Went on an Easter weekend ride to Baton Rouge, La and Jackson, Ms. I was a little worried because the front tire was near it's end of life, but decided it would last. Couldn't believe it when at 5:30PM on Saturday the rear tire blew out. It only had 3K on it.

I was a few miles North of Clarksdale MS and about 70 miles south of Southern Thunder HD. I called HOG and they did great. They only pay $100 toward a tow, but they had to work the phones to just find someone that would pick the bike up. After that they called back to make sure I was taken care of.

I didn't really know if the $35 annual was worth it or not, but after this experience I have no doubt. If it weren't for HOG, I would have had to try to get someone to come pick me up from my home town (300 miles away). We would have either had to leave the bike along side the road for the night or stayed with it on the side of the road.

It still cost me $120 out of my pocket to get towed, but it could have been a lot worse.

 

for a $20 upgrade it is free towing to nearest dealer-

you may want to upgrade call road america at the number on your card ( of course it take 24 hrs to go into effect so it won't help now)

well worth it.

I don't know how the HOG program fees are scaled now, but in the 80's after 2 or 3 years annual it was only a few bucks more for "Life".

so all I pay now is the annual road service upgrade fee ( which i expanded to cover my cars and dropped AAA)

mike

 

Nice to hear!

 

I upgraded mine and had to use it once. No questions asked, just sign the paperwork from the tow truck driver and it was done. I highly recommend it.

 

If you tour on the bike I suggest you get the upgrade from Road America. Tow companies charge portal to portal on the run (so you pay for the round trip of the truck) and it can get real steep. The basic package may work for you if you just ride in a metro area, but once you head out, look out. The up charge is ~$20 so would have saved the OP another $100. Relatively cheap insurance IMHO.

 

Worth it for the peace of mind if you do any touring that takes you far from home.

 

AMA deal is pretty good too though I have not had to use it. Also, basic HOG covers one incident per year. AMA is not limited to one call and covers all vehicles registered to you.

 

Update, We got home safely. I had to take an extra day vacation while I waited for the dealer to open. Didn't get out of the dealership till it cost me $750, but I had gotten paranoid about the tires and changed the front one too.

I got back to work today and called around for roadside assistance insurance. I've got progressive on the bike and I called them today. We are going to fly to Seattle and rent an Ultra this fall, so I wanted to see if they covered the rental and check out roadside assistance. The customer assistance at Progressive told me the rental would be covered and I could get roadside assistance for $10 per year. They would pay all towing charges to the nearest dealer. I went with a $5 per year upgrade, so for a total of $15 per year they will pay for the tow and if I have to stay in a hotel again waiting for repairs, they will pay the hotel bill.

That's a heck of a deal for me, cause in the last year I've put one really close to 30K miles and since I got back into riding in 08, I've been putting on more miles every year. To me $15 a year is like free!!

 

What brand of tire blew out?

 

3K on it, don't know what I hit.