56º North September 2017 | Page 29

On the Triumph Assist website it says the following:

Triumph Assist is a breakdown assistance package developed by Triumph and the RAC which has been designed to give you peace of mind and help when you need it the most.

"Peace of mind and help when you most need it." Awesome, here we have a 79 year old pension who is stranded in the middle of Scotland, all alone with a motorbike. I think Nick needed a little help and peace of mind at this point.

Having finally managed to get through to someone in the RAC at 14:30 in the afternoon, a car mechanic turned up 3 hours later A car mechanic for an obvious bike issue! Needless to say, the mechanic couldn't help with the issue. In fact, Nick actually had to give him pointers on how to carry out a diagnostic test on the bike.

The lack of knowledge isn't the RAC driver's fault. He was a car mechanic, so couldn't be expected to turn up and fix a bike - however, the call center should have either sent out a bike mechanic, or let Nick know that it would be a car mechanic turning up, who would have little knowledge of bikes. Needless to say, neither happened.

After claiming that the bike had a misfire, and Nick duly proving him wrong by showing the plugs sparking, the driver went on his way, claiming that Nick's bike was now ready to carry on.

Nick Vs RAC - Round 2

Ok, so rather than continue to babble on telling you the story, I'll let Nick tell this next part in his own words. The floor is yours, Nick...

"I rode the bike 500 yards and the same problem re-occurred. I managed to get back to the same starting point and informed the RAC (again, line engaged initially) and managed to get through in half an hour. They sent the same bloke, his garage was just around the corner. He explained the situation to the RAC and they said they could offer to take the bike to Edinburgh or Glasgow, to a Triumph Dealership and book me in a bed and breakfast somewhere."

Fan-bloody-tastic! We're finally making progress. Ok, at this point it's pretty clear that Nick's holiday is over. But the RAC are finally starting to take responsibility for the issue and have offered to get him to a Triumph dealer and put him up. Great news, here's some of that "peace of mind and help" that Triumph/RAC were spouting about - or so Nick thought. Carry on, Nick...

"When turning the bars on the bike to the right, it was then that I noticed the warning lights coming on. Looking at the main harness by the steering head, I could see the main harness was tight and pulling. I thought there may be a break in the wiring."

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