I’m wondering about a holiday to the states where I ride to a few different cities on a rented bike.
I’ve done a little googling and it looks like the price for a week would be in the region of $800. Why is it so much more than car rental? Mind you, I think it’s the same over here. Is it the added risk to them of you damaging the bike?
Does anyone do fly-ride packages? Any other advice at all that anyone can offer?
I hired a FJR1300 out of Richmond for the day from Eagle Rider. It is more expensive, I guess, because people are more likely to drop or damage the bikes.
Whereabouts are you going? The roads over there are NOT designed for bikes. They’re straight, long, potholed. It gets hot (and there are extremes of weather). It’s not comfortable unless you’re on a harley and you have to ride uncomfortable miles to get to anywhere remotely interesting.
In my experience, the worst thing was the cops. If you’re not a poseur in a major metropolitan area, the cops will basically not understand what you’re doing: why are you on a bike, what statement are you making, a car makes so much more sense. I was on my bike for 1.5 hours before I got stopped for speeding (I’ve never been stopped in this country). I wasn’t caning it, I wasn’t drawing attention to myself.
Be careful, stick to the limits - they use car mounted radar over there. If you do get stopped, dismount, turn the engine off, take your lid off and be polite.
Not all of them mate. 
Deals Gap
View Larger MapFor bike hire try these guys. That have pick up and drop off locations all over the states.
2549 B Eastbluff Drive Unit 239
Newport Beach, California 92660 USA
+1 949 579 9422 phone
+1 949 350 6952 mobile
i used to live in texas it’s a great place to do some serious speeds just watch out for planes tracking your speed you’ll get pulled further down the road by road side plod:D i did a 200 mile drive every weekend on average taking 2 hours:cool: and that’s going through two major cities.
Oh aye, but you have to get there first.
What planes did they use in texas to get you, F-16’s? :DBTW, the guy in Eagle Rider Richmond said pretty much ever bike he had got damaged - as they are all big (harleys, GS’s, goldwings) and people aren’t used to them, they got dropped, chucked up the road and scraped into garages. He called the FJR a “crotch rocket”. I avoided dropping it, but didn’t escape the state police. lol.I headed off to the blue ridge mountains for the day and just about made it before I had to turn back… :doze:
Jay did a trip to the states last year and hired a bike. I’m sure there’s an article on here somewhere about it 
Wasn’t he poncing about in California though? 
LA and Vegas are some of the few places where you can hire sportier bikes.
Oh, check the state laws. LA is the only state where you can “split lanes” or filter. But some states won’t even let you “lane share” (i.e. pull up alongside) another bike.
They are Sierra Hotel on drink driving too.
The key is to shop around and negotiate, you should be able to get a decent deal somewhere. In 2005 I was on a family holiday in Orlando and managed to get a day off from family duties. Local Harley dealer was doing a special offer - bike hire at half price - so I hired a FLTSC Softail Heritage (complete with leather panniers and tassels :w00t: ) for about $50 for the day. Great fun, rode it to Coco Beach for lunch on the pier, then visited the local gun club where I had fun with their toys (I recall I paid £5 to hire a Glock 18 with 50 rounds of ammo), only downside was the very rainy ride back to Orlando courtesy of Hurricane Katrina :w00t: US roads can be a bit boring for the longer journeys, unless you’re in a national park like Yosemite, Yellowstone or Arches which are very scenic with good roads. Mind you, I have only been to the latter. The distances there are huge compared to in the UK so be prepared to get a numb bum :laugh:
Thanks for the tips and for the PM I received. I’m kinda swaying away from it now tbh.
Out of interest, if you get a ticket over there, how does it effect your license over here? I seem to remember knowing Yanks over here who just pay a fine and forget about it?
Well, I got a ticket in Virginia to the tune of £100 for going 74 in a 55. Although they have the power to contact the DVLA and make the offence stick, I think they would only do that if you did not pay, or the offence was very bad. They mostly make you pay for it there and then - either with cash, or by locking you up.
The state trooper who stopped me basically said I could pay, or choose not to and never return to the States! It’s his country, so fair enough.
I’ve paid my debt to the state of Virginia.
We hired a couple of sports-bikes in LA last year and absolutely LOVED IT! I would strongly recommend it to anyone going there. Riding there was a dream, with all the canyons and sea roads all on LA’s doorstep.
Cops are cops no matter where you are, but of course American cops are really not your friends in any sense of the word in my experience unlike here, so just be sensible, but be aware that American drivers are quite possibly the worst in the world. They have no idea what’s going on around them and all talk on their mobiles whilst driving, don’t indicate and change lanes erratically, but anyone that’s ridden in London for any amount of time will find it a breeze. Their turn-right-on-red law is also a diamond. Why don’t we have that?
If you’re heading to LA, Miami, San Diego, San Fran, Las Vegas, I’d recommend these guys:
http://www.sportbikerental.com
The LA guys should probably remember us, we stickered up their bikes They are also the nicest folks you can deal with and are very, very good on customer service.
