Loaning your bike.......

[Drew]

I friend of mine asked me if I loan out my bike. I figured a day trip somewhere, maybe a weekend at best, but nothing too big. He said he'd like to ride it 2 up from OK to CA which is a much different request than I expected. It's a trip with him and his 18 year old daughter for her HS graduation.

I picked up the '07 in Jan '10 and have 3400 miles on it now, the farthest trip I've taken on it is about a 2 hour ride one way. I'm undecided on my answer. If anything happens to the bike, he'll take care of it, no issue there. The bike has no cruise, stock seat and only the two stock cases on each side. I would think it would be an awful tough ride for a guy (2 up) that has ridden a bike maybe 3 or 4 times so far this year....

Thoughts?

 

[SouthernCruizer]

I friend of mine asked me if I loan out my bike. I figured a day trip somewhere, maybe a weekend at best, but nothing too big. He said he'd like to ride it 2 up from OK to CA which is a much different reqwuest than I expected. It's trip with him and his 18 year old daughter for her HS graduation.
I picked up the '07 in Jan '10 and have 3400 miles on it now, the farthest trip I've taken on it is about a 2 hour ride one way. I'm undecided on my answer. If anything happens to the bike, he'll take care of it, no issue there. The bike has no cruise, stock seat and only the two stock cases on each side. I would think it would be an awful tough ride for a guy (2 up) that has ridden a bike maybe 3 or 4 times so far this year....

Thoughts?

********************************

My $.02 worth....motorcycles, boats, and aircraft are NOT like cars/trucks. More skill involved to pilot them correctly. More potential for injury if something happens. I'd loan any trusted friend my car, but I'd only loan my bike, boat or aircraft to someone that is qualified and current on a like model.

 

[zip]

Absolutely not. I wouldn't ask a friend if I could borrow a bike unless they asked me if I wanted to take it for a ride. Then presuming that it'd be okay to go put 4,000 miles on it? An absolutely ridiculous request.

The only way I could see this working is if your friend handed you cash worth the total value of the bike in something like an escrow/insurance policy and said "I'll pick this up when I return your bike, less 10% for the value I've gained from it."

It's all awkward, and you could lose a friend over it. But I think it's pretty unfair of the guy to think he could ask you this. He should go buy his own FJR.

 

[lnewlf]

Once upon a time a riding friend begged ,scraped and crawled to ride my '89 FJ1200. He wasn't on it 2 minutes before he dropped it and then stitched me out of a mirror, brake lever and brake pedal, never mind a hair crack in the air scoop and buffing out the paint and aluminum can. Don't even think about asking to ride my bike...

 

[fjrbrad]

Tell him it would probably be better if he rented a bike for the weekend.

 

[Vamirr]

N W I H...

+1 on renting a bike.

 

[allrider]

Might as well be asking if he can borrow your girl.

+1 on renting

 

[greywolf]

While I don't mine swapping bikes during a ride , I would never loan a bike for an extended trip.

Too many opportunites for calamity.

 

[jmdaniel]

Well, the title is Loaning Your Bike, which is up to you. Loaning My Bike wouldn't happen, no way, no how....

 

[Joe2Lmaker]

Thoughts?

Not enough information.

It depends on the friend, not the friendship. There are several people I would let ride my bike and each for a different reason. I wish a couple of them would ask to borrow it because they would probably clean it up before riding it.

I would not be at all offended if my friends didn't want me riding their bike.

 

[okmac]

No way would I ever loan my bike for that kind of a trip . Besides all the liability issues just think how you would feel if they were in an accident and hurt badly. It wouldn't have happened if you had not loaned them your bike.

Mac

 

[Solo]

I wouldn't loan out my bike to anyone. First, it is too personal of an item. Wouldn't loan out my helmet either. I would loan out my car, but not my bike. Second, I wouldn't loan out my bike as a favor to my friend. Someone who hasn't ridden a pig like this faces increased odds of crashing and burning, doing great harm to themself and their passenger. I don't loan my bike out because I cherish my friends and don't want them to get hurt because I didn't have the nerve to say no. Third, I don't loan out my bike because I don't want to lose a friend. Chances are too great that something will happen to it that I think should be repaired but they deny. These things get expensive fast to repair. Hate to lose a friend over something like that.

Back in the mid-'70s, I had a Honda 175 that a friend offered to carry from the East Coast to the West Coast (in his van). A bunch of us were moving from NJ to CA and I didn't have a way to transport it. When he got to CA I hopped on for a ride, and found that the front wheel went one way and the frame another. Without my permission he had loaned it to a friend of his to go dirt riding with, and his friend crashed it, bending the frame. My friend wasn't even going to mention it to me! He hoped I wouldn't notice. Lost a friend over this.

 

[Wee Willy]

"Two things you don't share...your woman or your ride."

--Some race driver somewhere

Cheers,

W2

 

[kaitsdad]

There are few persons out there that I would even consider letting ride my bike. Very few. As in maybe 3 or 4.

Of those persons, I don't know of any that would ask.

I would suggest that for the sake of your friendship, you offer to help him find a rental bike.

 

[fjrchooser]

The only way something like that would happen was if I had another bike and was going along on the trip with them, something I've done before. My FJR is a keeper -at least until until parts are no longer available so the additional mileage wouldn't bother me.

Otherwise, he needs to look into a rental.

 

[pjm204]

Yea I'll stick with the above and say, NO WAY. At least near me, there is a place I can rent an FJR from for like 149 a day with no mileage limit. Too many things could go wrong plus he is asking to put more miles on it than you have. A trip around the block to see if it is the right bike for him is one thing.

I let my buddy ride my FJR around the neighborhood and he came back 5 minutes later saying "wow, it really pulls when you get up near 9k rpm. I immediately regretted it.

 

[reecebike]

NOT NO BUT HELL NO!!!!

 

[Drew]

wow, it really pulls when you get up near 9k rpm

I think I could hear something like that from him if he rides it.

More info, he is looking at borrowing a Goldwing from his father-in-law, but that may fall through. My FJR is a back up plan.

Lots of good input, plenty of things to consider. I think I would be okay for a ride to get a feel for the bike, a couple hundred miles even, but riding half way across the country doesn't give me a warm fuzzy. I don't think I'd have a problem with him fixing anything that broke, he's done that sort of thing with me before. He is not a rider that gears up much either, so that would be a concern to me to some extent, although he can make his own decisions. It's just a bike, it can be replaced, but I still feel like I've been put on the spot to some degree with the request. I don't think me saying no would cause a rift of any kind.

 

[SnowAviation]

I don't think me saying no would cause a rift of any kind.

There you go, problem solved. If I were going to say yes, I'd have said "Yes" right then,

when he asked, but your hesitation tells me that you, like me, really want to say no.

He will find another ride or a different present for his daughter.