Can I Take Your Bike For The Day?
Thursday, April 19th, 2018
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!
