An acquaintance of mine, recently un-employed, is considering setting up a new business renting motorcycles. He has rented from Eagle Rider in the past, and was turned off by the high cost and inconvenience. Specifically, he is looking at about $200/day or a thousand dollars a week. And flying into a city, he found that invariably the local Eagle Rider was many miles from the airport, and it was up to him to get there, then get back to the airport after he turned in the bike. Who has the resources to do that? Take a taxi?
No fans of H-D, we have talked about how it would be possible to build an inventory of bikes at very reasonable cost, avoiding H-D intentionally, buying clean used “metric” bikes for a fraction of what new or even late-model HD’s would cost.
Having ridden most HD models at one time or another, there is no question in my mind that substituting other bikes would result in no reduction in quality, comfort or performance. For example,
• For an E-Glide Ultra, substitute a Yamaha Royal Star Venture or the BMW R1200 touring bike (rare, but they do exist);
• For a Road King, substitute a Kawasaki Nomad, or a VTX1800 (suitably accessorized);
• For a Sportster, there are a dozen similar-but-better models from Honda and Yamaha.
Examples of all of these bikes can easily be found for $4,500 or less.
And there are many sportbikes and “adventure” bikes that people might also want to rent, and they can be purchased for less than $4,000.
He would have to get a mechanic on call who can do safety checks on all of them (here in PA, we also have an annual mandatory safety inspection).
The business would also include guided motorcycle tours of areas around us, and there would have to be some sort of provision to - like Enterprise car rentals – pick up the people and/or deliver the bikes.
Would people rent good, clean “metric” bikes? Assume $75-$100/day.
What bikes would have to be in inventory?
Our conclusion is that the best scenario would be to partner with an existing used motorcycle dealership – assuming there is such a thing.
Motorcycle Rentals
Re: Motorcycle Rentals
Sounds like a plan, but wouldn't insurance be prohibitive?
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
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oldr_n_wsr
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Re: Motorcycle Rentals
The mo-ped we rented in Bermuda cost us $65 per day (24 hours). Also had to pay $30 insurance. Forgot what that covered, but I don't think it was any injuries that I might sustain.
In Bermuda there are tons of mopeds/scooters. Car ownership is limited to one per household and costs upwards of $600 per year in registration fees. A household can have unlimited mopeds. Also, the countrywide speed limit is 20mph (maybe 25mph, I forget) making hte island much more 2 wheel friendly.
$100 per day sounds reasonable. The problem with MC's is a limited client pool and roads congested with non-mc friendly people, especially around airports.
In Bermuda there are tons of mopeds/scooters. Car ownership is limited to one per household and costs upwards of $600 per year in registration fees. A household can have unlimited mopeds. Also, the countrywide speed limit is 20mph (maybe 25mph, I forget) making hte island much more 2 wheel friendly.
$100 per day sounds reasonable. The problem with MC's is a limited client pool and roads congested with non-mc friendly people, especially around airports.
Re: Motorcycle Rentals
And high accident rates writing off your vehicles.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”