Honda Monkey Rental

[anonymous-user]

Hi All,

I'm planning a family holiday within the uk for sometime in the summer, we were thinking of Scotland or Cornwall, that type of thing.

Now quite a few of us ride bikes and we thought it might be good fun to hire out 6 Honda Monkey/Grom type bikes for a day for a bit of fun.

I've had a search around online and can't seem to find anyone that offers this type of thing. Has anyone come across any companies that do offer this?

Cheers

[stu67]

tom2502 said:

Hi All,

I'm planning a family holiday within the uk for sometime in the summer, we were thinking of Scotland or Cornwall, that type of thing.

Now quite a few of us ride bikes and we thought it might be good fun to hire out 6 Honda Monkey/Grom type bikes for a day for a bit of fun.

I've had a search around online and can't seem to find anyone that offers this type of thing. Has anyone come across any companies that do offer this?

Cheers

How weird, a colleague and myself were talking at work the other day (both bikers) and were having a laugh re what we could do when we retired. We were talking about buying a dozen monkey bikes and running "tours", thought it would be a good idea. Sort of send your kit along to the next hotel, just carry what you need on the day. Think doing this on Monkey bikes would be much more fun

[Krikkit]

stu67 said:

How weird, a colleague and myself were talking at work the other day (both bikers) and were having a laugh re what we could do when we retired. We were talking about buying a dozen monkey bikes and running "tours", thought it would be a good idea. Sort of send your kit along to the next hotel, just carry what you need on the day. Think doing this on Monkey bikes would be much more fun

Area-dependent I think that sounds like a bloody fun idea.

[anonymous-user]

stu67 said:

How weird, a colleague and myself were talking at work the other day (both bikers) and were having a laugh re what we could do when we retired. We were talking about buying a dozen monkey bikes and running "tours", thought it would be a good idea. Sort of send your kit along to the next hotel, just carry what you need on the day. Think doing this on Monkey bikes would be much more fun

Ok, I'll come clean. This is what me and a pal are actually looking at doing, I was just trying to be discreet

We live in South Devon, not to far to the Cornish border and within easy reach of the coast and Dartmoor.

The idea is to run 10 bikes as a rental business to begin with and some guided tours around the area on weekends.

Obviously it's trying to find out whether the market for something as silly as the monkey is there. Insurance is the next hurdle we need to tackle, it's proving difficult to find.

[alvington89]

https://www.motobox.co.uk/bike-hire/

Hire prices

£85 - 1 weekday
£120 - 2 weekdays
£150 - 3 weekdays
£170 - 4 weekdays
£185 - 5 weekdays
£200 - 7 days, inc weekend
£150 - Weekend (Fri 2pm – Mon 9am)

Damage & Insurance Excess £800. Booking deposit 25% of rental payable to secure hire.

[stu67]

tom2502 said:

stu67 said:

How weird, a colleague and myself were talking at work the other day (both bikers) and were having a laugh re what we could do when we retired. We were talking about buying a dozen monkey bikes and running "tours", thought it would be a good idea. Sort of send your kit along to the next hotel, just carry what you need on the day. Think doing this on Monkey bikes would be much more fun

Ok, I'll come clean. This is what me and a pal are actually looking at doing, I was just trying to be discreet

We live in South Devon, not to far to the Cornish border and within easy reach of the coast and Dartmoor.

The idea is to run 10 bikes as a rental business to begin with and some guided tours around the area on weekends.

Obviously it's trying to find out whether the market for something as silly as the monkey is there. Insurance is the next hurdle we need to tackle, it's proving difficult to find.

Well its a damn good idea because I had it also!

Many advantages and not just area dependant, they are the only thing I know that you could get a dozen in the back of a large sprinter van and take anywhere. I've had a go on one of the new Honda's and they are a blast the only reason I didn't buy one at the time is that I'd just bought a Guzzi and didn't want to upset the wife too much.

The thought of travelling light with a support van between hotels sort of appeals if you are doing larger distances, of course they would be rubbish taking any form of heavy luggage.

Anyway count me in for a booking and if you franchise the business let me know!

[jumpingloci]

North Devon based

https://www.thegarbagerun.com/postie-bike-adventur...

[Benni]

Big(ish) tours on small wheels ? Can be fun, here are some Monkeys on steroids climbing Jaufen Pass :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKqKlkgKMqk&pb...

[poo at Paul's]

tom2502 said:

Ok, I'll come clean. This is what me and a pal are actually looking at doing, I was just trying to be discreet

We live in South Devon, not to far to the Cornish border and within easy reach of the coast and Dartmoor.

The idea is to run 10 bikes as a rental business to begin with and some guided tours around the area on weekends.

Obviously it's trying to find out whether the market for something as silly as the monkey is there. Insurance is the next hurdle we need to tackle, it's proving difficult to find.

You may do ok as a sideline business, but I think you’d struggle to make a decent living out of it, certainly two of you.
A mate runs track bikes, 200 to 350 quid a day. He works his arse off, has his own unit loads of hours, even delivery to and back from track is a 15 hour day, and only really 6m a year.

With monkey bikes, a long weekend tour, you could charge maybe what, 200 quid. Maybe make another 50 quid from hotels and organised restaurants per person? I think a weekend would be enough, they’re a good laugh, but after three day I reckon the novelty would have worn off.
Add in vans, fuel, insurance, storage, repairs etc and it’d be tough to earn a crust from it.

Good luck with it though.

[jumpingloci]

Yeah it is tricky running a rental business. I've been taking people on tours on their own bikes which is kind of straight forward and profitable if you can drum up the business.

I've not got the 10 postie bikes to take people out on and it's been a tow in the water and I'm not convinced it's going to be fruitful. The insurance is a couple of grand for the bikes and £1.5k for the tour operator insurance. I run it by myself so only have one mouth to feed so to speak. I'm finding that people don't tend to ride rental bikes - especially small novelty ones - quite as carefully as you'd wish them to. And unfortunately I don't think people are as prepared to pay the money for a novelty bike as they would a 'proper' bike. And so £200 does seem a bit of a cap on what people will pay for a few days on a 'cheap' bike. I think there is business there though and maybe if you could tap into the mass motorcycling market and get groups down and stag dos and all that sort of stuff then you could fill the spaces up quite nicely. You're never going to make a million but if it's something to top up the pension it could do okay.