Tell us your breakdown horror stories

The best holiday stories are always furnished by people who prefer travelling hopefully to actually arriving. And no-one has heard more horror stories than breakdown recovery men.

And you couldn’t make up some of the stories we’ve heard from the knights in shining tabards who patrol the country picking up stranded riders.

Breaking down is often a shock, usually an inconvenience and always annoying. The indignation that your bike actually had the nerve to die on you often clouds your normally sound sense of judgement – or at least that’s what happened to these riders who called for assistance from MCN’s NCI Breakdown patrolmen…

” We had one guy call who had a ‘fuel problem’, recalls NCI’s Neil Richards-Smith. ” When our man opened the cap he noticed a strange substance inside the tank. He pulled a bit out and asked the rider what it may be. Foam was the answer.

” The guy then removed his helmet to reveal a lack of eyebrows and eyelashes. He had been at the roadside in the dark, suspected he’d run out of petrol – and looked in the tank with a lighter. ”

This goes to prove you never know when you might need cover on holiday. Richards-Smith said: ” We had a call from a rider in Spain, who had travelled down by bike and met up with his family who were already there. During the holiday they decided to go on a boat trip, and while the rider was sat on the boat the contents of his pockets fell into the sea. Upon returning to shore he called us for help. As divers are expensive and the sea large, we decided it best to arrange for a replacement key, which we did within 48 hours. ”

Some call-outs just defy belief. ” Someone phoned us as his lock was broken, ” says Richards-Smith. ” Our man arrived to find him struggling with the ignition barrel. We took 30 seconds to diagnose the problem – the rider was using the wrong key – it wasn’t even a bike key! He found the right one and once we were sure he knew how to use it, we left. ”

Was this you? Or do you have a funny story about breaking down? Share it us by clicking on the link on the right.