Bit in bold…. Read your breakdown policy carefully. Fix in reality probably means fixed at a bike shop and within a timescale and at a location that may not be to your liking. You also pay for said fix. Your bike may or may not be recovered home if the bike shop can’t fix it in a reasonable time, can’t get parts in reasonable time, or any other reason. Reasonable time is probably not your version of reasonable either. If the cost of recovery exceeds the value of bike they will pay you out for the bike rather than recover it for you. And then if they do recover it, it’s still broken. Make sure you understand your cover - as with all insurance.
As a simple rule of thumb, the recovery company may well always take the vehicle to the nearest authorised dealership for the vehicle in question. For example, they’ll most often take a BMW motorcycle to a BMW dealership, rather than one that is exclusively dealing with Yamaha or Honda. Why? It makes sense for them to do so, based (if nothing more) on the logic that if the vehicle needs a part for a BMW motorcycle, a BMW dealership should be able to source it faster than a Yamaha dealership.
An exception might be for something like a puncture, in theory repairable in any garage capable of removing a motorcycle wheel and repairing a hole. But again, they’ll always try to use a garage dedicated to that make of vehicle. Why? In some counties, tyres to be fitted have to be type approved for that model. Again, logic dictates that a recovery to a BMW dealership, will deal with the problem faster for a BMW vehicle than, say, a Kawasaki.
Of course “Not to your liking” can mean assorted things. You are always free to sort things out yourself and not call on the services of your roadside recovery / assistance insurer at all. But, don’t then expect them to assist you, if and / or when your plan goes awry. There is somewhere a thread where a bikermate tried this cunning approach and, in a word or two, fecked it up. Likewise, spare parts for a vehicle do not grow on trees. If your bike needs a new shaft drive, most dealerships will not have one sitting around in their store cupboard. A sparkplug or two, might well be different. I needed a new tyre for my 1600, following a puncture from hell. There were none in France and only a few in Germany. I though had one in my garage at home in London. The insurer agreed to pay for a friend to go to my house, pick up the tyre and have it couriered to the French dealership, if required. In the end, the tyre came from I think Leipzig to Dijon, as it was quicker than DHL / my friend from London. It still took a few days, made longer as the puncture was late on Saturday afternoon, whilst French dealerships are shut on Sunday and until lunchtime on Mondays. I last saw my bike vanishing away on Saturday at about 19:00 on a low loader. The haulage company kept the bike until Monday lunchtime, then delivered it to BMW, Dijon. Over the intervening period, my insurer worked hard to find a tyre, miles away in Germany. They paid for two nights in a hotel and a taxi for me to Dijon to pick the bike up again, when the tyre was fitted. I had to pay for the tyre and its fitment but not the cost to have it shipped from Germany. Good luck, finding a type specific tyre in Liepzig, when you don’t speak German and are sitting somewhere around Dijon.
Of course no sensible insurer is going to spend two thousand, recovering a vehicle worth say, £800; to use an extreme example. They’ll still get you home but subject to the £800 limitation and / or subject to the terms and limitations contained in the policy.
