge a call out fee. Will be more expensive if you do call them, but if you don't there won't be a charge. I guess you are looking at this as a piece of mind rather than expecting a problem. Then when you renew you can take out a 12 month policy.

Yeah its just a precaution. One of my friends clutch cable snapped on him in middle of nowhere the other week and I'd it wasn't for his aa cover he would have had a bludy long walk back so got me thinking.
I'll look into that call out thingy, sounds perfect to be honest

...he could have ridden it home without the clutch

Really? How? It was too heavy to pull the cable and wouldn't it cut out every time you slow down?
It's never happened to me so I've never tried it but I already know it'd be a disaster. Apparently the AA guy said it was the no.1 reason for motorbike callouts. They just made him one in the back of the van, then again he only rides a bandit so it's not hard to replace.
The 2 years worth of plastic bits and bolts I'd probably have to remove from the cat would make matters worse lol

(Disclaimer...... I have only been riding a few years so of this is a major newb moment then I'm chalking it up to inexperience haha)

It's not easy I'll say that. But it involves skillful use of revving and braking at the same time to prevent stalling... which could lead to serious wheeling on take off

The Thundercat is pretty bullet proof, but things can happen to any bike.

I've racked well over 100 000 miles on 'Cats and have only called for help for punctures. Did have one die on me on the M1, turned out to be a twisted fuel pipe and as long as I didn't go nuts it was OK. A few speedo cables and pick up drives broke  and the bike DBD had the bearing issue was once mine and it did it to me too, oh and a coil pack died after a trip to Scotland, but it waited till I got home before it went. This over 8 years and some mileage, so I wouldn't be too concerned about your trip.

Thanks steve that's reassuring but as I've mentioned earlier there is that sods law thing that seems to plague me and I'm sure as hell not as lucky as you haha

I work part time for an independent recovery firm. The 2 worst organisations for lateness/non arrival are the AA and RAC.

I am insured with mce and have breakdown as part of my policy, which is with RAC, but it is for road side and will take you to a garage within 10 miles any further you have to pay an extra charge per mile, because of that I also have AA roadside recovery which I pay £11pm for, and will take me to any destination I choose, if I am within 10 miles from home I call RAC, but the biggest problem I have had with both company's, if the problem involved taking the bike apart/ removal of fairings to fix, they would not do any work, due to possible damage /scratches to paint, and not wanting to be sued for damages. so they just call me a truck and recover me, so from my experience unless it's a puncture there taking me home. AMD both company's sub contract so you could still get farmer Giles turn up

They other problem I see is not many of then know about bikes, one example that sticks out in my head is:
I had a gpz500 twin, had running problems, would tick over nicely as soon as you excelerate above 2000rpm it would splutter and die, if you left it idling for 10 mins it would rev up to 8000 then cough and die, so he removed the left spark plug cap, engine stayed ticking, put it back on and removed the right one, it stayed ticking, But "it has to be a problem with your spark plugs, one of them is not working!!" I tried to argue but he couldn't grasp the concept of only two plugs and engine still ticking when you remove them one at a time??? How stupid can you be! Turned out crap had got through into the fuel lines blocking it and only letting fuel dribble through

Apologies, this is a bit late as I've not been on the forum for a while.

Last year I ditched the AA as I got fed up of having to negotiate them down by 50% every renewal. After lookiing around I went with GEM, who seem to get consistently voted the best. They are also one of the cheapest, with two options - either pre-paid or you pay upfront and they reimburse, which is cheaper. As a fully paid-up Yorkshireman I went with the latter, of course.

I did have to use them last autumn, when some numpty I was riding with wiped off my offside footrest and rear brake pedal about 50 miles from home - fortunately without taking my leg off with it. The service couldn't have been better, and they paid the recovery company cost in full, despite it being an accident (AA and RAC don't, officially, recover from accidents, although I know they can be flexible.

bobh wrote:Apologies, this is a bit late as I've not been on the forum for a while.

Noticed you hadn't been around for a while. I was a tad concerned. Welcome back, hope all is well in the bobh world

Thanks for the GEM info . . . for anyone wants to check 'em out, here's a

Well I've now had another experience, mce now use call connect and pass all call outs to independent company's,
I managed to pick up a puncture on my way to work, called them out and they recovered my bike to my tyre guy (without me) which saved me paying for a repair twice, I went to collect my bike the following morning, started her up and saw a damp patch starting to appear on the floor, on close inspection my water return pipe connector had been split where it connects to the engine block, so had to make another call-out ! I'm now in the process of claiming against them for the cost of repair, parts were only £53 but it was also £195 in labour too , they have said they will investigate and get back to me within 4 weeks, will let you know how it goes.

Steve

Dame steve that sucks. Similar thing happened to my sister with her car when ot got smashed in a car park, they returned it beautifully resprayed but with a knackered clutch and a door handle that didn't open the door and when she complained the company had the cheek to come back with "prove it was us"!!
Get sick of paying scumbag companies to piss us about.

And thanks for the reply bob. I managed to get cover through my insurance in the end.
Paid £50 for the top dog roadside/countryside/bedside 'you can't bend it' 'we'll come get ya from mars' type of cover. Which was brilliant since it was 30 quid cheaper than elsewhere and Especially good since they'd dropped my insurance by £100 from year too :-)