Some of you may have seen my recent saga, breaking down in France in November. It turned out to be the regulator/rectifier, so not a roadside repair...
But I learnt a few things that I thought might help others. Some of you will know all this already. If you've got a new bike, maybe you have the makers warranty/assist package, so not all will be relevant. But for others, I hope it's useful.
• I discovered that in France, if you breakdown on the Autoroute, you cannot use your own recovery service - if you're on a paid stretch. You will have to call 112 (in France).
• it's very noisy by the roadside! If you have a helmet intercom to take the call through you'll have a much better chance of hearing the operator!
• when buying breakdown cover, get the very best you can afford - I saved myself about £40-50 not buying the best option from my outfit and I missed out on a contribution towards parts/labour on the fix!
• be ready to drive the whole situation - don't think your recovery outfit is going to take over and do everything!
• if you have to dump the bike for a while or even go home and return to collect it, all your gear, luggage, helmet, tank bag etc. suddenly becomes quite a logistical exercise and it's heavy! Yes, you could hire a car, but you'll need a taxi to get you to the hire office and since Brexit, I suspect taking a hire car to the UK is now either a big headache or expensive or both! Either way, it's actually bit of a big deal having all that gear.
• Repatriation is offered by most policies, but after asking about this, I discovered it is messy. In my case, it was explained to me that the bike would be collected, taken to a depot in France - then later collected again by a UK outfit, put onto a vehicle for transport (I was told possibly with other cars) and dropped off at another depot in the UK side - then collected and transported to me. That all looked like 6 opportunities for further damage to the bike! Not to mention security etc. at each depot... It's a worst case in my opinion
Hope that's of interest/use
. If I think of something else, I'll add it to this post.
Sent from my SM-S908B using Tapatalk
But I learnt a few things that I thought might help others. Some of you will know all this already. If you've got a new bike, maybe you have the makers warranty/assist package, so not all will be relevant. But for others, I hope it's useful.
• I discovered that in France, if you breakdown on the Autoroute, you cannot use your own recovery service - if you're on a paid stretch. You will have to call 112 (in France).
• it's very noisy by the roadside! If you have a helmet intercom to take the call through you'll have a much better chance of hearing the operator!
• when buying breakdown cover, get the very best you can afford - I saved myself about £40-50 not buying the best option from my outfit and I missed out on a contribution towards parts/labour on the fix!
• be ready to drive the whole situation - don't think your recovery outfit is going to take over and do everything!
• if you have to dump the bike for a while or even go home and return to collect it, all your gear, luggage, helmet, tank bag etc. suddenly becomes quite a logistical exercise and it's heavy! Yes, you could hire a car, but you'll need a taxi to get you to the hire office and since Brexit, I suspect taking a hire car to the UK is now either a big headache or expensive or both! Either way, it's actually bit of a big deal having all that gear.
• Repatriation is offered by most policies, but after asking about this, I discovered it is messy. In my case, it was explained to me that the bike would be collected, taken to a depot in France - then later collected again by a UK outfit, put onto a vehicle for transport (I was told possibly with other cars) and dropped off at another depot in the UK side - then collected and transported to me. That all looked like 6 opportunities for further damage to the bike! Not to mention security etc. at each depot... It's a worst case in my opinion
Hope that's of interest/use
. If I think of something else, I'll add it to this post.Sent from my SM-S908B using Tapatalk
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, though it's a preservative rather than a fix! But when I told the dealership I ride to Italy 3-4 times a year, they said it was in amazing condition. I swear the ACF50 is responsible for that... But it won't fix a screwed alternator 
. Though the ride home with a happy bike reminded me of how wonderful that twin cam motor is. All that gear + me (110kg suited) it was humming beautifully at all speeds asked of it 
