This previous weekend, I rented a Kawasaki ZX-4RR to ferry me round Boston for a marriage. I wrote up the expertise of using Child’s First 4-Cylinder, however all you within the feedback had questions on one thing else fully: How the hell did I hire a sport-ish bike, sight unseen, and get to only experience it round unrestricted? Was this some kind of moto journo job perk, some loaner given to me by the sort people at Kawasaki that I did not disclose?
Nope! It was an everyday outdated rental, paid for from my very own pockets. Because it seems, there are many Turo-style websites which might be more than pleased to allow you to hire different individuals’s bikes whenever you’re on the town — or hire out yours whenever you’re away. Actually, having rented from Turo earlier than, I am going to doubtless hunt down one in every of these different websites first, the subsequent time I would like a automobile to get round after a flight or prepare.
Moto rental websites
I used a website known as Twisted Highway for my Boston rental, the place the ZX-4RR I rode continues to be obtainable. The positioning verifies your license and identification, in addition to checking that you’ve got had your bike endorsement for greater than six months, earlier than it will really allow you to set off on anybody else’s bike. There’s additionally loads of insurance coverage tacked on to your each day value, in addition to a four-figure injury deposit that sits in your bank card for days after you come back the bike. For my journey, that every one got here out to about $180, plus the $2,000 injury waiver that was refunded in full as a result of I am an ideal sweetie angel and have by no means achieved something improper in my life.
Twisted Highway’s competitor is Riders Share, a website with largely the identical perform and largely the identical choice of bikes — together with the ZX-4RR I rented. It operates very equally — per-day rental charges, deposits, insurance coverage, elective gear — however with barely totally different greenback quantities on all the pieces. I really tried Riders Share first for my weekend rental, the very same ZX-4RR, however Riders Share got here out to be about $20 costlier. It additionally got here with a $1,000 increased deposit, although that may’ve been returned to me untouched anyway. I went with a budget one for my functions, however there isn’t any assure that Twisted Highway will at all times be the cheaper of the 2. These Turo-style apps have their very own technique of estimating danger and charging for insurance coverage, so your mileage could fluctuate.
What in regards to the extra conventional choice?
There’s an much more established competitor on this planet of bike leases, although. One with a really totally different marketing strategy: EagleRider, which owns its personal bikes and rents them out like a conventional rental company. The corporate does provide a peer-to-peer rental market like Twisted Highway and Riders Share, nevertheless it’s secondary to the first enterprise of leases and excursions. EagleRider can also be totally different as a result of it permits pickup and dropoff from discrete locations — you possibly can really experience from one place to a different on one in every of their bikes, slightly than solely making spherical journeys.
EagleRider has a extra restricted choice of makes and fashions than the peer-to-peer websites, however there’s additionally a sure high quality ground that comes with an precise rental firm. Bikes come from affiliated supplier places, not the car parking zone behind somebody’s condominium, and the corporate has a broader choice of gear and equipment to outfit leases. It is a trade-off, for positive, however one which some people will doubtless be wanting to make.