Europe Motorcycle Rental
In July we (me and my friends from Russia) are going for a motorcycle trip around Europe. But since I crashed my beloved Kawasaki ZX-9R in November and did not have time nor ability to buy and arrange for a shipment of a new one, I decided to rent one, the difference of renting vs. bringing my own is not as much as the headache I would have (Though, if I had spare money, I would definitely buy one here and bring it there, since I like to explore new issues, like shipping stuff overseas).
Well, long story short, I looked around a lot for a good rental. Similarities between different rental agencies:
- Large deposit (like $2,000)
- High prices
- Many offer with limited mileage
- Many did not have insurance for all the countries that I wanted to visit.
- Most rent out BMWs (that’s not an issue, but I still would love different bikes, like Honda CBR1100XX! : )) )
What I needed:
- Rent for a long time (about a month)
- Large mileage
- Comfortable for two
- Bike with decent power (more than 600cc)
- Nice looking bike
- Many countries to visit, including such as Croatia and even maybe Poland, Belarus
There are a lot of places that rent out bikes, many BMW dealerships do it, here are few places to look:
- One of the largest agencies, that is composed out of many small rental places.
- Prices are decent, but usually higher, than if you go local
- But it’s better than local, since easier to deal with
Here is very big list from BMW Club of Amerca
You can do a search on Google and find few more places, like I found these guys:
Bianco Blue from Italy
Guzzi Rent also from Italy
- One of very few places that rent out Guzzis
And when you rent out bikes, do research on neighbor countries, since like in Sweden bikes are way too expensive, but you can drive or even take a ferry with one from Germany, Belgium, Denmark which have much cheaper prices.
After going thru a lot of sites, contacting with a lot of people (by e-mail only, with phone maybe I would have more success, but many of them don’t even speak English in e-mail, so I didn’t try my luck with phone), I’ve narrowed my list to:
Cenmoto of Belgium
Karl Maier BMW Dealership in Munich
Allround Vermietung of Frankfurt
Adriatic Moto Tours of Ljubljana, Slovenia
- I liked these guys, especially that they had more variety of bikes than everybody else
IMT Bike of Spain (few locations)
Also I was recommended Moto Espana, but he did not work out for me.
After all research and doubts I decided to go with IMT Bike since they were most professional and had the best options for me (unlimited mileage, insurance that covers many countries - does not cover Morocco though!). The prices are not the cheapest ones, but when you add up all the fees of other rentals, it comes out to about the same price. The location is also not the best one - I reserved it in Barcelona, but actually it worked out for me very good, since the plans have changed a little bit.
I split my trip in two parts and for second part I got BMW F800ST , first part I did not reserve yet, but hope to get F800ST also. I would love to get R1200RT, but it’s a little bit too expensive for me.
I’ll report on my trip when I get back : )