24/7 Motorbike, Scooter and Moped Recovery in London
Your bike travels upright in a wheel chock on soft straps, never on its side stand and never on a car hook. Recovery from £80 across every London postcode and the M25, with the price agreed on the phone before anyone sets off.
- No call-out fee
- Price agreed first
- Fully insured operators
- 24/7/365
CityGrip Recovery moves motorbikes, scooters and mopeds across London 24 hours a day, from £80, with no call-out fee and the price agreed on the phone before anyone sets off. Call or WhatsApp 07960 200253. Your machine travels upright in a front wheel chock, held by soft loops around the fork legs or triple clamp, never hooked to a lever, brake line, fairing or wiring loom, and never resting on its side stand. We recover runners and non-runners, bikes with no keys or a locked steering lock, crash-damaged machines, delivery mopeds and bikes released from a police pound. After a non-fault accident the recovery costs the rider nothing, because the bill goes to the at-fault driver's insurer.
A motorbike is not a small car, and it cannot be recovered like one
A car sits on four wheels, holds itself up and has a parking brake. A bike has none of that. It has two contact patches, most of its mass carried high above them, and no way of standing on its own once the deck starts moving. Let the restraint go slack by an inch and the machine leans, and once it leans past its own tipping point nothing on a flat deck stops it. That single difference is why the most common cause of damage during bike recovery is not the breakdown and not the crash. It is a car recovery driver arriving with car equipment, a set of hooks and a flat deck, and improvising.
A motorcycle must never travel resting on its side stand. The stand, and the tab it bolts to, is designed to hold a static parked machine on level ground, not to take repeated shock loading through a moving vehicle. On a wooden trailer floor or a thin van floor the stand foot concentrates the whole weight into a few square centimetres and can punch straight through. Worst of all, when the truck hits a pothole the stand bottoms out, the loaded side unloads for a fraction of a second, the strap on that side goes slack, and the bike falls. It is a slow-motion failure that most riders only ever watch once.
The centre stand is no better. It lifts a wheel clear of the deck and turns the machine into something that can pivot on two small feet. The correct answer for anything you care about is upright, wheels down, stand folded up, front wheel captured in a chock. Official UK guidance points the same way: the DVSA code of practice on securing loads treats motorcycles as their own load type, says a dedicated motorcycle trailer should be used where one is available, and otherwise expects the bike to be boxed, caged, or chocked or set in a frame and lashed to the vehicle. The one case where it accepts a machine laid on its side and lashed to the bed is scrap.
Had a non-fault accident? Your recovery is free.
If another driver was at fault, CityGrip arranges free recovery, secure storage, a like-for-like courtesy car and full claims management, with every cost recovered from the at-fault driver’s insurer. You pay nothing, and your no-claims bonus stays intact.
Chocks, straps and the standard the load actually has to meet
A front wheel chock is a cradle that captures the front wheel and holds the machine vertical while it is strapped down, and it only does its job if the chock itself is bolted or lashed to the deck rather than left loose. A paddock stand is a different thing entirely: it is a workshop tool that lifts a wheel clear so you can spin it, change a tyre or oil a chain, and a bike left on one will roll or topple the first time the vehicle brakes. A rear paddock stand on bobbins or spools has one legitimate transport use, as a supplementary block behind a bike that is already chocked and strapped. Scooters and mopeds frequently need a scooter-specific chock or a cradle, because small 12 and 13 inch wheels fall straight through a chock sized for a 17 inch motorcycle wheel.
Four straps as a minimum, two forward and two rearward, set so that seen from above they form a V at each end. The front pair pulls the bike down and forward into the chock; the rear pair stops it bouncing back out of the chock under braking. The straps reach the machine through soft loops around the fork legs or the triple clamp, never a bare hook on a lever, a bar end, a brake line, a plastic fairing or a wiring loom. Handlebars are a poor anchor on most bikes: rubber-mounted bars compress under tension and let the strap creep, clip-ons sit below the yoke and give almost no usable angle, and some bars will simply bend. Tighten alternately, a little at each corner, so both fork legs compress the same amount and the bike is not pulled off centre.
Preload matters, and so does knowing when to stop. Compress the front suspension enough that the machine is firmly seated and cannot rock, and no further. Bottoming the forks is how seals blow, how the steering head takes load it was never designed for, and how triple clamps get stressed. Ignore the fork compression percentages that circulate online: they contradict one another and none of them comes from a UK standard or a manufacturer. What is actually written down is the restraint standard. Official guidance expects a load to be held against its entire weight forward and half its weight to the sides and rear, expects lashings made to BS EN 12195-2 and rated to at least 1,500 daN, warns that a lashing at less than 30 degrees to the bed is not working, and calls for sleeves or protectors over sharp edges, which is precisely what a soft loop is. Straps are then re-checked after the first few miles, because webbing settles and so does suspension.
A scooter, a sports bike and a Gold Wing are three different jobs
A Honda PCX125 is around 126 kg dry, so weight is rarely the problem with a scooter or moped. Everything else is. Small wheels can drop through a standard chock. The bodywork is plastic and cracks the moment a hook touches it. A step-through frame leaves almost no exposed hard point to loop a strap around, so the anchor is usually low on the fork legs, which changes the strap angle you can achieve. Many have little useful clearance on a ramp, and most working scooters in London carry a top box or a delivery rack that either comes off or is restrained separately, because a loaded box swinging on a rack is a load in its own right.
A sports bike is light but awkward. Clip-on bars give almost no strap angle at all, so the load goes to the fork leg or the triple clamp. The fairing and belly pan sit low enough that a short, steep ramp will ground the machine before the front wheel reaches the deck, so it needs a longer or extended ramp. Short suspension travel means full compression arrives quickly, which makes overtightening easy. An adventure bike is the opposite problem: a BMW R1250GS is 249 kg wet, 268 kg in Adventure trim, with a tall centre of gravity, long-travel suspension that keeps moving under strap tension, and panniers and crash bars that have to be worked around rather than strapped over.
A Honda Gold Wing GL1800 is 1,833 cc and roughly 407 kg wet, or 383 kg for the Tour DCT. That is heavier than four adults, and it is not going up a ramp on one person's shoulder. It needs a winch or two people, a wider chock and rated lashings rather than a DIY ratchet strap from a hardware shop. Bikes are walked up a ramp, never ridden up, anything heavy is a two-person load, and ramps in the wet need a non-slip surface. A machine that will not roll at all, whether from a seized brake, a flat-spotted tyre, a snapped chain or bent forks, is winched or skated, not dragged. The practical point for you as a caller is this: the price and the vehicle sent should differ by machine, and any operator quoting one flat figure without asking what you ride has not thought about the job.
It will not start, will not roll, or has no keys
On a modern fuel-injected bike a flat battery is the most common cause and often the quickest fix, and a jump start starts from £60. But bikes have failure modes cars do not. A side-stand cut-out switch or a clutch switch will stop a perfectly healthy engine and looks exactly like an electrical fault. The kill switch gets knocked. A blown main fuse kills everything at once. Immobiliser and keyless faults leave you with lights and no crank. If it turns over but will not fire, you are usually into fuel pump priming, a fuelling fault or an ignition problem, and that is not a roadside job on a bike with the tank and airbox in the way. We will tell you honestly on the phone which side of that line you are likely to be on.
No keys, steering lock engaged, stuck in gear: this is routine on stolen-recovered machines, auction buys, deceased-estate bikes and anything that has sat in a garage for a decade. It matters because a bike with the steering locked cannot be steered onto a chock at all, so it goes onto wheel skates or dollies under each wheel, or comes up as a lift, rather than having the bars forced. A gearbox stuck in gear or a seized engine means the rear wheel will not turn, so it needs a rear dolly or a full lift. A chain-drive bike with a snapped chain or a locked rear brake must never be dragged, because that is how a swingarm, sprocket or caliper gets destroyed. Where ownership is not obvious we ask for the V5C or photo identification before the machine moves.
Electric machines are an honest limit rather than a sales point. An undamaged electric motorcycle or scooter loads and straps like any other bike. A lithium pack that has been in a crash, been submerged, swollen, is giving off heat or smells of solvent is a thermal runaway risk and cannot simply be put on a deck and driven across London, so say so on the phone and we will tell you straight whether we can carry it. The wider context is public: TfL banned non-folding e-bikes, including conversions, from most of its network on 31 March 2025 on lithium fire-risk grounds, which is exactly why a dead e-bike or converted delivery bike genuinely has to be driven home rather than wheeled onto a train.
Crash-damaged bikes, and who pays for the recovery
A bike that has been down is not the same job as one that has run out of fuel. Bent forks mean the front wheel will not track straight, so it fights the chock or refuses to enter it. A machine that cannot stand at all has to be supported while it is strapped. There is often no usable strap point left on the impact side, which forces an asymmetric tie-down and a slower, more careful load. Spilled fuel and a damaged battery are dealt with before anything is lifted, and loose bodywork, a hanging exhaust or a cracked screen is secured or removed so it does not come off on the A406.
Two things matter to riders more than they expect. The first is your kit: helmet, gloves, panniers, phone, tools and the contents of a top box come with you, not away with the bike. The second is evidence. Photograph the scene and the machine before anything moves, including road position, the other vehicle, its number plate and the damage on both, because once the bike is on the deck that scene is gone permanently and those pictures are what supports a claim later. We will also agree with you where the machine goes: secure storage, a dealer, or the garage you already trust.
If the accident was not your fault, the recovery costs you nothing. Recovery, storage and a replacement machine can be arranged with the cost recovered from the at-fault driver's insurer instead of from you, there is nothing to pay up front, and going down this route does not touch your own no-claims discount. Riders often assume a replacement means a car; where it is appropriate a replacement bike can be arranged instead, which matters a great deal if you ride for a living. To be clear about the boundary: we arrange the recovery and refer you to our sister service at citygripclaims.co.uk, which handles the claim itself. We do not advise you on the claim.
Mopeds, delivery riders and stolen-bike recovery in London
For a delivery rider the recovery fee is rarely the real cost. The bike is the income, so the number that hurts is the hours not worked while it sits on a pavement in Hackney or outside a grocery hub in Southwark. That is why this work clusters where the riders are: Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Southwark, Camden, Westminster and the ring of fast-food and dark-store sites around them. It is also why the useful question on the phone is not only what it costs but where the bike needs to be by tonight. Multi-bike and repeat work for small fleets is quoted the same way as a single job: agreed on the phone, before anyone sets off.
London is the powered-two-wheeler theft capital of the UK and it is not close. Figures compiled monthly from the Police National Computer by Bennetts BikeSocial record 487 machines stolen in the Metropolitan Police area in July 2026 and 601 in June 2026, against a UK total of 2,024 in July. The next worst force areas that month were Sussex on 102 and West Midlands on 89. One point worth making, because this is a number people quote loosely: there is no official London moped theft statistic. The Met's published crime dataset has no powered-two-wheeler category and folds two-wheelers into theft of a motor vehicle, and the ONS crime survey stopped estimating motorcycle theft after 2016. Anyone quoting you a precise London total is quoting an estimate.
When your bike does turn up, it is rarely in a convenient state. Stolen-recovered machines usually have a smashed ignition, no key, a locked steering lock and often a snapped chain or a mangled disc lock still fitted, which is exactly the skates-and-lift job described above. They also get dumped where a transporter cannot go: an estate walkway, a bollarded alley, a canal towpath, or an underground car park behind a 1.9 metre height barrier. And the clock is running. Under the statutory charges for England and Wales, removing a two-wheeled vehicle is £150 whatever its condition or where it is found, storage is £10 for every 24-hour period or part of one, and disposal is £50. Bring the V5C, photo ID and your crime reference number, because the pound will not release the machine without them.
What motorbike recovery costs in London
Motorbike, scooter and moped recovery starts from £80 in London, with no call-out fee, and the price is agreed on the phone before anyone sets off. What moves it from there is predictable: the machine itself, because a 126 kg scooter and a 407 kg tourer are not the same load; the distance; whether the bike rolls; whether it has keys; how bad the access is; the time of day; and whether the job needs a second person. Longer transport out of London is priced per mile on top of the collection, so a move from Leyton to Leeds is quoted as one number rather than surprising you at the far end.
For context on the market, national operators advertise local bike recovery from around £49, London operators typically start at around £80, and the figure widely quoted for a single call-out and recovery with no breakdown cover in place is around £250. London starts higher for unglamorous reasons: traffic, red routes, restricted access and longer load times. The quote you should actually be wary of is the cheap one given without a single question about what you ride, whether it rolls and where it is standing, because that figure is going to change once the driver sees the bike.
If you already hold breakdown cover and it responds, use it, and you will not need us. The gaps are worth knowing before you are standing in the rain. Policies commonly exclude the exact reason you have stopped: no fuel, a puncture, a machine over a certain age, or a vehicle deemed unroadworthy. The exclusion that catches London riders hardest is hire and reward, because a large number of delivery riders are covered for personal use only, and the moment the bike is being used to earn, the policy does not respond. A pay-per-job recovery has no policy conditions to argue with. You get a price, you say yes, we come.
Moving a bike that cannot legally be ridden
A bike does not have to be broken to need a truck. Untaxed or SORN machines, expired or failed MOTs, an auction buy you have not insured yet, an import awaiting registration, a project bike going to a specialist: none of these may lawfully be ridden on a public road. The one narrow exception is a pre-booked MOT appointment, and even then the journey must be to or from that booking by a reasonably direct route, and the machine still has to be insured for it. Outside that exception the lawful way to move it is on a trailer or a recovery vehicle. It is worth doing the sums too, because the MOT fee for a motorcycle is capped at £29.65 regardless of engine size, so booking the test is often cheaper than repeatedly transporting an untested bike.
ULEZ catches riders out in both directions. TfL requires motorcycles, mopeds, tricycles and quadricycles to meet Euro 3 to avoid the daily charge, which in practice means most machines first registered from July 2007 onward, and a non-compliant machine ridden into the zone pays £12.50 a day. Motorcycles remain exempt from the Congestion Charge. The part that helps a transport job is that a bike carried on the back of a compliant recovery vehicle is a load, not a vehicle entering the zone, so moving a non-compliant classic into or across London on a truck does not trigger a daily charge for the bike. Check your own machine on TfL's vehicle checker if you are not certain of its status.
The honest answer to whether you can just tow it home yourself is no, not usefully. A motorcycle has no towing eye, and under tow it still needs a rider on board doing the steering and the braking, on a machine that may have failed brakes or a seized wheel, behind a rope that goes slack and snatches every time the car in front lifts off. The law in the other direction, bikes pulling trailers, sits in regulation 84 of the Construction and Use Regulations 1986: a solo motorcycle of 125 cc or less may not draw a trailer at all, and one over 125 cc may only draw a trailer up to 1 metre wide, no more than 2.5 metres from the rear axle to the back of the trailer, no more than 254 kg unladen, and laden no more than 150 kg or two thirds of the bike's kerbside weight, whichever is lower, with weight markings displayed and nobody carried in the trailer. There is one written exception: those limits do not apply where the trailer is a broken-down motorcycle with one person riding it.
What to do while you wait, and where we can reach you
On an ordinary road, get yourself and the machine off the carriageway if you can, put the hazard lights on if you are obstructing traffic, and wear something high visibility. The Highway Code asks for a warning triangle at least 45 metres behind the vehicle where it is safe to place one. Then stand somewhere a distracted driver will not reach you, not beside the bike. If you have gone down, or fuel is leaking, that is a 999 call before it is a recovery call.
On a motorway or smart motorway the rules change completely, and the triangle rule reverses: never place one on the carriageway. Go left, get out on the left, get behind the safety barrier where there is one, and stay well back from the machine. The Highway Code is explicit that if you cannot reach a place of relative safety you should call 999 and ask for the police, and that you should not return to the vehicle. A hard shoulder is not safety, and the Code says as much, noting it offers less protection than other places because it sits so close to high-speed traffic. Never push a bike across live lanes. On a red route the problem is money as well as risk: you cannot legally stop there, and the penalty charge is £160, reduced to £80 if paid within the period stated on the notice, which is why speed of removal on a red route has a cash value attached to it.
We cover all 32 London boroughs, the City, the M25 and the main arteries in and out of the capital, and we go beyond the motorway network when a bike has to travel further. The access cases specific to bikes are the ones worth flagging when you call: underground and multi-storey car parks with a height barrier, estate walkways and bollarded alleys, canal towpaths, railway arch workshops and basement garages with a tight ramp. Tell us the access on the phone and the right answer comes with us, which is usually skates and a lift rather than a bigger vehicle. If the machine is genuinely somewhere no recovery vehicle can reach, we will say so rather than turn up and charge you, and we will tell you what has to happen first, which is normally moving the bike a short distance by hand to a point a truck can get to. The same number handles car recovery from £80, jump starts from £60, fuel delivery from £70, and accident recovery across London.
Frequently asked questions
How much does motorbike recovery cost in London?
Motorbike, scooter and moped recovery starts from £80 in London, with no call-out fee and the price agreed on the phone before anyone sets off. The final figure depends on the machine's weight, the distance, whether it rolls, whether it has keys, the access at both ends and the time of day. Longer transport is priced per mile on top of the collection.
Do you recover mopeds and 50cc scooters?
Yes, and they are their own job rather than a small motorbike. Small 12 and 13 inch wheels can drop through a chock built for a 17 inch motorcycle wheel, plastic panels crack under a hook, and a step-through frame leaves few hard points for a strap, so scooters and mopeds travel in a scooter chock or a cradle.
Will you strap my bike by the handlebars?
No. Rubber-mounted bars compress under strap tension and let the strap creep, clip-ons sit below the yoke and give almost no usable angle, and some bars simply bend. Soft loops go around the fork legs or the triple clamp, which is a structural part of the bike, and nothing is ever hooked onto a lever, brake line, fairing or wiring loom.
Do you use a wheel chock, and why does it matter?
Yes. A front wheel chock captures the front wheel and holds the machine upright while it is strapped, and it is secured to the deck rather than left loose. It is what allows the bike to travel wheels down with the side stand folded up, which is the only safe way to move a machine you care about.
Can you recover a bike with no keys?
Yes. No keys is routine on stolen-recovered machines, auction buys and estate bikes. If the steering lock is engaged the bike cannot be steered onto a chock, so it goes onto wheel skates or dollies under each wheel, or comes up as a lift. Where ownership is not obvious we will ask for the V5C or photo identification before moving it.
Can you move a bike stuck in gear or with a seized engine?
Yes. If the rear wheel will not turn, the bike goes on a rear dolly or is lifted rather than rolled. A chain-drive bike with a snapped chain or a locked rear brake is never dragged, because dragging it wrecks the swingarm, sprocket or caliper. Tell us on the phone so the right equipment comes out with the driver.
Can you collect a bike the police or council have recovered?
Yes. Bring the V5C, photo identification and your crime reference number, because the pound will not release the machine without them. Under the statutory charges for England and Wales, removal of a two-wheeled vehicle is £150 whatever its condition, storage is £10 for each 24-hour period, and disposal is £50, so collecting quickly saves money.
Do you recover non-runners, project bikes and auction buys?
Yes, and it is a large share of the work. Non-runners, barn finds, imports awaiting registration and bikes bought online are collected and delivered as planned jobs rather than emergencies. When you call, tell us whether the machine rolls, whether it steers and whether it has keys, because those three answers decide both the equipment and the price.
Can you transport a bike with no tax, MOT or insurance?
Yes. Carrying it on a recovery vehicle is the lawful way to move a SORN, untaxed, untested or uninsured machine. The only exception that allows you to ride is a journey to or from a pre-booked MOT appointment by a reasonably direct route, and even then the bike still has to be insured for that trip.
Do you recover heavy tourers and Gold Wings?
Yes, with the equipment that job needs. A Honda Gold Wing GL1800 is around 407 kg wet, roughly three times the weight of a Honda PCX125 and heavier than four adults, so it needs a winch or two people, a wider chock and rated lashings rather than hardware-shop ratchet straps. Tell us the model when you call.
Can you reach a bike in an underground car park?
Usually yes, but not with the truck itself. Most underground and multi-storey car parks have a height barrier around 1.9 metres, so the machine is brought up or out to the vehicle on skates or by hand first. Mention the height bar, the ramp gradient and any bollards when you call so the right kit comes with the driver.
Do you cover delivery riders and small fleets?
Yes. Delivery work makes up a large part of the moped and scooter recovery we do across Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Southwark, Camden and Westminster. Multi-bike and repeat jobs are quoted the same way as a single recovery, agreed on the phone. Bear in mind that many personal breakdown policies exclude hire and reward use entirely.
Is it legal to tow a motorbike with a car or a rope?
It is neither practical nor safe. A motorcycle has no towing eye, and under tow it still needs a rider steering and braking a machine that may have failed brakes or a seized wheel, behind a rope that snatches every time the car ahead lifts off. Recovery from £80 is not worth risking a rider and a bike to avoid.
Can my motorbike tow a trailer?
Under regulation 84 of the Construction and Use Regulations 1986, a solo motorcycle of 125 cc or less may not draw a trailer at all. Over 125 cc, the trailer must be under 1 metre wide, under 254 kg unladen, and laden no more than 150 kg or two thirds of the bike's kerbside weight. Broken-down motorcycles being towed are excepted.
Is recovery free after a non-fault accident?
If the accident was not your fault, the recovery costs you nothing. Recovery, storage and a replacement machine can be arranged with the cost recovered from the at-fault driver's insurer, there is nothing to pay up front, and it does not affect your no-claims discount. Where appropriate, a replacement bike rather than a car can be arranged.
Do I need breakdown cover, or can I just pay for one recovery?
If you hold cover and it responds, use it. Policies commonly exclude the exact reason you have stopped: no fuel, a puncture, an older machine, or hire and reward use, which catches a great many delivery riders. A pay-per-job recovery has no policy conditions to argue with, so you get a price on the phone and a straight yes or no.
How quickly can you get to me?
We will not quote a time we cannot hold, because London traffic and the access at your end decide it rather than a marketing promise. When you call we give you a realistic window for your location and stick to it, and if anything changes on the way we tell you rather than leave you standing at the roadside guessing.
Do you carry electric motorcycles and e-scooters?
An undamaged electric bike or scooter loads and straps like any other machine. A lithium pack that has been crashed, submerged, has swollen, or is giving off heat or an unusual smell is a thermal runaway risk, so tell us on the phone and we will say honestly whether we are able to carry it that day.
Updated August 2026. Lines open 24 hours. Call 07960 200253.
Bike down? Tell us what you ride and where it is standing.
Call or WhatsApp 07960 200253 for a price agreed before anyone sets off. Motorbike, scooter and moped recovery from £80, 24 hours a day, across every London postcode and the M25. After a non-fault accident, the recovery costs you nothing.