Tyre fitting Snowdonia

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RickS1K

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Greetings from a lay-by in North Wales. Got a puncture and guess what I haven't packed...

Waiting on BMW to come and help plug it, clearly going to need a new tyre tomorrow - where's the best place near Snowdonia? Place in Caenarfon looks closest.

P.s. if Immortal Indian sees this...feel free to be smug :)
 
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Oops. Post something to b the s1000rr FB forum. I had offers from a few people who were Will to come and assist. Could find any bike shop who sells the repair kit, and DIY ???


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Greetings from a lay-by in North Wales. Got a puncture and guess what I haven't packed...

Waiting on BMW to come and help plug it, clearly going to need a new tyre tomorrow - where's the best place near Snowdonia? Place in Caenarfon looks closest.

P.s. if Immortal Indian sees this...feel free to be smug :)

Have you got a tyre? There are a few places that could change it for you but I'm not sure if anywhere would have a 190 or 200 in stock? Road & Trail in Menai Bridge would be a good start - LL595RP 01248 715415.

If you are really stuck then I might be able to get you a scrub road tyre but I'm in Holyhead and working all day tomorrow.

Where are you staying?
 
Cheers Gobert. This happened to me on my 1600 mile old S1R. I think it is my fifth brand new BMW bike and the 4th that has had a puncture before it hit 2000 miles - that's just bad luck I don't think that's BMWs fault :)

However it does give me the experience to say that I didn't expect the experience I got today. Which was that a bloke was dispatched to recover me, not to help fix it as has happened every other time. I was on a popular bike route between Crossgates and Newtown (A384), and several bikers stopped to see if they could help but nobody had a puncture repair kit.

The net effect is that my bike has gone in the opposite direction to me me and I am in Barmouth wondering what I'm going to do tomorrow. BMW say that if the company that recovered my bike can't source a tyre in one of the local garages (in ***** Hereford) then BMW will arrange for the bike to be repaired and sent to London and then arrange me a car... I've already had Amit on the phone pointing out he's still waiting on his hire car as has been discussed in another thread... and I was there when his bike broke down... in July!

Hoping for some good news tomorrow..
 
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Actually here is a Q. The bike has S20s. I'll actually be delighted to move up to an S22 as they're noticeably better... if they can't source a Bridgestone, is it OK to mix and match tyre brands??
 
Actually here is a Q. The bike has S20s. I'll actually be delighted to move up to an S22 as they're noticeably better... if they can't source a Bridgestone, is it OK to mix and match tyre brands??

I would say no?. However the real experts will be along shortly. Hope you get it sorted and can enjoy some of the roads.


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I could write a novel on what happened to me last weekend, but here's the short summary.

I am a numptie - I went on a road trip with no puncture repair kit. So, of course I got a puncture in a slightly remote part of Wales (but not that far from the border) on a Sunday afternoon and it took ages to come to me.
The company assigned to help me were just recovery - no repair. They took my bike back to Hereford and BMW got me a taxi to my hotel for the evening, which was 1.5 hours in a taxi. That put me and the bike 2.5 hours apart.
The next day BMW Emergency Services said the bike would be taken to Cotswold (in Cheltenham) for a new tyre and repatriated to me.
They told me to call Cotswold so I did - they said they had no tyres in stock, but would order one for me. Great.
However, the recovery company called me 30 mins later to say they were taking the bike to an independent garage in Hereford who had the tyre in i needed in stock and were waiting to fit it - well that's even better I thought....
However they said they didn't have the authorisation to bring the bike to me after this was done, so I had to get BMW to permit this.
That's where it all went wrong. The automaton on the phone line flipped out when she heard that it wasn't going to a BMW centre and told the recovery agent to take it to BMW... OR I could allow it to go to independent garage but I was on my own after that - remember it's 2.5 hours from where I am...
So, the bike went to.... Motorrad Chester (100 miles north of Hereford). WTF?? Still don't get that.

That left me needing a hire car asap to let me have some kind of holiday... but it wasn't to be. BMW use Enterprise for these situations, but even the nearest office in Bangor said they 'didn't cover my area' (WTF - 45 miles...), so I had to wait another day whilst they subcontracted the car... which no one else could supply.
So, I did my entire hols walking around a little town you can cover in an hour, spending 2+ hrs a day holding/talking with BMW, Enterprise, or a 3rd party hire agency. Then BMW got me a taxi from Snowdonia to south London... which allegedly cost north of ?500.

I spoke to 3/4 BMW centres over this and they all said couldn't understand why a local garage wasn't allowed to fit a tyre. The operatives said they could only follow BMW's b***s**** policy and clearly don't understand what a puncture is. If it had been anything else I wouldn't have let anyone else touch the bike...

Whilst Chester have done everything asked of them promptly, they were unable to source an S22, so I'm getting the bike back today/tomorrow with the older S21 - still much better than the S20 the bike was supplied with at the start of the year.

So, I'm just really disappointed with BMW Emergency Services who turned a small thing into a major problem that cost them far more than I think it should and totally messed my little holiday up. They will look at their processes and the different stages and think that everyone ticked their little boxes in a timely manner. I would say that someone needs to look at the time that it all took and why a human didn't see the effect on my experience. I could have had the bike back in a day and they made sure I didn't. I do wonder if I should have just let the bike get repaired on the first day, but it was such a long way between me and that garage. I have had good experiences with this service, but I'm really angry with how they handle fringe cases in remote areas. They've already sent me the email asking me to review and got 1 out of 10...

Also note that I got the puncture on a popular biker route, but none of the people that stopped/I flagged down had a repair kit either - something for you all to think about!
 
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fu?king hell, what a story. Very sad that this happened.

I got puncture twice in space of 6 months on 225 Diavel's rear but luckily both in London and AA were quick to help and fix it on spot.


Since then I've been always carrying "mushroom" puncture kit. For 5 years of travelling through Europe/Alps, guess what, not had a puncture even once.
 
Hey Colin, clearly someones looking down on you and making you pay for something...lol :welcoming:

All joking aside, someones overthought that whole process and followed an idiots guide to a " in the event of puncture what do I tell the customer" flow chart...
 
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yup - i think they've also threatened them with a disciplinary if they don't stick to the script too.

It became clear that free thought was banned, so I asked to speak to someone that had the leeway to exercise free thought - sadly they have a process for that and it takes 24 hours... FFS
 
Ah, wales.

I always carry a can of tyre weld in a vehicle or on a bike, just in case.

What a shit show. At least you?ve had a long rest (lol).
 
Sorry to hear of your troubles mate, but good to know all sorted eventually (I guess :p )

I had a similar (but less shit) situation with BMW Roadside Assist or whatever it?s called here in Australia, and once it was finally resolved, gave them the flick.
 
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