My adventures with the broken F800GSA continue with a rather terrifying experience. Maybe its just me but Id really appreciate your opinions on this before I pick a fight with my insurance company... So, finally the recovery vehicle turns up to take my sick F800GSA back to the Isle of Man for warranty work. Initially the insurance company (Aviva) assured me they would send a truck suitable for safely transporting motorcycles. What turned up at my door however was a knackered old 1980s reg CAR transport, one of those open to the elements double deck arctic jobs that is absolutely not fit for shipping bikes. My pride and joy was to join a number of cars and two other motorbikes which were precariously strapped to the arctics trailer.. If at 1st I was not impressed things went rapidly downhill. The driver had absolutely no experience with motorbikes and asked me if Id mind riding my bike up the long metal ramp suitable only for cars and up beside the other bikes. Anyone know how slippy the oily and often wet metal ramps are onto a channel ferry? Well this was infinitely WORSE! It had oil & fuel spills along its deck, few places to put a foot down to steady myself, a patchwork of holes through to the road as well as some very awkward obstacles along the narrow metal track. Considering Id have to ride the bike up in one go and without error because if I lost balance I had nowhere to but a foot down for balance as Id have to ride up athe metal track with the center of the truck having a patchwork of open sections to the road below. While on the left side I was facing a 4-5 foot straight drop, not overly scary in itself until you take into account the 230kg of motorbike that would be landing on top of me soon after had I fallen. If something went wrong there was utterly no chance Id be walking away from anything less than a very serious injury. Seriously WTF am I paying European breakdown cover for? But, before I could even do this I first had to move an old R1150GS from its current position which was badly placed and blocking any chance I had of a clear run up the ramp. The driver had a go 1st but obviously had no idea how to move the bike about so I stupidly decided to do it before he wreaked the bike altogether. By the time I got round to riding my own bike up the precarious ramp there was a small crowd watching - and probably taking bets on the severity of the inevitable injuries Id acquire if I got it wrong. I say again - WTF am I paying EU breakdown cover for??? Bollox to BMW and bollocks to Carol Nash and that lying bunch of useless thieving cheapskate tossers at Aviva, I will most definitely be looking at different insurance options for the future cos theres no F-ing way Im going through this again... Last time I had a bike shipped across Europe I used a company called Overlanders.ie who did a properly professional job using a covered truck with proper ratchet straps, floor hooks and padding to ensure a trouble free transit , the driver was also a biker himself and knew exactly what he was doing. Aviva promised a similar service, I paid for a similar service and I expected a similar service but I cant help thinking Ive just had the piss taken!! What I had to do was incredibly dangerous, I could have far too easily have had a bloody horrible fall and who the F*&k would be paying the bills for that, Aviva? I doubt it, The transit company? Dont fancy my chances there either? Am I wrong? Is this the type of service we should expect from already over priced insurance companies? Would any of you guys accept this or am I being overly annoyed?
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 17:10:02 +0000
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