ablang

I was wondering if anyone here was a member of something like this?

So far in my research, Better World Club claims to be "the nation's first and only bicycle roadside assistance service". Has anyone ever used this portion of the service for their bikes? I'm considering joining something like this in case I bike too far away and I have a problem. I found some feedback about this service on https://www.sustainlane.com but not much of it applies to bike use, mostly car usage.

Velo Dog

My first response (and my second one, too) was that I'd walk 10 miles before I'd admit I NEEDED roadside assistance. If you can't fix it, you shouldn't be riding it. In more than 30 years of adult cycling, I can remember only once when I've had a problem I couldn't fix well enough to get home (I crashed and folded the fork back against the downtube).
But maybe I'm too old school. I do see an increasing number of sissies reaching for a cell phone instead of a patch kit when they have a flat, and many new cyclists don't carry tools at all. But how bad off would you have to be for a service vehicle to help? I mean, when a car breaks down, there may not be much you can do--you can't tear down the fuel injectors by the side of the road. Most of the things that can go wrong with a bike are pretty simple, though, and you can either fix them or work out a temporary solution in less time than it would take a SAG wagon to get to you. Plus it presumably would come from a local bike shop that had signed up, and most shops don't have spare people sitting around to go pick up some guy who broke down, and there's that whole humiliating moment when you tell the 19-year-old mechanic, "Well, it's making a funny little scruff-scruff noise and I can't figure it out."
Nah. I'd still walk 10 miles.

Machka 

I highly doubt any roadside service would want to take the time to get out to where I cycle on many of my longer rides ... and if they did, they would charge me a fortune for the service.

Most of the time you can fix things up yourself ... at least enough to continue to the next town, or back home, or wherever.

Garfield Cat

Enrollment, that's the thing. Its like health insurance. If you enroll enough people into the plan, and charge them a monthly fee, then you can have anything you want.

Infrastructure. The plan would have to build out the infrastructure to handle the claims. The plan needs a network of providers to handle each call (encounter). The aging baby boomers can learn bike mechanics and sit around waiting for calls. The 50 + guys who are retired but willing to make a few extra bucks, may want to do this. There's a lot of aging baby boomers.

To share this cost (risk) the customer might have to make a co-pay, say $10.00 per call.

Wordbiker

Send a truck out to fix a flat bicycle tire?

What a great idea.

roadfix

I always thought that this concept stunk from the beginning.