Passes & Canyons Blog

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.

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.