This afternoon I had trundled over to Teesside park. Its about 15 miles from my house and I'd gone along the backroads through all the steel works. On my return journey however, I decided I'd go down the A19. It was to be my debut on the A19 and I was quite look forward to it. It was 16.30 so timing was not ideal and it was just starting to get dark and the rush hour was beginning. No problem for me though.
So I set off from Teesside Park and onto the A66. You then come up a slip road, meet another road joing the A19 and then join the Tees fly over.
Where the other road that you meet joins there is really quite a rather undersized slip road and I had slowed down there waiting for a gap. I went to pull away and the bike just died. Oh f$$king great.
Being a fly over, I was not only a good 20 feet off the ground in high cross winds there is no hard shoulder so I was perched on the end of the slip road.
Great.
Any chance of repairing the bike was impossible given there just wasn't space. Not panicing I rang my sister to tell her where I was and suggested ringing the Police. Initially, they had planned to come with the car and trailer and pick me up, but the Police had advised them against this. They did say however that they'd send a car over and we should organise recovery.
At this point I should mention that about 2 weeks ago when I was changing my insurance I was offered Breakdown Cover but I thought that I'd never need that.
After 20 minutes on the fly over, having had to top up my phone with my debit card, several near misses and my hands gone numb a Volvo patrol car pulled up. I was pleased to see him.
I go over and get chatting and he then asks, "so how are you gonna get it recovered?"
"erm, err. I don't have any breakdown cover"
"oh. Well, we can organise recovery for you, but you'll have to pay and its about £100"!
I said ok and just had the swallow the cost. However, I then got a phonecall from my sister's friends boyfriend who runs a bodyshop in town. His brother had just passed in a Transit and was turning around to come and pick me up!
After another 10 minutes he arrived, and we quickly put my bike in the back and he thankfully brought me home.
I got home around 6.00pm. So glad to be back.
Also to note, while we were waiting for the guy in the Transit to come the Police officer asked for my liesence then did a check of it and the bike. Everything is in order, but I was so worried when he was checking it. Came back all clear though.
Morale of the story is however, that £30 for a years cover may sound a lot - but its actually worth it when something does go wrong.
So I set off from Teesside Park and onto the A66. You then come up a slip road, meet another road joing the A19 and then join the Tees fly over.
Where the other road that you meet joins there is really quite a rather undersized slip road and I had slowed down there waiting for a gap. I went to pull away and the bike just died. Oh f$$king great.
Being a fly over, I was not only a good 20 feet off the ground in high cross winds there is no hard shoulder so I was perched on the end of the slip road.
Great.
Any chance of repairing the bike was impossible given there just wasn't space. Not panicing I rang my sister to tell her where I was and suggested ringing the Police. Initially, they had planned to come with the car and trailer and pick me up, but the Police had advised them against this. They did say however that they'd send a car over and we should organise recovery.
At this point I should mention that about 2 weeks ago when I was changing my insurance I was offered Breakdown Cover but I thought that I'd never need that.
After 20 minutes on the fly over, having had to top up my phone with my debit card, several near misses and my hands gone numb a Volvo patrol car pulled up. I was pleased to see him.
I go over and get chatting and he then asks, "so how are you gonna get it recovered?"
"erm, err. I don't have any breakdown cover"
"oh. Well, we can organise recovery for you, but you'll have to pay and its about £100"!
I said ok and just had the swallow the cost. However, I then got a phonecall from my sister's friends boyfriend who runs a bodyshop in town. His brother had just passed in a Transit and was turning around to come and pick me up!
After another 10 minutes he arrived, and we quickly put my bike in the back and he thankfully brought me home.
I got home around 6.00pm. So glad to be back.
Also to note, while we were waiting for the guy in the Transit to come the Police officer asked for my liesence then did a check of it and the bike. Everything is in order, but I was so worried when he was checking it. Came back all clear though.
Morale of the story is however, that £30 for a years cover may sound a lot - but its actually worth it when something does go wrong.
At least you got back safe in the end though.