When I first met Austin Rothbard and he detailed the business plan for a peer-to-peer motorcycle rental business called Twisted Road, I was somewhat skeptical. As a lifelong motorcyclist, one who has seen a lot of stuff (not all of it good), my motorcycle philosophy centers around two key rules.
- When riding, always wear a helmet
- Never let your friends ride your motorcycle
As I read the email from Austin, the first thing that came to my mind was a new renter barely making it around the corner at the end of the street before the bike was totaled. Austin then showed me some of the technology he had developed, how renters were vetted, and the tools that he had in place to deal with issues and problems. That is about the point when I started breathing again.
Last year Twisted Road rolled out a new plan for motorcycle dealers, one that allows them to rent out their used inventory. This program was released right around the time that our business at Woods Cycle Country had reached the pandemic peak. The last thing we were looking to do was to take on new projects, and for once we did not have any inventory to spare. However, the program did make sense, and I had asked Austin to get me some data (once he had it) on how the program was performing.
Now that this new dealership program has some time under the belt, here is what Austin has seen so far.
- 6% of people who rented a motorcycle then purchased a bike from the dealer (I don’t have the time frame on this)
- This number was consistent across metric and Harley dealers
- 54% of these riders were moved to new bikes
Not too shabby!
I do not have the actual data to back up the value of demo rides, but I know that every OEM has send me a thousand emails over the years expounding on the value of test rides, and how they turn lookers into owners. I also know that the OEMs do not have any problems promoting demos because they do not have any liability when it comes to accidents. At Woods, we have always been very liability conscious, and have placed severe limits on demos. Even with those limits, in the last 15 years, we have still had 4 serious customer accidents during test rides.
With all that being said, Twisted Road does a better job than most dealerships when it comes to vetting riders. And, they have adopted the following restrictions.
- You must hold a current, valid, unrestricted driver’s license, with a motorcycle endorsement, and present your license to the owner when you begin the trip. Your license may not be temporary, probationary, paper, or otherwise limited.
- You must have held a motorcycle endorsement for at least six months.
- You must be at least 21 years of age to rent in the United States.
- If you are under 25, we may require you to demonstrate at least three years of current motorcycle riding history in the US.
- If you hold a non-US driver’s license and are renting a motorcycle in the US, you must be at least 25, and you will need to provide a photograph of your license when making your booking. We may also ask to visually see your passport when picking up the motorcycle.
- You must possess a mobile phone in your own name that we can verify through text message.
- You must be a registered user of Twisted Road.
- You must have experience riding a motorcycle and document this in your profile.
- We take a $1,000 credit card hold on all rentals, and you must be able to cover this. In some instances (rider under 25 years old, or insurance has been waived) we take a $2,000 credit card hold.
- All riders under 25 years old are required to purchase our premium insurance.
Twisted Road also has a comprehensive insurance program that is extremely affordable and offers varying levels of coverage. If anything does go wrong, then it is not going to count as a claim against your garage keeper’s policy*. And, hopefully, no one is hurt.
The premium insurance plan is only $45 a day (for most makes and models) and provides
- Up to $1M of liability insurance
- $25K of damage and theft coverage
- $1,000 max out-of-pocket for damage ($2,500 for theft)
There is a lot to think about when it comes to renting bikes. Checking them in and out, tracking the rentals, dealing with flats and breakdowns. However, the Twisted Road program deals with a lot of the more problematic components of renting motorcycles, and the dealership will assume a lot less liability than just turning customers loose on a demo ride. As an industry, we will return to a time where inventory shortages are no longer the biggest issue that most of us deal with each day. Now’s a great time to start thinking about the future.
#TwistedRoad #MotorcycleRentals #TestRides #DemoRides #Motorcycle #Yamaha #Kawasaki #Suzuki #CanAm #IndianMotorcycle #RoyalEnfield
*I’m not an attorney or a legal expert, and will never represent that my advice is anything more than put out to foster growth within the industry. Each day that you open your doors, you assume some risk. Be sure to check with your insurance agent and attorney as they probably know a lot more than me (about legal stuff, not about working hard and running a powersports dealership).