[moto-tom]

Hi lads,

I have been thinking about this for a little while now and it seems like the bike rental market is really underserved!

I constantly want to borrow a bike if I am going on vacation or have some friends in town but commercial rental seems expensive and limited to a bunch of BMWs.

Has anyone borrowed/rented a bike off a mate? Do you think that is something people would go for, like airbnb but for your bikes?

Let me know your thoughts! Cheers :biggrin:

 

[hogcowboy]

May not be this site but I've seen this question before. Sounds good on the surface. Just not so sure I'd want to participate. People just haven't given me much reason to trust them anymore. Too many wackos now. Good luck to those that have done it though.

 

[Eye_m_no_angel]

So, some dude I don't know can come give me a few bucks and take one of my bikes for a ride? Are you serious? :coffeescreen:

 

[Dodsfall]

I have a feeling that the insurance company is going to have some things to say about renting your motorcycle out. My guess is that the rates would go way up.

 

[Metaldoc]

Having performed a LOT of repair work for a tool & equipment rental place, it's obvious people will not exercise care for anything they rent. They tend to use it hard thinking since they've paid for some time, it's theirs to do with as they wish.

They will beat it to crap and then bring it back with nary a concern.

I realize that's painting with a very broad brush but it's applicable to a large enough percentage to make the rental business very unattractive, especially for fine machines like motorcycles.

 

[Critter]

So, some dude I don't know can come give me a few bucks and take one of my bikes for a ride? Are you serious? :coffeescreen:

I have some loose change, will that work?

 

[moto-tom]

Interesting and thanks for replying.

So what if insurance was sorted by the company providing the rental platform (including breakdown cover) and the guy renting had been checked by the DMV or the DVLA (UK) and had no points/claims.

Completely get your point MetalDoc that people may use the bikes hard but I know I certainly couldn't put an Ninja to its mechanical limit and ragging it along a canyon is what half of these bikes were made for!

Thanks for the responses though guys! Really interesting to hear your concerns - Would be interesting to hear from guys and girls with bikes in the garage which don't get much use and could use some income from them.

 

[Porky]

There are only a few people in the world that I would even let ride my bike more less rent or lease it.

There's a very nice and knowledgeable member here who thinks nothing of using his Gorgeous Victory dresser for a dirt/ adventure bike. I wouldn't treat that VIC that way if it was given to me and I was told to do so--no way JOSE---that's Mexican for Joe, I just treat bikes like they mean something. Some people just treat things with respect but others don't. It would be my luck that the latter would get my bike:frown:

I don't think you are from the United States but if you GOOGLE motorcycle rentals, they are everywhere. Good luck.

Sam:biggrin:

 

[jag13]

So, some dude I don't know can come give me a few bucks and take one of my bikes for a ride? Are you serious? :coffeescreen:

I agree!
To me it's too close to prostitution. "I'm on vacation and couldn't bring my wife, would you let me ride yours while I'm in town? I'm willing to pay you, and I'll be gentle. I promise." Ahhh...No!

I'm not trusting my bike to someone who can't afford to rent one.

 

[Critter]

Pork - I bet that Vic is better cared for than a lot of the 'cleaned and polished' bike you see in front of your local watering hole.

you don't take any bike to the places he does without taking care of it,

Sure it gets dirty but that washes off

 

[Luvs2Play]

I wouldn't rent or loan a bike to anyone for the simple fact that I don't know if they can even ride. Then, I wouldn't want to be responsible for them killing themselves when they lied to me and told me they could ride.

 

[gfcornejo]

somebody is doing it

hey Tom, these guys are doing your idea: RidersShare. Look them up

seems like they have it figured out (insurance, DMV checks, deposits from renters, etc.)

what do you think?

 

[PanicRevv]

It would have to be a similar system to AirBNB where there is accountability - credit card on file, proof of insurance for something like this, reviews from hosts, etc...

I think it could work and obviously you wouldn't be renting out your pride and joy to some random jabroni.

 

[gfcornejo]

It would have to be a similar system to AirBNB where there is accountability - credit card on file, proof of insurance for something like this, reviews from hosts, etc...

I think it could work and obviously you wouldn't be renting out your pride and joy to some random jabroni.

Where I see potential is if they lower costs significantly. Motorcycle rentals are expensive because of insurance. If you only take low-risk renters, insurance costs can be cut down a ton. Then it becomes cheap to rent motorcycles and easy to make money off them - overall, it becomes more affordable to ride. And we end up with more riders, riding more often and therefore more motorcycle awareness -> less dead people per mile ridden

 

[Oldman47]

My guess is the reason bike rentals are so darned expensive is due to many of the same reasons people are giving here for why they would never rent out a bike.

 

[gfcornejo]

My guess is the reason bike rentals are so darned expensive is due to many of the same reasons people are giving here for why they would never rent out a bike.

Commercial insurance for a single motorcycle is $3500. Pretty sure with that cost, you need to charge a lot of money for them...especially since people mostly rent during weekends

 

[Unkle Krusty]

Rent

There are three ways to wreck a product.

Rent it out. Let the dealer test it. Loan it out.

At a bike shop where I worked we also had boats for sale, and some for rent.
We would get canoes and small sail boats returned in two pieces. the damage to the rental boats was similar.

At the Honda Canada national dealer gettogether in Banff, at the Banff Springs hotel, the four wheel Honda Odessey was introduced. We called them oddities.
The dealers crashed a bunch of them while testing. This was about 1976.

I have been loaned a bike at the track on several occasions. I might be the only one given the privilege.
If I loaned / rented my SV1000S, I would be certain it would get dropped.

Unkle Krusty*

 

[gfcornejo]

There are three ways to wreck a product.

Rent it out. Let the dealer test it. Loan it out.

At a bike shop where I worked we also had boats for sale, and some for rent.
We would get canoes and small sail boats returned in two pieces. the damage to the rental boats was similar.

At the Honda Canada national dealer gettogether in Banff, at the Banff Springs hotel, the four wheel Honda Odessey was introduced. We called them oddities.
The dealers crashed a bunch of them while testing. This was about 1976.

I have been loaned a bike at the track on several occasions. I might be the only one given the privilege.
If I loaned / rented my SV1000S, I would be certain it would get dropped.

Unkle Krusty*

There are 5 companies doing the same concept with boats successfully. It matters who you rent to. But yeah, I would not put a supersports bike in there

 

[TennesseeZ]

So, some dude I don't know can come give me a few bucks and take one of my bikes for a ride? Are you serious? :coffeescreen:

Hmmmmm.:coffeescreen:.....I agree, I think Not
Ed

 

[gfcornejo]

Hmmmmm.:coffeescreen:.....I agree, I think Not
Ed

What if it's $2,000 for a month? Or $300 for a weekend?