Breakdown cover

[Steve_M]

I had a couple of days riding with friends from Norfolk last weekend. There were two breakdowns among the ten bikes over the course of a week. A clutch cable broke on a 58 plate Honda Hornet on Monday. He called his breakdown service to recover the bike to get it to a garage and they refused as “the bike is over 15 years old”.

 

Another found oil was leaking from the driveshaft of his BMW R1200RS, requiring recovery back home. They were recovered from Gretna  by the AA using their “Relay” service - it took well over 24hrs of travel and numerous false starts.

 

Two instances that have made me wonder if my cover is good enough. I’m with Green Flag - I’ll be checking their Service Levels and terms ahead of my next trip abroad. 

 

Has anyone any experience of how good Green Flag is?

[daveinlim]

I've no experience with green flag. But something to check is break down cover and accident cover. My AA and Rac policy would tow me if I broke down but wanted £200 to tow me after an accident. 

[Nick the wanderer]

This is where you really have to read the terms and conditions. 

Think about what you really need in the event of a breakdown or accident and make sure it says it in your policy. No good just going for the cheapest if it doesn't cover you. ie age of vehicle.

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

Green flag used to use local franchises for roadside assistance.  That may still be the case. I only had to use them once and it was OK. 

 

But I'm with GEM now after a recommendation on here. I've not had to use them but their system and prices are good. 

[Gerontious]

1 hour ago, Mississippi Bullfrog said:

But I'm with GEM now after a recommendation on here. I've not had to use them but their system and prices are good. 

 

As far as I can tell - GEM is UK only. and if you want to add European to it then it has to be bought as an additional package. without going through the quote process - which only seems to be available once you have bought a GEM package its impossible to know if its cost effective.

 

My Green Flag was £50 last year - bought via a comparison site. this year it has risen to £61.

 

I looked at roadside quite carefully when I needed to buy it, due to a change in insurer. And green flag seemed to be the consensus choice for UK/EU. not a bad report on the touring groups. Its not available to everyone though as they have a maximum bike age in place.

 

The best experience with roadside Ive ever has was when I had my old GS and broke down in Austria. the roadside was provided by Carole Nash and they care not about the bikes age. They went far beyond what I was expecting and tracked down a dealership that had a donor bike with the part I needed - so the bike was fixed same day. Obviously this was in their interest as the cost of repatriation and everything that goes along with that was quite high.

Edited June 1, 2024 by Gerontious

[Pie man]

We have Green Flag with the bank, Cant be any worse than the RAC. Took them over 10hrs to pick my bike up, sending several have a go technicians after my repeated calls to say it needs to be picked up and for the umpteenth time its a bloody motorcycle. 

 

That reminds me, I need to purchase a cable kit. Good to have  along side with the puncture kit

[Gerontious]

1 minute ago, Pie man said:

We have Green Flag with the bank, Cant be any worse than the RAC. Took them over 10hrs to pick my bike up, sending several have a go technicians after my repeated calls to say it needs to be picked up and for the umpteenth time its a bloody motorcycle. 

 

That reminds me, I need to purchase a cable kit. Good to have  along side with the puncture kit

 

The RAC and particularly the AA do not have a great rep amongst euro travellers.

[Fiddlesticks]

I'm with Start Rescue Personal Cover. Used them once - no complaints.

 

*Personal cover covers you when travelling in cars, motorcycles and vans of any age as a driver or passenger.

[S-Westerly]

10 hours ago, Gerontious said:

 

The RAC and particularly the AA do not have a great rep amongst euro travellers.

Nor anywhere else!

[JRH]

On 01/06/2024 at 10:03, Steve_M said:

I had a couple of days riding with friends from Norfolk last weekend. There were two breakdowns among the ten bikes over the course of a week. A clutch cable broke on a 58 plate Honda Hornet on Monday. He called his breakdown service to recover the bike to get it to a garage and they refused as “the bike is over 15 years old”.

 

Another found oil was leaking from the driveshaft of his BMW R1200RS, requiring recovery back home. They were recovered from Gretna  by the AA using their “Relay” service - it took well over 24hrs of travel and numerous false starts.

 

Two instances that have made me wonder if my cover is good enough. I’m with Green Flag - I’ll be checking their Service Levels and terms ahead of my next trip abroad. 

 

Has anyone any experience of how good Green Flag is?

I am with green flag through the Caravan club. It covers 2 cars, motorbike and caravan. Had to use it twice for car only related issues and no problems.

The reason for me using green flag is NO restrictions on caravan or motor home size and weight (AA & RAC have size & weight limits) green flag have no age limits on vehicles for cover in the UK ( they take my money for an 08 plate bike). Maybe different in Europe. 
Green flag also has personal only cover but I think that only covers vehicles up to 16 years of age.

[angrybear]

If it's free cover from the bank it will be basic, I've used the green flag on a car, but I was towing so they wouldn't recover me, but the guy  (with my help) spotted the fault bypassed it, & the bodge got me home.

I've used the bike recovery from Carol Nash in the past, which was excellent when a vacuum pipe to the fuel tap split, & is one of the reasons I've gone back to CN insurance.

I spent 20 years with the RAC,  3 bike callouts, all had long waits, all insisted on sending a mechanic first, who all then said "we don't work on bikes we only recover them" so another long wait for recovery, 2 were fine but the 3rd, a local garage, then crashed on the journey home on the M5 .

[JRH]

18 minutes ago, angrybear said:

If it's free cover from the bank it will be basic, I've used the green flag on a car, but I was towing so they wouldn't recover me, but the guy  (with my help) spotted the fault bypassed it, & the bodge got me home.

I've used the bike recovery from Carol Nash in the past, which was excellent when a vacuum pipe to the fuel tap split, & is one of the reasons I've gone back to CN insurance.

I spent 20 years with the RAC,  3 bike callouts, all had long waits, all insisted on sending a mechanic first, who all then said "we don't work on bikes we only recover them" so another long wait for recovery, 2 were fine but the 3rd, a local garage, then crashed on the journey home on the M5 .

Green flag will cover trailers if you opt for that. My package covers caravans and dual recovery. Ie. Breakdown on the way to site, get recovered there. Then if the car can not be fixed at the holiday area, get recovered back to home.

[angrybear]

On 03/06/2024 at 15:22, JRH said:

Green flag will cover trailers if you opt for that. My package covers caravans and dual recovery. Ie. Breakdown on the way to site, get recovered there. Then if the car can not be fixed at the holiday area, get recovered back to home.

As I said it was the free cover from the bank, so I had no choice what was included, just the most basic roadside with up to 20 miles recovery.

[RideWithStyles]

at least is sorta free. cover for the unexpected if you generally don't do much traveling, most of the time if its abit further they can take you further at a additional cost to yourself but most of the time its still cheaper than if you did it as a non member paying customer.