Getting home when your bike breaks down - and you're 1,800 miles away!!!

Uncle Phil said:
I hope maybe that what I have been through in this trip may help someone else when they face the similar circumstances.
Here's the breakdown -

10ft Uhaul Rental from New Glasgow, Nova Scotia to Nashville, TN (1,800+ miles) - $1,199.26 (included insurance if anything happened to the truck)
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Wow what an adventure that ended up being. Glad your mishap ended up safely and all arrived well at home. That list of cost is great to give an idea of the possibilities.

Wondering about the Uhaul rental payment was that figure in $C or $US?

Looking forward to your write up on the engine Re and Re.
 
Uncle Phil said:
I could not have asked for a nicer recovery company - they took extra care to make sure the bodywork was not damaged.
Then they let me store it for free, reduced the bill because of my trouble and took me to a local motel some distance from their shop.
The UHaul people answered the phone though they were 'closed' and reserved the truck for me before someone else could.
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Awesome! Lets send them some love. Tell us who they are.
We can all send them a nice note, (unless somebody thinks of something better), for helping out a fellow rider. It can only help the next guy.
Glad you're home safe and sound UP. The moose will wait patiently for your next attempt at Nfld.
 
Jeff F said:
Awesome! Lets send them some love. Tell us who they are.
We can all send them a nice note, (unless somebody thinks of something better), for helping out a fellow rider. It can only help the next guy.
Glad you're home safe and sound UP. The moose will wait patiently for your next attempt at Nfld.
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Recovery company was Tri County Towing located just 1 KM off of Highway 104, using exit 25, New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.
Website - Contact Us - Tri County Towing
I could not have asked for a better company to deal with.
They went above and beyond to help me.
We sat in their office talking for about an hour just about 'stuff'.
They did not charge me for storage or for loading the bike into the UHaul and gave me a break on their bill on top of that.
And then they gave me a free ride to a motel!
BTW, they said their fuel bill had more than doubled since diesel has gone up.
 
Jeff F said:
Awesome! Lets send them some love. Tell us who they are.
We can all send them a nice note, (unless somebody thinks of something better), for helping out a fellow rider. It can only help the next guy.
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Oh, Jeff, what a wonderful idea!! YES, I'm all over this!! Phil, please do give us whatever contact info you have on everyone and anyone who helped you throughout this...erm...experience!
 
Uncle Phil said:
...........I could not have asked for a better company to deal with. They went above and beyond to help me..............They did not charge me for storage or for loading the bike into the UHaul and gave me a break on their bill on top of that. And then they gave me a free ride to a motel!
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This is typical Maritime hospitality and they'd go even further out of their way for a guest from the U.S. Be thankful you didn't breakdown on the 401 in Toronto. We have bandit towing companies warring with each other here (over 70 trucks burned, 2 killed so far) and your tow + storage bill would have been $1,200 - $1,500, no freebies from them.
 
SMSW said:
Your link did not work, we will need an address to send them thank you's. Glad you are home safe and sound.
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That's strange - I just clicked on it and it worked fine.
Their home page is -

Tri County Towing - Home

http://tricountytowing.ca/index dot html (dot as in . so this does not get converted to a hyper link).

They do not list their address anywhere that I can find.
I do not know if this is a mailing address or not but Google Earth says -

554 Maclellans Brook Rd, Pictou County NS

And I have visually verified that it is correct.
Canada Post says -

554 MACLELLANS BROOK RD
PLYMOUTH NS B2H 5C5
 
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SMSW said:
Your link did not work, we will need an address to send them thank you's. Glad you are home safe and sound.
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The link works for me. Maybe a browser issue? Or maybe there was a momentary blip? Try again...if that doesn't work, try with a different browser. maybe?
 
Uncle Phil said:
I could not have asked for a better company to deal with.
They went above and beyond to help me.
[...]
And then they gave me a free ride to a motel!
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There is some good people on this side of the border, too. :canflag1:

Just not all of them. :rofl1:


Uncle Phil said:
10ft Uhaul Rental from New Glasgow, Nova Scotia to Nashville, TN (1,800+ miles) - $1,199.26 (included insurance if anything happened to the truck)
Regular Fuel Cost (Truck was full, returned full) - $621.52
Two nights in motels - $160
Total - $1,980.78 to get me and the bike back home.
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As they were saying on the TV Commercial : "There are some things money can't buy; for everything else, there's Mastercard"
 
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Thanks Jim for your all your hours of planning on this STOC Event to Newfoundland. It was great to finally put a face to all our communication.
It was great to see some old faces and new ones and this wonderous landscape.
I've had an excellent time and will be back again.
Safe travels to all on your 2nd half of this adventure.
Dave20220720_145504.jpg20220721_120349.jpg
 
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I went on vacation for a few weeks and missed all the excitement, glad you got things all worked out UP.

I was wondering about the "bent valves" comment on the other thread, now it makes sense. I thought you may have had a donor engine with bent valves or something, never imagined it was a result of riding one of your four.
 
dwalby said:
I went on vacation for a few weeks and missed all the excitement, glad you got things all worked out UP.

I was wondering about the "bent valves" comment on the other thread, now it makes sense. I thought you may have had a donor engine with bent valves or something, never imagined it was a result of riding one of your four.
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First time in 435,000+ miles on ST1100s that I've had to haul one home.
This is same bike I was riding when I met you and Paul out at Long Beach.
 
ST1100Y said:
I'd further have "travel insurance" included with my Master Card (and I'm not required having paid the travel arrangements with it, just having used it)
Possible your CC contract offers similar, enabling reclaiming some of the expenses?
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Martin - I did take your tip and called CitiCard.
Seems as if the 'travel' benefit was quietly killed in 2019 - don't remember that 'upgrade'! ;)
 
Making me face the reality of if mine went kaput on a long trip. Decisions decisions. I kinda know what Phil is talking about after 22 years these machines become family members that we care about. Hard to pull the plug and put em out to pasture:dr11:
 
To get rid of it 'properly' you would need the title in hand and someone willing to take it - and in a different country it really gets 'interesting'.
SweetTreat has the 'unobtanium' Honda ST1100 'tall' trunk and original Highway Wings, MCCruise, fresh new suspension front and rear, a RDL made for me, and the body work is in really good shape - just to mention a few things.
The cost and time of pulling that stuff off and then shipping it would be past $1,000 giving the current shipping costs and shipping from Canada to the USA.
The silly mirror covers alone are worth $100 each! ;)
All that in additional to the memories we had in common and the many trips we made together - which is more important to me.
Plus I knew I have all the parts at home to make her whole again so it was a no brainer for me.
I hope no one else has to face this sort of decision, but at least this thread may help them decide what is the best thing to do in their situation.
 
Thanks for all the info. Your positive attitude surely smoothed out some of the rough patches.These are the memories we tend to remember.
 
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