KingTermite 

Ever been way far away from home and have a major problem with the bike so you couldn't ride bike home or fix on the spot? Maybe warp a wheel or something like that?

I was just talking to a friend the other day and she heard or found out somehow that if you are a AAA member, you can still call AAA to come out and drive you home or wherever you choose with the bike just like calling a tow truck.

I've never yet had a problem like that, but I'm gonna photocopy my card and keep it in my bike bag from now on, just in case.

Just thought it was cool in case you didn't know about it.

MattP.

Thats pretty awesome

KingTermite 

Hmmmm....conflicting information.

I just called AAA to double check the facts....and this lady (who really didn't sound like she knew what was going on) said NO...that it was not valid for bicycles.

So I called my friend to ask her where she heard the information, and she said a friend of hers had done it before.....he had called AAA and got a "tow" home. Maybe he just told them he was "broke down" and gave no more info.

youm0nt

sounds cool.could it vary from state to state?

KingTermite 

It's possible (but friend and her friend both live here too).....not really state to state, but region to region. AAA works with two or three "regions" which cover multiple states I believe.

For example, I live in FL and it is AAA South.....but Georgia and probably others are in AAA South too.

alanbikehouston

When I belonged to AAA in Texas, my road service policy included my bikes. The written policy had lots of "fine print". They agreed to send someone out to attempt to fix the bike and agreed to transport me and the bike up to "X" number of miles for free. The "X" miles was kinda short, maybe ten miles. But, here in Houston, I am always within five miles of a bike shop, so that policy would have worked well here.

A friend of mine discovered that "Yellow Cab" in Houston has vans large enough for wheelchairs and bikes, and such. When he has gotten trapped in a storm or has a serious mechanical problem, he has Yellow Cab take him to the nearest coffee shop or bike shop. Usually, under ten bucks...a bit cheaper than joining AAA.

DCCommuter

AAA has a dark side as a lobbying organization that promotes views that many cyclists would be opposed to. There are auto clubs that cover bicycles who are not pro-sprawl, such as the Better World Club.

anniesartistry

I wonder if it would work with the Roadside assistance that you can get with Cell Phones?

genec

Heck, just call a friend. That is what I carry my cell phone for...

KingTermite 

You have a friend? How nice that must be.

lilHinault

Yeah or Habib the cab driver, he's everyone's friend!

froze

I've been a member of AAA for over 25 years and never knew or heard of this. I will call them on Monday and find out if my AAA of Chicago will assist bicyclist.

AAA does have a dark side, some of the things that they and Consumer Union pushed to make cars have I feel have backfired BIG time, but neither are remotely interested in changing back. For example, the reason these organizations pushed for safety bumpers on cars was because the old style metal chrome bumpers would get mashed in too easily and cost a lot to replace. New flash, these safety bumpers when damaged now cost at least $2,500 to replace-just in parts! My 67 Ford Galaxy bumper would only cost $250 at todays prices and the labor would be far less. I knew a guy whose Lexus had to have the bumpers skin replaced and just the skin was $2,500 and the skin was damaged due to an accident at less then 3mph!

Remember the Corvair? I knew people that raced these cars on road tracks and they never flipped. Also in those days I would have rather been in a head-on collision in a Corvair then a Corvette or especially the VW Beetle or the VW Van! Did they outlaw those cars? You know the answer to that one. Yet they allowed the VW to come over in the millions.

OK I'll get off my soapbox!!

brokenrobot

It IS worth noting that AAA's lobbying position is that cyclists should be banned from the roads... among other particularly nasty ideas. They also lobby against fuel-efficiency standards.

froze

AAA is looking at it from a point of safety concern for the cyclist, but they also realize that there is no infrastructure available for the Cyclist to go anywhere so all that banning cyclist from the road thing is very impracticable and impossible to achieve.

I get the AAA magazine and everytime they write articles about saving fuel, they push the fuel saving cars like crazy over all the others. I like to see your proof on that.

Feldman

Two words: "free maps."

HigherGround

Considering that they are the American Automobile Association, I'd be very surprised if their assistance policies included bicycles. I would suspect that either someone was pulling your leg, or else the cyclist called without specifying they were on a bike, and the tow truck driver was sympathetic after he arrived. Then again, you never know. Stranger things have happened...

fallstorm

When I had a standard cell phone and needed to call for help in my car, they just paged whichever tow truck company they had a contract with. I'd assume you'd have more of a problem with the tow truck operator than the car service. However, the car service asked for a lot of information which might be difficult for a cyclist to come up with on the spot: car make, model, color, type/size, exact location, etc. I don't remember whether or not the service asked for a plate number, but I know the tow truck operator wrote it down.

samp02

interesting.......

gwarzin

I remember reading something about auto clubs and bicycles a few years ago in a usenet news group. The final conclusion was that AAA does not provide service for bicycles. But someone mentioned a service that does. It might very well have been the Better World Club that DC Commuter already mentioned earlier in this thread.

You can find out more about Better World's bike services at https://www.betterworldclub.com/roads...tance/bike.htm

Dahon.Steve

Any organization that lobbys against the cyclist does not get my money. Ever.

froze

Lets not get your pants on fire...yet.

I contacted my AAA people and they had me contact some people in Chicago about the anti bike thing and I found out from several people that this anti bike thing is not true by any means in fact just the opposite! It's because of the efforts of AAA and other organizations that today we find more and more cities making streets with space and lanes for bikes; their also responsible for making communities post signs warning drivers of possible cyclist using the road where providing a bike lane was impracticable; they also have been active with communities to help design bike paths to give the cyclist safe haven for traveling across a city.

The bottom line is that AAA club of America is very active in not only supporting cyclist by finding ways to keep them safe BUT also supporting "green" vehicles like hybrids, and they report their findings as too which is the best for their member so they can make intellegent buying choices. If anything they are against high performance cars because more accidents occur with them, and they are not "green" by any means...this upsets me! BUT they support the efforts of classic car owners and want to see these cars preserved; but that's because todays classic car owners are older and will not take unnecessary risk drivng these cars, and they don't drive as many miles as they do with their newer cars thus the accident ratio is very low. This is the reason they had no problems insuring my 67 Ford Galaxy convertible for full value when most other companies didn't want to insure it all!

Basically I get the sense that the bottom line is most respects is money. A green car is not a high performance car thus unlikely to get into a accident by someone racing it; establishing safer bike lanes and signs helps lower the cost of liability cost by making drivers more alert to cyclist and/or giving cyclist their own lane whenever possible so drivers don't hit them; and classic car owners have far fewer accidents. It appears to be a money issue with AAA. But they have NO AGENDA to get cyclist off the road or ban bikes, neither do they have an agenda to ban motorcycles which have a high rate of liability problems (far higher the cyclist), nor ban pedestrians either! But they are all for making helmets for cyclist and motorcylist manatory too which I agree, especially since the law forces us to wear seatbelts in a car. But again I have weird thoughts on all of this; if car drivers are required to wear seatbelts then cyclist and motorcyclist should wear helmets otherwise car drivers should also have the right not to wear seatbelts as well.

brokenrobot

You can't judge this by what AAA SAYS - we need to get a bit more info on where AAA spends its money, and on what their lobbyists do. I trust my source on this, but I'm also going to take a little time and see what I personally can dig up...