Archive for the ‘motorcycle rental’ Category

Motorcycles And The Sharing Economy

Monday, March 22nd, 2021

The RMMRC stopped at Carter Lake after leaving Severance.

The RMMRC rode up to Bruce’s in Severance a few weeks ago and while there we got in a conversation with our waitress.

It turns out she and her guy ride motorcycles and they were planning a trip in a couple weeks, going to Florida to visit family. While there they planned to rent a bike and cruise over to Daytona for Daytona Bike Week. But, oh man, the regular rental places were in full mercenary mode.

In addition to the usual high price of about $175 a day, they wanted more because it was Bike Week and they knew they could get it. As in an extra $500. It was kind of like when I went to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. We got there a week before the official start to the event and ate every morning inexpensively at this particular restaurant. One morning we showed up and there was a new menu with all the same items but double the price. We asked why and the waitress told us, “Oh, that’s our carnival menu.”

No surprise then that these folks were not inclined to pay that much. She’s working in a restaurant in Severance, for Pete’s sake, they’re not wealthy. But they found an alternative: Riders Share.

I’ve written recently about Riders Share but I have never used the service or known anyone who has. But there she was. And presumably it worked out well for them. They had some nice cruiser bike lined up and as I recall it was going to cost them just around $100 a day for five days, with insurance included. You can’t beat that with a stick.

I’ve always found this concept interesting and seductive. I have three motorcycles. Why not make a little extra cash by renting them out on occasion? But that’s where you get into issues.

For instance, I have a 1980 Honda CB750 Custom. It’s an old bike, and not worth a whole lot. But hey! It’s the first motorcycle I ever bought. It was a dream come true, and I still love that bike. Sure, insurance would cover the financial loss if something happened to it but this bike is irreplaceable. It has so much emotion tied up in it. Exactly how horrible would I feel if someone else smashed it beyond redemption?

Well, what about my 1999 Kawasaki Concours? I don’t have the emotional attachment to this bike that I do with the Honda. And from time to time I have seen basically identical bikes in excellent condition for sale for essentially peanuts. The same is true for my 2006 Suzuki V-Strom 650. I love the bike but it could be replaced.

So for me it now gets to the question of what’s the point? There were a lot of years when I was scraping by and a bit of extra cash now and then would have been extremely helpful. But I’m retired now, and I’m doing fine financially. As I have said many times, if I needed more money I would not have retired. So no, I don’t think I’ll be listing my bikes for rent.

On the other hand, I do like having a bike to ride when I go somewhere, but I really don’t like the high prices the big companies charge. Something like Riders Share seems to me to be the perfect way to go. By the way, there is another company doing the same thing, called Twisted Road. If you’re planning a trip and want a bike to ride you might think seriously about checking out what is available on both these sites. I sure would.

Biker Quote for Today

Motorcycles are not all about speed. It is a feeling, and emotion, but also my therapy.

Rent To Ride

Monday, November 30th, 2020
Canada on a Harley

Judy shot this from behind me as we cruised through British Columbia on the rented Harley.

Judy went straight to the core: “The worst thing about renting a motorcycle is that it’s not your own.”

She was right on the money in two senses. First, unless you rent a bike that is just like the one you ride at home, you’re on an unfamiliar machine. Second, if you damage a rented bike it’s probably going to cost you a lot more money than if you did the same damage to your own.

This was all very much on both our minds a few years ago as we spent two days riding in British Columbia on a rented Harley-Davidson Electra Glide Classic. We chose the Electra Glide because it was the only bike the company had that came with full passenger accommodations and I wanted Judy to have the ultimate in comfort. The consequence of that choice was that we were not only on an unfamiliar machine, but on an extremely heavy unfamiliar machine.

I consider my wife to be the most precious cargo I ever carry and I had never before taken her on a bike I was not already thoroughly familiar with. The idea of climbing on this bike for the first time, her climbing on behind me, and riding off made me a bit nervous. But I took it easy, and was cautious, and all went well at the start.

I quickly started learning about the quirks of the bike, however. I’m accustomed to coming to a stop and putting my feet down at a point where I can plant them for maximum stability. On the Electra Glide, I would put my feet down and think I had solid footing but with the bike still rolling just a bit the passenger floorboards would run up against my calves and push my feet forward. That doesn’t happen on any of my three bikes. The buddy pegs are back further on all of them.

Things like that I could adjust to but I never adjusted to the extreme weight of this bike. It has a low center of gravity so it’s very stable on the highway, but at slow speeds it can tip and if that much weight once gets going sideways there’s nothing I could do to restrain it.

The issue really presented itself in the parking garage at the place we were staying in Whistler. The floor was very smooth, slippery concrete and the turns to get to where we needed to park were numerous and very tight. With either of my bikes I could navigate that route easily, and with a lot more experience on the Electra Glide I could probably do the same, but I didn’t have that experience. After a couple times we made it easier by Judy getting off or on at the entrance to the garage.

The issue of cost was also ever present in my mind. My Honda is old and is only worth maybe $700. If I did damage to it that would cost $2,000 to repair I’d probably just buy another old, used bike for a lot less. My Kawasaki is also getting older but I carry collision insurance on it, with a $250 deductible. And I only paid $3,000 for the Suzuki.

With this rental we had the option of paying $18 a day and having a $2,000 deductible, or $24 a day and having a $1,000 deductible. We went with the lower deductible but that still meant we could be liable for $1,000. Our rental was costing us $350 for two days already and the thought of it costing $1,350 was not comforting.

Of course, I never expected to do any damage to the bike, but that’s why they call them “accidents.” And while we never did have even any close encounters with other vehicles, there was one time when I came perilously close to dropping the bike.

We were on a very scenic stretch of road and turned into a pull-out to have a better look. The pull-out was gravel, and the gravel turned out to be deeper than I anticipated. With that big, heavy machine that I was not all that familiar with, it was an incredibly tense moment.

Within the space of six heartbeats I alternated between believing we were going down, to profound relief that I had recovered it, to certainty that we were going down, to elation that we weren’t, to horror once more, and finally to breathing a huge, huge sigh of relief as the bike finally came to a stop upright. I’m sure the only thing that enabled me to keep that bike up was adrenaline.

Bottom line: We’ll never rent that heavy a bike again. And while it’s great to be able to fly off somewhere far away and then have a bike to ride, it’s not all pleasure. We had a great time but next time we’ll have a much better idea of what to expect.

Biker Quote for Today

I’m not addicted to my motorcycle, we’re just in a committed relationship.

Check Out Riders Share For Nicely Priced Motorcycle Rentals

Thursday, October 29th, 2020
The Riders Share website.

The Riders Share website.

Have you ever rented a motorcycle? It’s really great to go somewhere on vacation and get a bike to ride around but if you go through any of the major rental outfits you’re going to pay an arm and a leg. As I recall, the last time I rented a Harley from Eagle Rider it cost me above $150 per day. Ouch! That’s a lot of money if you’re looking at a week-long trip.

I’ve written about a couple different rental options, basically the sharing economy thing, as with AirBnB, such as Twisted Road. Well, I recently learned of another such outfit: Riders Share. I would have sworn I had written about them before but multiple searches of this blog turns up nothing, so maybe I haven’t. In that case, now is the time.

Looking at the Riders Share site, they list cities where they operate. For Denver they say they have 64+ bikes for rent. There’s quite a range. For $150 a day there is a 2004 Honda CB600F. There’s a 2018 BMW R Ninet Scrambler for $122 a day. There are a bunch of scooters for $38 to $40 a day. A 2015 Suzuki GSX-S750ZL5 for $72 a day. In Fort Lupton there is a Honda VT1100C2 Shadow Sabre for $52 a day. In Westminster there’s a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R for $53 a day. In Lakewood there’s a 2004 Harley FLSTFI Fat Boy for $67 a day. You get the picture.

These are realistic prices that won’t break the bank. Plus, it works the other way. Riders Share does not own these bikes, they’re owned by people like you and me who have agreed to rent their bikes out to other folks. I’m not sure what the price split is between the website and the owner but if you’re interested I’m sure they’ll be happy to explain it all to you.

A few things about the website. On the home page they have a listing of cities where they operate and you can click on the city and be taken to those listings. Looking at what was offered I clicked to see more and found myself cycling through the same seven or eight bikes, not the 64+ they claimed for Denver. Looking around I found that if I used the map on the home page to zero in on the Denver area they have an interactive map that shows you every offering within that map area. That’s where you see all the other available bikes. If you’re interested in a particular price range or specific make they have filters for that.

Unfortunately, if I clicked to see one particular bike and then hit the Back button it took me all the way back to their headquarters in the Los Angeles area. Then I had to drag the map back to Denver to look at another. Again and again. I suspect that if you sign up as a user they have it set to you can always return to your specific area. Or something of that sort. Boy, if they don’t, they really need to. OK, digging around further I see they do have that option. You just have to plug in the city where you want to focus. Good.

So this looks like a good option. I know there have been plenty of times I’ve been somewhere away from home and wished I could go for a ride in the area. Now maybe that can happen.

Biker Quote for Today

100 Reasons not to date a motorcyclist: We rev our engines when going under bridges.

Can I Take Your Bike For The Day?

Thursday, April 19th, 2018
Twisted Road website

The Twisted Road website.

How do you feel about handing over the keys to your motorcycle to a total stranger–even a thoroughly vetted stranger–in exchange for a bit of cash.

For most riders, that is not going to happen.

Imagine, you’ve got your totally farkled out baby, your only bike, that you love like it’s your child and that no one–absolutely no one–better mess with it. Rent it to a stranger for a day or two? Not gonna happen.

But what if you own six bikes, and while you love them all, none of them are all that special. And they all cost money to maintain and keep running, and by renting one or another of them out from time to time you can significantly defray that expense. You just might consider it.

Enter Twisted Road. Think of AirBnB for motorcycles. You register, you meet the requirements (valid, current license), and when you’re going to be somewhere with some cool riding, you locate a bike and rent it. For a whole lot less than the approximately $200/day that the big boys charge.

Or if you’re the one renting out the bike, you set the daily price you’re comfortable with while Twisted Road vets the potential renters in advance.

This is a business that might work.

So Judy asked me, would I rent out one of my bikes? (Because I would totally rent someone else’s.) Let’s see. My friends who rent bikes as a business tell me how often their dual-sport bikes come back damaged, so no, I don’t think I would rent the V-Strom. The Concours has a lot of expensive bodywork and it is my number one bike these days so no, I would not be inclined to risk it in anyone else’s hands.

That leaves the CB750. Let’s face it, I only paid $800 for it when I bought it nearly 30 years ago and while I love it–it’s my first bike I ever owned–I’m not afraid of letting other people ride it. So yeah, maybe I’d rent the Honda. Maybe.

You might think that other people would be equally reluctant to rent out their nicer bikes but a look at what is available might surprise you. Let’s just list a few.

  • 2011 Triumph Street Triple–$110/day
  • 2017 Harley Softtail–$99/day
  • 2014 Ducati Diavel–$125/day
  • 2012 Yamaha Road Star–$130/day
  • 2014 Yamaha WRR250R–$89/day
  • 2004 BMW R1150R–$95/day
  • 2012 Ducati 1199 Panigale–$250/day
  • 2003 Honda Shadow 750–$75/day

OK, there are a lot of bikes listed that are not at all shabby. If all you wanted was a bike to run around on for a couple days and have fun, I for one would be very interested in that Shadow 750 for $75 a day.

One thing that’s funny about it all is this “Dumb and Dumber” aspect. In the news article I saw that brought this to my attention, the guy running this business, Austin Rothbard, said he polled riders to see how many would be willing to rent their bikes out and how many would be willing to rent someone else’s bike to ride. He found that 85 percent of owners would not be willing to rent, while 70 percent of riders would not be willing to rent someone else’s bike.

“So you’re saying there’s a chance!?”

Right. That means 15 percent of owners would be willing to rent their bikes while 30 percent of riders would be willing to rent.

And so we have Twisted Road.

Biker Quote for Today

Warning: Tampering with my motorcycle may result in an ass whoopin’ you’ll never forget!

Sidecar Tours Now Available In Colorado

Monday, December 19th, 2016
The City on the Side website.

The City on the Side website.

My thanks to Alan for giving me a heads-up on this: An outfit called City on the Side is now offering motorcycle sidecar tours in Colorado. They offer predefined tours or you are free to tell them where you want to go and what you want to see. They will take up to two passengers on their Ural sidecar rigs, one in the sidecar and the other riding pillion behind the “sidecarist.”

From the City on the Side website homepage:

side-car (sid’kar) n.
1. An extraordinary form of transportation that brings diverse people together for a multitude of reasons, the most prominent being sheer enjoyment!

Colorado can be discovered in many ways; however, none are as exhilarating and adventurous as on a classic Russian sidecar motorcycle! Our original and unique concept of tour operations delivers safe, unforgettable excursions creating memorable instances of excitement for all of our passengers.

City on the Side provides an exceptional sight-seeing journey, a different look, authentic and genuine, allowing passengers to experience Colorado from a completely unique perspective. An exhilarating, personal and private tour on a classic and glamorous Ural cT sidecar motorcycle. We are the premium sight-seeing tour experience, not available anywhere else in North America. Our passengers discover Colorado in the open-air, unconfined and free with 360° views of its breathtaking landscapes and magnificent beauty.

Four set tours are offered:

  • 1.5 Hour: Essential Denver City Tour — Various Attractions, Landmarks, Points of Interest in and around Downtown Denver
  • 4.0 Hour: North Mountain Exploration — Morrison, Idledale, Kittredge, Evergreen, Idaho Springs, Clear Creek Canyon & Golden
  • 4.0 Hour: South Mountain Exploration — Clear Creek Canyon, Central City, Golden Gate Canyon & Golden
  • 8.0 Hour: Peak to Peak / Estes Park — Clear Creek Canyon, Blackhawk, Nederland, Estes Park, Lyons, Golden Gate Canyon & Golden

Five extra services are also available:

  • Custom “Tailor-Made” Tours
  • We Do Weddings and Special Events
  • Give a Sidecar Motorcycle Tour as a Gift
  • Picnic Lunch in the Rocky Mountains
  • HD Quality Video of Your Experience

A guy named Scott Kirkwood is running this outfit, and while I haven’t had a chance to speak with him yet, I hope to do so soon. I’m always interested in these new companies that open up and offer motorcycle touring and/or rental opportunities. And you can bet I’ll be adding them to my Colorado Motorcycle Rentals and Tours page; in fact, by the time you read this I probably will have already done so.

Finally, I would personally like to offer my best wishes to these folks to make a terrific success of this endeavor. It sounds like something a lot of people might really go for.

Biker Quote for Today

Sometimes people around you won’t understand your journey. They don’t need to, it’s not for them.

Motorcycle Rental That Doesn’t Break The Bank

Thursday, December 17th, 2015
EagleRider World Headquarters, in Los Angeles

The EagleRider World Headquarters, in Los Angeles.

When you can rent a car for a day for as little as $35, why is it that renting a motorcycle will run you into the hundreds? I know that there have been plenty of times when I’ve been away from home and would have liked to rent a bike for a day or three but the cost would have been more than prohibitive. And there have been a couple times I have rented but man was it expensive!

Judging from a link Alan sent me it seems EagleRider may have figured out that if the price wasn’t as high they’d get more business. What they’ve come up with is something called Club EagleRider and if you join, for $29 a month, you get one day’s motorcycle rental for no extra charge per month. If you don’t use it one month that day’s rental accrues, so after seven months you would have seven days no-charge riding.

At $29 per day, times seven, that would be $203 for a seven-day rental. That’s about what I have paid EagleRider in the past for a one-day rental. Holy smokes!

Now, be aware that there are other expenses. Taxes and insurance are two, but if you drop the bike you can plan on paying a very hefty deductible for the slightest bit of damage.

Take our experience renting out of Vancouver, British Columbia. One thing EagleRider promotes as part of Club EagleRider is also getting a free rental on your birthday. Well, that’s a long-time policy and we took advantage of it back in 2011. So we had the bike for two days, one being my birthday, but after paying about $200 for one day’s rental, another $100 for taxes (this was Canada, where taxes are higher), and $50 for insurance, we ended up paying a total of $350. Ouch!

Now, the thing with insurance is that the cheapest you can get is about $50, if I remember correctly, and that’s with $2,000 deductible. If you want to pay more you can get it down to only a $1,000 deductible. In other words, if you do the bike any damage at all your expensive rental just got a heck of a lot more expensive, even with the lower deductible.

Now compare that to Club EagleRider. Say you take the bike for three days, no fee because you have three accrued days. Add the insurance: I don’t recall if you pay insurance by the day, but probably. So let’s say $25 a day for a total of $75. Then what about taxes? Again, my memory from four years ago is not crystal clear but I think we did not pay taxes for the day we got the bike free, my birthday. Is that how it would work here? Or would the government consider that paying for club membership is like rental so you pay taxes even though the bike is “free”?

Let’s be pessimistic and say you pay $50 taxes per day in the US. We’re now looking at a three-day rental costing $225. Figure in a year’s membership–$348–and it comes to $573 for a three-day rental. That’s still not cheap but we’re getting there.

Now let’s say you do a seven-day rental, with seven club days accrued.
Fees: 0
Insurance: $175
Taxes: $350
Total: $525 plus $348 = $873

Divide that by seven and it’s just shy of $125 a day. Now you’re starting to speak my language.

And what happens to that cost if you don’t pay that $50 a day for taxes? Three days total: $423, or $141 a day. Seven days total: $523 or $75 a day.

Do you get the picture? Motorcycle rental just got a lot more reasonable.

Now, I’m not going to join up this moment, but as we plan future trips I’m going to be factoring possible motorcycle rental in. And if it works into our plans I will definitely be joining up some months in advance of the trip. Thank you EagleRider for bringing this cost down to something I consider acceptable. But I do want to find out about the taxes; that will make a considerable difference. And I’m still going to be super cautious about putting even the tiniest ding in that bike.

Biker Quote for Today

Life is short. Break the rules, forgive quickly, laugh easily, keep it simple, ride often, ride free, and never regret anything that makes you smile.