Passes & Canyons Blog

Consider this remark:

“People think it’s pretty glamorous, and it is. I’m doing a dream job, riding motorcycles. But it’s a hell of a lot of work.”

That summation comes from a motorcycle demo ride leader, someone paid to ride motorcycles all day and take other people for rides. A dream job indeed.

Until you consider the long hours, low pay, and general crud work it so often entails. This behind-the-scenes look at the world of demo riding comes via an experienced ride leader, who declines to be named, but whom we we call AJ.

Demo rides are a big tactic in motorcycle sales. When you buy a car you take it for a test drive. When you want to buy a motorcycle, generally you can’t just hop on it and go ride. Even experienced riders are more prone to accidents on an unfamiliar bike, and dealers are understandably reluctant to entrust an expensive new bike to a rider whose skill level is unknown. Thus, many motorcyclists end up buying a bike they have never ridden.

Would you buy a car you had never driven? That’s where demo rides come in. Some times a dealership will bring in a truckload of bikes that are sent around by the factory for the purpose of giving riders an opportunity to test ride them. At other times, one or more brands will send their trucks loaded with bikes to motorcycle rallies or other events. Prospective riders have to register, show their motorcycle-validated driver’s license, have a helmet and other required gear, and sign a waiver absolving the company if the rider gets hurt.

Once riders are assigned to their bikes for a particular demo ride, they follow a ride leader, who rides the designated route, controls the speed, and does what he or she can to ensure a safe, fun ride. In most cases there is also another ride guide at the rear–the sweep–to deal with any problems that might occur.

“We chat them up at registration,” says AJ, “trying to determine their riding skill. Sometimes we have to tactfully steer someone who is maybe five-foot-two away from a taller bike that they’re interested in to a shorter one that fits them better.”

Despite everyone’s best efforts, accidents sometimes do happen.

“Last season we had a rider who missed the curve and went straight off the road into the forest,” says AJ. “The bike bounced off a number of trees and was totaled, but the rider was OK. I had to consider the safety of the rest of the group and in the meantime, the riders in the next group had no idea what had happened. Crashes are difficult. We try to minimize them, but they do happen. It’s a dangerous sport.”

Not All Riders Are Trustworthy
And sometimes the riders simply lie about their ability.

AJ tells of one rider who signed up for the smallest bike, then rode very slowly, didn’t stay in the lane, and held up the group. Half-way through the ride the ride leader pulled over and asked him how it was going.

“Fine,” he said, “I’m just nervous.”

“Well, today’s your lucky day, you’re gonna get to ride with me,” she told him, ending his solo ride.

He climbed on behind her and while it is customary for the passenger to hold onto the rider, his hands kept sliding up over her breasts. She shoved them down repeatedly and when she recognized the same guy the following year she spread the word that no one should allow him to ride.

In another instance, says AJ, “I had one woman who signed up saying she had been riding for 15 years. Then she ended up looking to me more as an instructor. She started out starting out stalling the bike repeatedly, she nearly dropped it, and she got very flustered. In a situation like that you have to handle it tactfully, and not turn them against the brand. As the leader, I told her to come back at 5 p.m. and I’d do a solo ride with her. That defused it and got her out of the public eye. She came back at 5 and I took her for a couple laps around the parking lot.”

Of course, ultimately the ride leader’s job is to help sell motorcycles.

“I bend over backwards for a serious potential buyer,” says AJ. “In order to accommodate riders I’ll sometimes suck it up and do one more ride at end of day, whatever is necessary to make them feel important.”

Those days can be very long.

“We get there a couple hours before first ride goes out, check he bikes, warm them up, set everything up, and then we haul ass all day long.”

The work begins with unpacking the trailer and setting up awnings and the demo area. Every load is different, there are no diagrams, and, says AJ, “It’s a little bit of organized chaos.”

Once set up, it can be a challenge to keep things flowing smoothly. Every hour you must “get the ride out on time, deal with a group of riders of varying abilities, get them off the bikes, chat them up, and then get the next group out. There’s no time for anything, not even potty breaks. We barely have time to eat, and you can’t eat in front of the public. You’ll step behind the truck and grab two bites of a sandwich—if someone thought to provide food.”

Packing up at the end is also, in AJ’s words, “a real drag. They don’t want to pay for an extra day so we have to pack up everything after a full day of demo rides, then hope they don’t fly you home on the red eye. I’m pretty wiped out after an event.”
The employment arrangement for ride leaders varies by manufacturer. One brand may hire contractors directly to staff their programs, while another may outsource the function to a company that itself brings in contractors. One company, Yamaha, has hired employees specifically to do demo rides and, at least at times, Harley-Davidson has held lotteries in their factories, with the winners getting paid to go out on the road with the demo trucks.

Despite the negatives, however, AJ does still describe this as “a dream job.”

“We do get to go to cool places and ride motorcycles—if you have the energy to do that after working all day. But there is much that goes on behind the scenes that the riders just don’t know.”

Perhaps not so much now.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Only a biker knows . . .: Motorcycle wit and wisdom, #31

Biker Quote for Today

I have friends, and I know other motorcyclists. But truly the best are friends who are motorcyclists.

Tags: dream job

This entry was posted on Monday, March 3rd, 2014 at 11:52 am and is filed under Motorcycle demo rides. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.