AMA membership?

[Gone in 60]

Venting a little, but anyone here ever had to use AMA’s roadside assistance?

I’ve had a membership for years. Never found the magazine interesting and have never had to use the roadside assistance until today. My wife is having a procedure done and I stopped for a quick cup of coffee on the way to see her (hospital coffee bleh!)

Sure enough, got back on the Bonnie and got one slow crank and click click. A few inquiries to other motorists in the parking lot for jump cables with no luck, so I pulled out the trusty AMA card that’s been in my wallet for just such an occasion.

“We don’t provide jump starts but we can tow your bike to a service center.”

Seriously? The simplest thing imaginable and they’d rather send a flatbed tow rig?

Can’t find a reason to renew the membership.

[Houtman_imp]

I have ben an AMA member for over 25 years and never had to use their Road Side Service but will stay a member to support the motor cycle interest.

[E11even_Hunnit]

Venting a little, but anyone here ever had to use AMA’s roadside assistance?

I’ve had a membership for years. Never found the magazine interesting and have never had to use the roadside assistance until today. My wife is having a procedure done and I stopped for a quick cup of coffee on the way to see her (hospital coffee bleh!)

Sure enough, got back on the Bonnie and got one slow crank and click click. A few inquiries to other motorists in the parking lot for jump cables with no luck, so I pulled out the trusty AMA card that’s been in my wallet for just such an occasion.

“We don’t provide jump starts but we can tow your bike to a service center.”

Seriously? The simplest thing imaginable and they’d rather send a flatbed tow rig?

Can’t find a reason to renew the membership.

I ran into a somewhat similar situation this past Monday when heading for work- Bike ran out of gas on the hwy
This little incident, while different from yours, also required roadside assistance... Luckily for me, I had erroneously signed up for AAA back in June(which I was THIS close of cancelling days later upon finding out that motorcycle coverage was excluded from my "tier")

I called and got connected to a useless dispatcher who started playing 21 questions, I quickly stopped her on her tracks and told her to pull up my membership using my # since i had none in hand and was in urgent need of fuel stranded on my bike on the side of the road. She didn't like this and after wasting my time for another 10 mins on the line explaining my location she was keen to disclose to me that this request was out of my membership coverage and she could either connect me with a third party company(to bill me separately) or with their sales reps to discuss "other membership options for motorcycles"

I hung up on her and dialed again, this time, I knew better than to give them vehicle specifics. Before signing up, I clearly recall one of the selling points being that this membership was valid for the person purchasing the membership (even if I was driving someone else's car or as a passenger in someone else's car that broke down) Given the circumstances(and understanding that I was in fact "uncovered" by this technicality, this situation warranted a white lie in my book, the way I see it fuel delivery was no different from them sending out fuel to bail out someone in an actual car- Told them I was in a black 2014 Honda that didn't belong to me so i was unsure as to the model. Got off the phone with the dispatcher, got an sms link for roadside tracking and 15 minutes later the driver contacted me to tell me he was almost there, I would have found it hard to believe he would refuse to help since "I wasn't in the vehicle reported"

Moral of the story: The key is to have dispatch send out help.
From that point on, you can sorta take it up with the help that is sent your way, specially if you're more handy than a blonde trust fund baby driving her parents' BMW.

I'm the type of person that doesn't like taking "NO" for an answer without basis, I'm also well aware of how clueless both people in call centers could be, as well as the people calling in for help(sometimes)

Maybe calling in saying that you needed air in your tire or a tire change for that matter, the person to show up would've been equipped with both a compressor AND a jumper, and would've much preferred to use the jumper and not break a sweat. that's my .02c

[flynrider]

Venting a little, but anyone here ever had to use AMA’s roadside assistance?

I’ve had a membership for years. Never found the magazine interesting and have never had to use the roadside assistance until today. My wife is having a procedure done and I stopped for a quick cup of coffee on the way to see her (hospital coffee bleh!)

Sure enough, got back on the Bonnie and got one slow crank and click click. A few inquiries to other motorists in the parking lot for jump cables with no luck, so I pulled out the trusty AMA card that’s been in my wallet for just such an occasion.

“We don’t provide jump starts but we can tow your bike to a service center.”

Seriously? The simplest thing imaginable and they’d rather send a flatbed tow rig?

Can’t find a reason to renew the membership.

I usually find out about a dying battery when I'm away from home. Is there anything about the Bonnie that would keep you from just bump starting it? That's what I've always done. Even when there's not enough juice to crank, there's usually enough to run the ECM, ignition and fuel pump.

[Gone in 60]

Hmm. Sounds like I’m not alone. Well, my membership runs out in a few months then I’ll stop the auto-renewal. I Ubered to the hospital then went back for my bike with a friend.

I can bump start a bike, but not really in front of a Starbucks up against a busy traffic circle, and nobody to help push but a few sullen hipsters.

[GoldOxide_imp]

Venting a little, but anyone here ever had to use AMA’s roadside assistance?

I’ve had a membership for years. Never found the magazine interesting and have never had to use the roadside assistance until today. My wife is having a procedure done and I stopped for a quick cup of coffee on the way to see her (hospital coffee bleh!)

Sure enough, got back on the Bonnie and got one slow crank and click click. A few inquiries to other motorists in the parking lot for jump cables with no luck, so I pulled out the trusty AMA card that’s been in my wallet for just such an occasion.

“We don’t provide jump starts but we can tow your bike to a service center.”

Seriously? The simplest thing imaginable and they’d rather send a flatbed tow rig?

Can’t find a reason to renew the membership.

I have CAA (shared partnership with AAA) myself with motorcycle coverage. Never made a claim, and almost never pay for membership. However, I have known people who had the same membership and successfully and uneventfully used it multiple times without difficulties. It is handy insurance.

Too bad you couldn't get a helping push to get your motor turnin'.

[gmike_imp]

I don't think I would jumper a modern bike to an auto battery. I have done it on older bikes. Have heard blowing some of the electronics can happen. Maybe they are fearful of that. Sorry to hear of your problem.

http://burlingtonharleyriders.org/safety...rcycle.pdf

Its all part of the adventure.

Mike

[E11even_Hunnit]

Hmm. Sounds like I’m not alone. Well, my membership runs out in a few months then I’ll stop the auto-renewal. I Ubered to the hospital then went back for my bike with a friend.

I can bump start a bike, but not really in front of a Starbucks up against a busy traffic circle, and nobody to help push but a few sullen hipsters.

In my case I guess I was the one "in the wrong" but only because I discovered this after the fact, uninformed decision or call it what you will. I meant to call and cancel, just never got around to it, or figured you never know when you'd need it, so I decided to let it lapse waiting for a situation with a technicality like this to see what would happen.

My dad actually has a towing business back in FL and whenever he'd get AAA calls I'd notice it was really communication between the person broken down and the tow truck driver. Once called, they can only bill after taking care of the job they were called for. As far as billing is concerned, they'd always specifically ask for a paper copy because they said AAA would in fact refund them(so I assume they eventually got a rebate check in the mail)

Their tables of probability keeps them in business I guess, they place their bets on the inconvenience it is to need roadside service and assume people try their best to avoid putting themselves in situations that require it at all costs. Certainly not something that happens multiple times in a year for the normal person. As some have mentioned, they've never even used them in some cases, I myself could have very well never used it myself with 5 more months left.

With that said they always seem to have weird guidelines that somehow have a pattern of coming up when you actually need something, so I guess maybe it comes down to being aware/having the right coverage

When the subcontractor showed up to save the day, I asked him what that would've cost out of pocket, he said $120 for coming out and $6 for the actual gas. For the $100 I paid for it, I've got my money back already, and doubt I'll need it again since getting off the old F, that's the main reason I even got it. Figured riding around a 40yr old bike could prove problematic. The one time I was stranded on the F I ended up pushing it home for half a mile from the Chase center, that was a good workout

Hmm. Sounds like I’m not alone. Well, my membership runs out in a few months then I’ll stop the auto-renewal. I Ubered to the hospital then went back for my bike with a friend.

I can bump start a bike, but not really in front of a Starbucks up against a busy traffic circle, and nobody to help push but a few sullen hipsters.

Man, the funny thing about the story above is that thinking about it, I guess I was somewhat the sullen hipster myself pushing the bike home

Battery trouble is no fun, get a good Gel battery and be done with it.

[Gone in 60]

Can’t complain too much about the battery, a Yuasa that gave me about five years on that bike. Funny thing, when my friend brought me back, it started up. Went back to the hospital and parked on the second level near the down ramp just in case.

That little hiccup was enough warning, went to my Amazon history and clicked “buy it again.”

[Charlie Bravo_imp]

Ahh, batteries and tow stories. I had a Kawasaki Nomad 1500 (Your not gonna bump-start one of these) that began to give me problems. It would start right up at my house, but when I went somewhere, then came out to leave, it would just crank the engine pretty good, but not start it. Pulling a plug, I could see the spark was weak. I replaced the battery and I thought the problem was over, but no, it wasn't. It began to exhibit the same behavior again, and it left me stranded three times. Close to home, I called my wife to bring me the jumper cables, and it would fire right up, then one time it wouldn't start and I had it flat-bedded home. I did all the checks, and it passed every one. I took it to a local shop, they could not find a problem and I told them to dig deeper. Well, they dug four hundred bucks deeper to find a bad stator with an intermittent problem. I sold the bike soon after that.