AAA Emergency Road Service for Bikes

[champignon]

I just got the renewal letter for my AAA membership, which I only continue to belong to, for the emergency road service benefit. I noticed that the bill starts out with "A few benefits you'll never be without:"

First one listed is: Roadside service that covers you in any car or bike. Your benefits travel with you even as a passenger in someone else's car.

I've never used AAA for a bike problem; has anyone here ever used them for this, and if so, what sort of service did you receive?

 

[Dewey]

Not used the service but gather it matches your membership level in terms of how far they’ll take you. The main issue is they only pick up from the roadside so if you wipe out on a trail you’ll need to push your bike to somewhere they will pick up.

 

[champignon]

Not used the service but gather it matches your membership level in terms of how far they’ll take you. The main issue is they only pick up from the roadside so if you wipe out on a trail you’ll need to push your bike to somewhere they will pick up.

With cars they don't just do towing, they can come out with a gas can if you ran out of fuel, they can give you a jump start if your battery died, and I think they can help you to change a tire, assuming you have another tire in your car. I guess it would be too much to expect that they'll change your bicycle tire, or top up your bike battery charge And if you have ever waited for for a AAA wrecker, you know that sometimes it takes 15 minutes and sometimes it takes 2 hours (or more).

It would be great if someone here has actually used this service and can tell us what they did. I think they have been offering this bike service for at least the last several years.

 

[AlanDB]

With cars they don't just do towing, they can come out with a gas can if you ran out of fuel, they can give you a jump start if your battery died, and I think they can help you to change a tire, assuming you have another tire in your car. I guess it would be too much to expect that they'll change your bicycle tire, or top up your bike battery charge And if you have ever waited for for a AAA wrecker, you know that sometimes it takes 15 minutes and sometimes it takes 2 hours (or more).

It would be great if someone here has actually used this service and can tell us what they did. I think they have been offering this bike service for at least the last several years.

I have not used the service but checked into it. They do not do tire or any other repairs. They will pick you and your disabled bike up from an accessible road and transport you back to your home or transport vehicle within their specified distance range. When I called them and asked about it, since I always ride with my wife I asked if they would transport both of us and our bikes if only one is disabled. They said no … just the one disabled bike and rider. I also asked if a dead battery on a ebike would be covered under the service and they said no, that the bike has to be disabled so it isn't ridable. I then asked if my battery died, could I let the air out of a tire before calling for service. The AAA rep just chuckled and didn't answer. I suspect the transport companies they contract with wouldn't really check to see if the bike was actually disabled.

I have the AAA Plus version and don't recall what the exact mileage limit is, but it was well within my normal riding range. Also the coverage varies by region, so you need to check the coverage rules for your specific AAA group. It has been a while since I checked into this so I don't remember all the specific details. But something sticks out in my memory that there is no coverage if you are riding in certain metro areas and some other excluded areas outside of the region covered by your AAA group (I am in the Minnesota/Iowa AAA region).

Since I am a AAA member anyway, I was glad to find out there is some coverage in certain situations. But I suspect the circumstances are pretty rare where it would actually be useful.

 

[champignon]

I have not used the service but checked into it. They do not do tire or any other repairs. They will pick you and your disabled bike up from an accessible road and transport you back to your home or transport vehicle within their specified distance range. When I called them and asked about it, since I always ride with my wife I asked if they would transport both of us and our bikes if only one is disabled. They said no … just the one disabled bike and rider. I also asked if a dead battery on a ebike would be covered under the service and they said no, that the bike has to be disabled so it isn't ridable. I then asked if my battery died, could I let the air out of a tire before calling for service. The AAA rep just chuckled and didn't answer. I suspect the transport companies they contract with wouldn't really check to see if the bike was actually disabled.

I have the AAA Plus version and don't recall what the exact mileage limit is, but it was well within my normal riding range. Also the coverage varies by region, so you need to check the coverage rules for your specific AAA group. It has been a while since I checked into this so I don't remember all the specific details. But something sticks out in my memory that there is no coverage if you are riding in certain metro areas and some other excluded areas outside of the region covered by your AAA group (I am in the Minnesota/Iowa AAA region).

Since I am a AAA member anyway, I was glad to find out there is some coverage in certain situations. But I suspect the circumstances are pretty rare where it would actually be useful.

The most likely scenario with an e-bike would be a flat tire, and being rescued from that would be well worth it, depending on where it happened. With an exhausted battery, you probably would have seen it coming, and by the time you ran out of juice most likely you wouldn't be all that far away from home, anyway. The latter happened to me a month ago and I was able to get within a couple of miles before I ran out of power; it was late and I just summoned my personal reserves to pedal the thing back home. I don't think that I would have called AAA then anyway since I was able to make it home in a shorter period of time than would have been needed for the road service.

Thanks for the information!

 

[AHicks]

In the case where you were riding with the wife when a bike became disabled, I'm betting you could strike up a deal to help you out with that driver directly.

 

[champignon]

In the case where you were riding with the wife when a bike became disabled, I'm betting you could strike up a deal to help you out with that driver directly.

There are so many jokes I could make based upon your post, however I am going to restrain myself and leave it at that

 

[AHicks]

Thank you so much....