We love to do European roadtrips and thought for our next one we’d shake it up a bit and hire a couple of bikes so we get to try something different. Does anyone have any experience of hiring big bikes in Europe?
I’ve done some cursory research and it seems you can get:
All BMWs everywhere
Quite a few Ducati’s in Italy, only the Diavel in Milan
The odd big KTM in Spain
Honda many places
Triumph some places
Yamaha some places
My dream would be a couple of Ducati Diavels around Spain, Portugal or Croatia (and neighbouring countries), but they’re in short supply. You could rent them from the UK but then you lose either two days transporting it yourself on a ferry, or possibly a day if you could get the logistics sorted to take it on the Bike Shuttle service plus the added costs for both options.
We’ve toured Italy quite a lot so not so keen on hiring a Ducati there. Not keen on Japanese brands at this point. Could do a BMW quite easily, would probably love to take a KTM 1290 Adventure somewhere.
Time wise we’re thinking 10-14 days. Ideally we’d fly somewhere, pick up the bikes and do a circulatory route.
Make your choice based on it being a place you want to visit and hire the best bike you can afford.
I would suggest doing Australia- fly into Brisbane, ride north as far as you can by coast, then go west and go via the outback (100-200km inland) to Melbourne and then ride from Melbourne back to Brisbane via the coast. Don’t do it during an Aussie summer, you’ll die.
Or do NZ South Island.
Don’t do it in winter.
Or do Brazil and Argentina, including Cataratas del Iguazú (obviously not all of them).
On renting bikes in Brisbane, I can first hand recommend: https://rent-this-bike.com/. Smallish family business, but very helpful and accommodating. Great price too, helped by Aus Dollar not doing too great last year. Though they don’t have many larger capacity bikes. The roads around Mount Glorious (NW of Brissie) are top notch.
I’ve rented with Eagle Rider a few times, at their San Fran office. Couple big Hogs and Yam Super Tenere more recently. Not cheap once you add all the taxes, insurance, deposit cover, breakdown cover etc. But very professional company and top quality service. Since they have loads of bases world wide it’s easy to organise a point to point trip, e.g. coast to coast. Wide variety of bikes to choose from too.
Also rented from Dubbelju in SF too, another small business, good service too. They some interesting retro customs to hire.
I’ve not done any long rental tours, just 2-3 days jollies on back of work trips. Usually with my work booked hotel as a base and just exploring locality. But did have a great jaunt touring Yosemite in October - highly recommended.
I basically did this trip over 3 days: Starting in San Fran, then out to Yosemite for night, across Tiago pass and up to Lake Tahoe on day 2, then back to SF via Sacramento on day 3.
You need to get your timing right for Yosemite, in the summer is rammed solid with tourists, caravans and RVs, and you’re at risk of forest fires. In the winter the high passes are shut with snow from Nov-March ish. I managed to time it perfectly going over Tiago pass on a quiet Monday late in October, whilst whether was still holding out fine - just hovering over freezing at night, but mild and sunny in day. Even non the Sunday night, I was stuck in queues going round the one way system in the main Valley (and the Park Warden’s are strict at enforcing solid yellow line/lane splitting violations).
Bike prices are going to be super low post-lockdown. You could buy a couple second hand, eurotrip, then sell them later on once prices have stabilised for very little loss.
