Euro breakdown cover for older bikes
 

Evening everyone

we're leaving on our big trip in a couple of months and a couple of friends are going to join us for the euro leg of the trip bit one of them is struggling to find breakdown cover for fis bike as it's older than 11 years old (it's 12!!) which apparently is the AA limit.

Have any others dealt with this?

Much appreciated

A lot of bike insurance policies chuck in Euro breakdown cover as part of the deal. Mine do for both my 9yr old everyday bike and my 30-40yr old classics.

Depending on their age / when their normal insurance runs out etc it might end up costing very little. They can check out who's offering what on the price comparison sites

Being nosey here, what insurance company do you use, my OH has a 20 year old bike and got a quote from AA for European breakdown of £157 so it would maybe make sense paying a little extra on insurance to save shelling out even more for AA cover.

Thanks

Carol Nash have included Euro breakdown cover with their insurance for a long time. They're normally fairly competitive on price as well. I had my 1976 honda 550/4 insured with them, and also a 1980 xs750 sidecar outfit.

In one year I had to get the outfit recovered from Penrith to Nottingham, the 550/4 recovered from north derbyshire to Nottingham, and the 550/4 in Germany went about 40 miles on a breakdown truck due to tyre failure. Add to that an insurance claim after my mate crashed the outfit into a fence, plus a second claim they refused to settle after the same mate crashed the same outfit head-on into a car, and when it came to renewal time unsuprisingly the premium was about double what it had been the previous year!:D

Oh well, I just went with a different company. But after 5 years of paying extortanate insurance costs due to being young, I felt like I'd finally got my money's worth out the buggers.

Like Nath it was Carol Nash, mainly because they came up with a good quote for my classic bikes and were pretty close with the modern quote.

My insurance is now up for renewal and I've been phoning / internetting around trying to see if I can get one policy to cover modern and classics inc Euro cover but it takes forever on the phone - about an hour each time while they ask endless questions.

On the internet you can get 30 or 40 quotes in 15 mins but you never know if there's some hidden clause somewhere that'll bite you when you make a claim so you have to ring them anyway, go through the same interrogation and be told that the phone quote is more expensive than the internet quote. After telling them you'll think about it it's then back on the website to buy.

At the moment I've given up through exhaustion and I'm using the car.

Take care and read the policy. Recovery is an insurance policy like any other. If the recovery company decides your bike is worth less than the recovery they will scrap it. The latest trick is to claim recovery from say Germany to the UK will cost them £3000, they look in their guide/e-bay that says your mint, tricked out XT600 is worth £250 and bingo you get a train ticket and a cheque for the price of a cuppa. There was a chap in the Guzzi club who had to hire a van to go get his bike because the recovery company used insanely high costs on the recovery and insanely low values on the bike. I don't know if an agreed value policy will carry over to the recovery, or if you can get recovery policies that won't scrap the bike, but like anything to do with the In-sewer-ants it's Caveat Emptor and every man for himself.

Andy

Breakdown Insurance?
 

assuming you're talking about roadside assitance and towing ("AA" the British version of AAA - American Automobile Association?) there is ADAC - the German organization that, if not active in countries other than Germany, they have connections... BTW; ADAC roadside assistance/towing recognizes AAA membership cards; at least on that very long Autobahn bridge between Leipzig and Magdeburg ;) ADAC membership rates are pretty reasonable and they have never "qualified" what vehicle I was operating... FWIW

I`m English but live most of the time in France. I use ADAC in Germany and it covers me for any vehicle in Europe. They have an English section on there website & when you ask for a brochure there is an English version with it.
I came unstuck with the AA a couple of years ago because I broke down in France and didnt have a return journey booked so had to pay for the recovery!

Thanks for all your replies - all very helpful.

In the end we took advantage of the fact that my friend had just started his new insurance policy, so he cancelled it and took up a new one with Carole Nash who gave him euro cover regardless of the age of the bike.

Carol Nash are good - following a simple problem and the AA unable to deal with it - a quick call to Carol Nash from France and next morning all sorted. They also rescued me from deepest darkest Wales...... Have just been looking to renew - incl breakdown - Carol Nash win hands down...

Carol Nash had no arguements over my 15 Year old MT350 for european breakdown cover

As an alternative.

I live in France and have space undercover in a barn for a broken bike (my own has lived there for the past three months).

If you break down in France you can hire from the SuperU/HyperU chain of supermarkets one way van rental. This is also available from other sources and other countries.
You could deliver your bike to the ferry port and maybe do something similar or make other arrangements once you have it back in the UK or at my home.
I do live a good days travel from the ferry ports.

When mine got critcal in Antwerp I left it there went home by train and returned with my car and trailer to pick it up. I realise this could be bothersome, but you would only have to do this in the event of a non roadside repairable fault.

At least it might form the basis for a 'plan B'

I know thius is an old thread, but based on a bad experience with the AA last summer, I would strongly advise avoiding their breakdown 'service' totally when abroad, esp France. They were diabolical - really shit - and that's just not what you need when it's dark, it's raining, you've broken down and can't get it going, and you've paid good money for help which isn't help at all but just a load of platitudinous old crap given out over the phone by a kid who speaks French/ Dutch/German or whatever but doesn't understand the difference between a bike and four wheels, and only has a list of garages which deal with four wheels, not bikes. Sad but true, and it taught me to be as mechanically self sufficient as possible, or as somebody has already said, have a workable Plan B. They magnanimously compensated me afterwards though - £20.00!! Turds. :taz:

And yet Carole Nash arranged the pick up of an almost destroyed
Triumph in Spain, provided alternative (4 wheels :-( ) transport... Pick up arrived within 1 hour.. the car was collected locally the following morning, dumped at the ferry port and the UK car waiting on arrival in blighty.

EU recovery is fairly simple... its non EU thats almost impossible to trust. I work on the principle that life doesn't end just because the ride is lost.

If all else fails..throw money at it. My wife has plenty..its me thats skint !

Footman James Insurance
 

Surprised no one has mentioned the other UK broker that does multi-classic policies: Footman James.
I have several older bikes (ok, the newest is 1993!) insured with them, unlimited mileage, full Euro breakdown cover and with my 77 year old Dad as a named driver. He (kindly!)tested the efficiency of their Euro recovery by driving his 1981 Guzzi off the road in France on the way back from Spain a couple of years ago. V efficient work by FJ and their French agents saw us getting the bike recovered to the same ferry we were booked on and a breakdown truck waiting for us in Pompey..so they're worth a look too.