Interesting journey home last night...
Left London as normal on my way home to Sussex, but a couple of miles after filling up at the Mottingham Shell on the A20, the engine on my (now not so awesome) steed cut out and left me stranded on the A20 Sidcup by-pass, just over half a mile before the next exit. Electrics still worked, but starter button inactive, so no hope of getting anywhere soon, especially as the remote diagnosis was that it looks like the brain that decides whether the immobiliser should be on or off had failed, or something like that. It had also started to rain. Again.
18:27. Called the RAC. Explained the situation, including that I was in a 50mph limit, where most traffic was doing at least 60 and it was a dangerous position as the kerb was too high for me to bump the bike up it.
Was told by RAC operative that the recovery truck should be with me in about 90 minutes. Ok, not great, but I can live with that.
Started to push the bike uphill to the next junction. At face value, this hill / slope looks minimal. It does not feel like that when you're kitted up and have a 1200GSA to push with a full tank of fuel. Tried pushing it in 50-100m stretches, but after about 600m, arms felt almost completely turned to jelly and I was seriously knackered. A bit like the bike.
20:30. Called the RAC again. No idea where the recovery truck was, but a call had been raised to be recovered. New arrival estimate around 2 hours. It was still raining, traffic was still blasting past at around 60+, and I was frantically waving my Hi-Viz jacket at idiots in 4-wheels for them to give the bike clearance, that it felt like that I had become part of the cast from the popular Christmas film, The Railway Children. By this time, I'd also called the local Police, and they had turned up and gave me a hand to get the thing off the road. RAC bod said he'd escalate to a manager and have someone call me back.
21:30. Called the RAC. There's a pattern forming here... It was still raining, traffic still thundering past, and still no signs of a recovery truck, or call back. Still, the good news was that this RAC-bod, said the truck was on its way and was about 30 minutes away, after giving them a call when I was on hold. It was now pissing down and I'd been outside in it for just over three hours. Have I mentioned it was raining?
22:15. Guess what? No recovery truck, no call-back, but there was something that was here. Rain. And lots of it. The next RAC-bod I spoke to, eventually, told that the recovery truck was about 30-40 minutes away. Had I entered a localised time-loop, or had someone been telling fibs when I last called just under an hour ago..?
The truck eventually arrived just before 11pm; 4½ hours after my first phone call. Got the bike loaded ok, but the fun hadn't ended. With all the rain, there was lots of standing water around, and someone had severely embarrassed themselves on the M25 just after J4. Traffic was standing for about 40 minutes while debris from the impact with the Armco and the kitty-litter was swept away. I finally got home around 1:30am, after dropping the bike of at BGM en-route, so hopefully will get the official diagnosis either today or over the weekend.
Al this made me wonder; how come in 2020, with so much satellite-tracking, data analysis, etc., could the RAC be so wildly inaccurate with their initial estimate of 90 minutes for the recovery truck to arrive. It also made me wonder whether the AA, Green Flag, or any other outfits out there are better, so would be grateful for any experience you bikermates can share.
I do appreciate that motorcycles are a relatively uncommon form of transport here, and that recovery / waiting times (for a full recovery) are might be longer than the average wait for someone in a car, but 4½ hours? That strikes me as being thoroughly unacceptable, especially if you get stranded in what's potentially a dangerous position.
The other alternative I'm considering is to but a trailer, so I can at least call home for hay-ulp, Penelope Pitstop style (although this might not work so well when I'm 200+ miles from home)....
