AA assistance

[LB]

A couple of people have mentioned recently that they think the AA is useless for bike call-outs (I can't find the thread hence this new one). Just thought I'd share two instances I've been involved with. Note that both these instances involved AA Plus (an extra $45/year to "regular" membership)

First one was on my Beemer, just over 12 months ago. A group of us doing a long weekend ride, Sunday mid-day halfway down the Paraparas, my bike shat itself. No way was it going anywhere under its own steam. As luck would have it, it had happened just 500m north of the one and only shop between Raetihi and Upkongaro (sp?). No cell phone coverage whatsoever, but the shop has a payphone. To cut a long story short, the AA sent a towie with a ute and tiedowns from Wanganui, and because I'm an AA Plus member the towie took me and my bike right home to my garage, all at no cost to me. I went in the cab with the towie (he was cute, but that's another story!) but had I been Dad/Mum/Kids the AA would have paid for a rental car for up to three days, plus motel accomm for up to three days (presumably you'd only need this if you still had some days of a holiday to go, whereas I was on my way home)

Turns out the clutch had disintegrated - but it was all fixed for me under warranty and I had the bike back within four weeks.

Second instance. 27th December 2003, in Wanganui. We'd stayed after the racing in a motel with a friend with a Virago. She found on the mng of the 27th that lost her keys somehow over Boxing day! She's an AA Plus member too. tried the Police, going back to the track to look, etc etc but no keys. Rang the AA, they arranged for a locksmith to come to the motel, remove the barrel (we didn't have the tools to do that ourselves) and cut a couple of new keys. All in less than an hour and a half.

So I only have good things to say about the AA, and I would not be without AA Plus cover ever again.

[James Deuce]

I'm glad it worked for you. They'll never get another cent from me.

Jim2

[What?]

Only good experiences with AA here. Have also found that they tend to believe what you tell them your problem is on the phone, whereas when playing broken-down-car-driver they send an expert out to diagnose your problem before calling a towie...

[Andrew]

Yes the AA is only worth it when you upgrade to AA plus. I was unfortunate in that when I had a breakdown and didn't have AA plus. Cost me $90 to get the bike home and two trips to go up and fix it .

[Slim]

Only good experiences with AA here. Have also found that they tend to believe what you tell them your problem is on the phone, whereas when playing broken-down-car-driver they send an expert out to diagnose your problem before calling a towie...

They didn't tend to believe me, but that might just be because I'm female.


And it must be something about Wanganui, because my bike wouldn't start after the Boxing Day racing in 1999. The AA man showed up, we determined that the battery was dead and definitely not charging and decided that jump starting it so I could carry on to Masterton probably wasn't the best idea, so he arranged for the local towee to pick up the bike in a van (good call) and drop it off to the Honda shop in the morning, while the c@r rental agency found me a little four door car so I could carry on to Masterton & then return to pick up my bike when it was fixed. (I'm an AA Plus member too )


Probably the best thing about the AA membership is that they'll show up to whatever vehicle you're in, whether you're the owner, the driver or not.

The "Plus" option is definitely a good call if you spend a lot of time more than 100kms from home.

[LB]

They didn't tend to believe me, but that might just be because I'm female.

And it must be something about Wanganui, because my bike wouldn't start after the Boxing Day racing in 1999. The AA man showed up, we determined that the battery was dead and definitely not charging and decided that jump starting it so I could carry on to Masterton probably wasn't the best idea, so he arranged for the local towee to pick up the bike in a van (good call) and drop it off to the Honda shop in the morning, while the c@r rental agency found me a little four door car so I could carry on to Masterton & then return to pick up my bike when it was fixed. (I'm an AA Plus member too )

I had no problem with them believing my problem was serious - in fact they didn't really quiz me about what was wrong at all, I just said it was terminal and that was that.

The Wanganui towies are a good lot, the guy who picked me up and brought me back home was really great, we had a great time.

What was wrong with the bike? Was it electrical? (yuk, hate electrics!)

[Slim]

What was wrong with the bike? Was it electrical? (yuk, hate electrics!)

Rectifier or Stator or something like that which charges the battery. The standard Honda part is a small, sealed unit that runs so hot that it's pretty much designed to fail. At $400 for a new Honda one, the mechanic suggested getting an older style unit which is made of metal & has cooling fins instead for a fraction of the price. The beauty is that it can actually be fixed if it fails in the future.

The head mechanic at the Wanganui Honda shop is a top bloke too and knows his stuff. And it's not really a hardship to enjoy a ride down to Wanganui whenever my bike needs a service.

[inlinefour]

A couple of people have mentioned recently that they think the AA is useless for bike call-outs (I can't find the thread hence this new one). Just thought I'd share two instances I've been involved with. Note that both these instances involved AA Plus (an extra $45/year to "regular" membership)

First one was on my Beemer, just over 12 months ago. A group of us doing a long weekend ride, Sunday mid-day halfway down the Paraparas, my bike shat itself. No way was it going anywhere under its own steam. As luck would have it, it had happened just 500m north of the one and only shop between Raetihi and Upkongaro (sp?). No cell phone coverage whatsoever, but the shop has a payphone. To cut a long story short, the AA sent a towie with a ute and tiedowns from Wanganui, and because I'm an AA Plus member the towie took me and my bike right home to my garage, all at no cost to me. I went in the cab with the towie (he was cute, but that's another story!) but had I been Dad/Mum/Kids the AA would have paid for a rental car for up to three days, plus motel accomm for up to three days (presumably you'd only need this if you still had some days of a holiday to go, whereas I was on my way home)

Turns out the clutch had disintegrated - but it was all fixed for me under warranty and I had the bike back within four weeks.

Second instance. 27th December 2003, in Wanganui. We'd stayed after the racing in a motel with a friend with a Virago. She found on the mng of the 27th that lost her keys somehow over Boxing day! She's an AA Plus member too. tried the Police, going back to the track to look, etc etc but no keys. Rang the AA, they arranged for a locksmith to come to the motel, remove the barrel (we didn't have the tools to do that ourselves) and cut a couple of new keys. All in less than an hour and a half.

So I only have good things to say about the AA, and I would not be without AA Plus cover ever again.

I think that they are every cent that I pay, not that I've used them yet...