![]() I'm nervous enough buying a bike privately, no way am I touching something that hundreds of other riders could have thrashed without a second thought. Makes me an ideal client for the risk averse renter, right?īut then, how do I know your maintenance quality? How do I know your brakes don't have air in the lines, or that you've been running it low on oil waiting for it to blow on some sucker renter so they'll fund your next bike? Him & I swapped tools all the time, talked about maintenance over the fence every other day, and he understood that I would automatically see him right if the worst happens. Or b) my neighbour once asked me to ride his Harley as he thought it was vibrating too much in 3rd. The ONLY times I've ridden someone else's bike are a) I've just finished spannering on it & want to road test my work before I give you it back. No way do I trust myself enough to ride your bike with the respect it deserves. I'm with ST-ABSU on this, but from the renter's perspective.įirstly, a private hire bike. All benefit, a few dollars on the table for the "renter," but ALL is on the table for the sharer. You break or wreck? Sorry about your new bike getting trashed so fast, but not my concern anymore.Īs someone trained in risk analysis (cost v benefit) there is NO way this equation works out to be a positive. When I put a bike up for sale, NO "test rides" for anyone without my asking price CASH in my hand. I AM saying you better be damn sure you are VERY comfortable with them doing so. ![]() Now I'm not saying one should never let someone else ride, share, or borrow your bike. For a few hundred bucks in "rental" revenue? Get the bike back with no second gear? Strip the farkles, part the bike on ebay. One tip-over on the ST, possibly $1000 of damage, or more. "No worries mate, I'll treat her just like she was my own!" Then grrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnd CLUNK into first he goes as my brow furrows, instantly regretting turning over my custom machine to a stranger to "borrow" for a few hundred dollars. I can hear a stranger jumping on my bike right now. Unless other folks I trusted could vouch for the rental, I'd never rely on a service like this for a destination trip I'd default to a professional outfit because of the risk. So for me looking for a little saddle time locally, this might be an OK service to use as long as I was prepared to walk away if something didn't feel right. all the careful stuff before setting out at low speed around the block to check everything works. If they sound like someone who knows what they're talking about, I'd meet with them, carefully inspect, sit on the bike, start it, etc. I would treat any local private rental like a fly-and-drive purchase - start by talking with the owner and see how they communicate about bike condition and maintenance. Especially not one just getting off the ground with very few reviews! I'm a bit leery of the so-called sharing economy, though, and wouldn't jump on any private rental motorcycle hoping that positive reviews were an assurance of safety. As I currently don't own a bike (trying to ease back in) it would help to have easy rentals from a source other than Eagle. Saw several bikes close enough to me worth checking out. I checked out the Riders Share web site and it looks interesting.
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