Modern Vespa

So I was riding down the 57 Southbound from the 60 Eastbound and I suddenly lost power. I was in the number 3 lane of a five lane freeway. I'm usually in the carpool and/or filtering between the number 1 and 2 lane. Luckily for me it was later in the morning and not too busy and I was able to coast to the side of the Freeway, then I turned around and rolled down a freeway on ramp to get out of the way. It would have really sucked to stall in the carpool lane. I would have had to call the highway patrol to help me get off the freeway without getting hit.

I have a 3 year membership with AMA and gave them a call. A friendly lady picked up the phone right away and scheduled a tow for me. I got a text a few minutes later saying it would be 60 to 90 minutes. Okay, I waited. 90 minutes came and went and no one showed up. I called the tow service listed on my text and they said they they declined to provide service and referred me back the dispatcher. I called AMA again and had to get put back into the system since they did not know the tow company wasn't going to come. Anyway it was five calls and four hours later before anyone came to pick me up. Because of Covid-19 AMA couldn't guarantee that I could ride back to my home in the truck with the tow driver. Anyway after a second failed attempt, a manger with AMA had to call AAA to send a flat bed out to provide me service, and they showed up within 30 minutes of being assigned. I was able to ride in the truck home with my scooter. Show out to Bob's Towing in La Puente for excellent service. Based on my experience, I have discovered that AMA has a weak network of providers in my area, which is surprising to me since I live in a very metropolitan area and many MV'ers have raved about getting service with AMA in the past. YMMV. My personal opinion of all roadside services providers is that in general they all suck and its best to try an avoid having to use them in the first place. I have had some really good service in the past, but I have gotten bad service with just about all of them at some point or another. I did get my moneys worth with this one tow for my three year membership, but I am not happy about how long it took.

My suggestion is that you keep calling the dispatch service every 20 to 30 minutes so that you know someone will actually show up. Then when you get a text assigning your tow, call the tow company to ensure that they are coming. You shouldn't have to do this, but you do need to do this.

I knew that I needed a new battery and drove up the Bert's Mega Mall and installed a new one. That didn't help. I figured that it had to be something that I did unless its was a burned out light bulb or dead battery.

I checked the spark plug cap and it was completely disconnected from the spark plug. I must have hit a bump on the road and this was enough to knock it loose. I would have checked this on the side of the road, but I had pulled junk out from under my seat while doing maintenance and didn't get my tool kit back inside yet. When I got home, I pushed the plug cap back on the spark plug but it didn't stay after a short test ride. You need to hear a loud click when you put it on while you are twisting the cord back and forth to get in on the plug. If you don't hear the click, pull on it really hard two or three times to make sure that it is securely on the plug. If it comes off too easily then replace it. My local NAPA dealer had two new plug caps in stock and I bought them both. I put the spare under the seat with a used spark plug that still works. These spark plug caps only costs a little more than $3.00. They are consumables and should be changed either every spark plug change or every other spark plug change. They wear out and should be part of your routine maintenance. And you need to have a spare spark plug cap in your scooter along with a spare spark plug and the tools to install these. The spark plug caps just twist on and off the cable. Its very simple to put a new one on. You won't have a problem if you do this.

This has been discussed elsewhere here in MV, but it doesn't hurt to mention this again.

BTW, I checked my mini air pump which was supposed to be a quality brand and it no longer works. This one replaced another cheaper one that also broke. I bought a replacement for $40 at Harbor Freight and it turned out to be bigger, heavier, and really good quality. It inflated my completely flat front car tire in five minutes. The box said that it could do this in three and a half minutes, but five minutes is really good for the size. My smaller cheaper ones would take like 15 to 30 minutes, if they worked at all. I can count on this mini tire pump to inflate my scooter tire when it counts. I'm going to go back to HF and buy two more for my two cars. If you don't get this one from HF you are going to need to spend likely $80 to $120 to get one that's good enough that you can count on it to work when you need it.

Every motorcyclists nightmare is to lose power or breakdown on the freeway, especially if you are in the fast lane when it happens. I'm glad you got off safely.

Useful reminder for everyone regarding spark plug caps, I never thought to carry one as a spare, that's a good tip.

Here in the UK, breakdown recovery services are hit and miss. Winter is probably the worst time to call on them, they are so busy doing home starts for people with cars with dead batteries.

Thanks for sharing your experience and tips.

I second the disappointment with the AMA vehicle assist program.

Last year I broke down on the highway at 8 in the morning, fortunately pretty close to home. It took six hours and three failed dispatches to discover that on this particular highway, only one towing company is allowed to tow vehicles. AMA's service couldn't dispatch them and couldn't or wouldn't tell me who that company even was.

Once that became clear I ended up calling the local police to get the information and the scooter was back in my driveway within an hour.

So the AMA service not only couldn't help me but they wasted six hours promising three different tows were enroute. A complete and utter waste of time.

I ride in lane 1, moving over into lane2 to pass slower vehicles.

I use a local company San Diego MC Towing and gladly pay them per tow..
It avoids confusion about car vs bike, contract exceptions or lack of interest.
They make money by simply showing up and towing bikes.

In my area there are no motorways (only one that leads only to Rome), if I get stuck I call the tow truck, my insurance adds it to the service.

Okay, it's not just me having an issue with AMA. I would dump them, but I've got two more years left that I already paid for. What's with lots of other MV'ers raving about great service from them in the past? I don't know how that could be possible.

Amen!!! I do the same all the time. Occasionally I passed a "in tow" car tandem or a slow RV but I rarely move to the left unless is necessary. I rather wait for a while riding slow until I take my exit rather than being exposed to people driving 20, 30 mph over your speed.

Good information. The only reason I am a member of AMA is because of the recommendations from reading posts on MV for the towing & roadside assistance benefits. I have used the roadside assistance only once in Park City during a cold winter nighttime event. They did respond to jump start my Yukon. I was happy that I had AMA at that point. It would be interesting to hear experiences from other AMA members. I would drop them in a heart beat if I knew there were a lot of bad service calls.

Hmm…and here I was, thinking "If only I had AMA when I last broke down…"

I was stranded by Melody on exactly two occasions, both recorded on MV: the first was a freak incident involving the fuel injector body breaking in two*, leaving me stranded on I-95/NJ Turnpike (gently coasting to the shoulder on a bridge…disconcerting, but not white-knuckle scary), the second involving my drive belt detonating at night on the Staten Island Expressway (seriously scary, in the center lane of a five-lane section of the slab, going from about 60mph to under 40 in the proverbial heartbeat). First time involved a good deal of jousting between GEICO and AAA, the second time just involving AAA. Ultimately, AAA came through, but with the usual hiccups: as in BC's case, I had to deal with the entity authorized to handle roadside emergencies on that particular thoroughfare–the Staten Island Expressway has one, NJ Turnpike Authority has another, And So On). Too much anxiety-inducing BS to get through, but eventually you and your ride get tended to…for a price. (Usually reimbursed, eventually.)

(* The Fuel injector body didn't spontaneously choose to self-destruct: I had hit the Mother of crater-sized potholes a few months before in Brooklyn, and likely fractured the FI body then and there; time and continued use did the rest.)

THIS ^ I 100% recommend this.

In October 2020 I made a list of the top 10 things for intermediate motorcycle riders (https://youmotorcycle.com/10-serious-motorcycle-gear-equipment-must-haves.html).

One of my top 10 things was the contact information for a quality, respected, reputable motorcycle towing biz in your area.

You're going to want to know who they are before you need to know who they are. It's definitely worth making a couple phone calls and checking out people's reviews online.

Knowing who the good ones are in advance will stop you from calling someone who pick up that you're stranded and charge you extra because he knows you're in a bind.

Ideally you want a company that deals only with motorcycles and will charge you the same price whether you call them from the of the road for an ASAP service, or whether you call them 3 months in advance to book an appointment on your moving day in the dead of winter.

My towing service has an agreement for the transport of motorcycles and scooters and they use a closed van with a lifting ramp. Inside it is stopped with "padded" straps and anti-movement ramp. But you can imagine how many scooters there are in Italy and it is obvious that there are emergency towing services dedicated to two-wheeled vehicles. The three wheels also have their own stop guides, I checked.