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Seattle Rentals

drfood

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Does anyone have any experience with renting a motorcycle in the Seattle area?

Jay and I will be there in mid August for a conference I am attending. I'm thinking about extending the trip a few days and renting a bike to do a 2up trip to glacier and circle back to Seattle via the Columbia River gorge.

Anyone with experience renting have any thoughts or words of advice is greatly appreciated.

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Yes ... over the July 4th weekend

Backstory:
The wife and flew to Seattle to visit the oldest daughter and SIL2B.
They've recently opened a motorcycle themed coffee shop/bar in Ballard and I wanted to see it first hand. It's called "The wick" and is doing quite well.

She and SIL2B are both riders and I wanted to go on a ride with them into the cascades.

Experience:
EagleRider was my first call.
Seemed rushed and would call me back.
They did call a couple hours later, but all they had was a 2015 UltraGlide at $139/day plus insurance and taxes.

TourUSA was next.
They took a lot of time asking questions about my experience level, where I was going, etc. Offered a 2017 R1200GSA. Total price was just short of $400 for a tick over 2 days (Thurs morning to Sat afternoon)

I did all the paperwork online and it took about 20 minutes from arrival to leaving the parking lot.

The downside was that Eagle was 20 minutes from where we were staying in Shoreline and TourUSA was almost an hour away without accounting for I5 traffic.

And traffic in that area is dreadful. My bucket list ride with my kid in the cascades? almost 5 hours in the saddle and travelled a whopping 77 miles. Now there were extenuating circumstances ... a long lunch, 1 stop for coffee and they were riding those suspension limited café style racer clones. But still, it was bumper to bumper traffic even as far away as Snoqualmie Falls.

The weather was crazy ... it would be 53* and cloudy, requiring thermals and heavy jacket till noon and then immediately be 79* with no breeze and 90% humidity. Stripping down to mesh jacket and tee. Then as the sun began to get low, the humidity would disappear, a NW breeze pick up and back to the thermal liner.

Advice?
Be meticulous about looking the bike over before you agree to take it. Any knick or scratch will cost you.

They charged my card $2500 for a security deposit. It never showed up as an actual charge, but the available limit dropped by $2500 the day after I returned the bike.
And you need to let your card company know about all this. It flags on their end and I got a call questioning what was going on.

My GT Air fit in the overhead without a problem. Folks got a little nervous when I put it on just before take off, though. My wife asked for another seat.

Conclusion:
If I were to do it again, I might buy a bike while up there and have my daughter sell it after I leave.
I realize that is a luxury I have.
 
Last edited:
I have some recent experience with this.

If your going up to Seattle and weather is fair make time to rent a bike.

Flew up and visited a buddy for some riding through the PNW. I rented a KLR out of Puyallup WA through Tour USA Motorcycle rental company they also run a motorcycle school called pugesoundsafety. I dealt with a guy named Kyle from booking the reservation to picking up and returning the bike. Couldn't of asked for a better rental experience they were easily reached, had bike waiting for me, and upfront on all associated costs.

Small rental outfit not a huge selection but they called me day before offering me options of new KLRs with lowered seats/suspension vs stock height etc. Bike I picked up had less than 2000 miles and was well outfitted. They were knowledgeable about routes , no issues with taking bike into Canada and helpful with letting me return after hours.

Don't quote me on what I Paid I believe it was around 500$ for 5 days. Whatever it was I felt like It was worth it. They had no issues with minor scrapes to hand guards, panniers and engine cases from the typical trail drops.

Had a blast exploring that area cant wait to get back. Ill try to attach a link of the video my buddy put together of riding there.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKKNW9iXbqs"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKKNW9iXbqs[/ame]
 
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