BMW R1200RT/R1250RT Forum

I will be traveling to the UK next week to attend a funeral. I'm going to have a couple days of free time in the middle of the week. I'm thinking of hiring a motorcycle and riding to either Scotland or Wales. My home base will be west of Birmingham near Stourbridge.

Although I've never hired a bike in the UK, found this thread on Adventure Rider, https://advrider.com/f/threads/motorcyc ... uk.659268/

Do you want to hire BMW / Harley ? there are plenty of hire companies for Harley , not sure about BMW though , try BMW on the net .

Hired a bike in France for 3 weeks;  a bit of a nightmare.  Soooo much more expensive than a car.  Be mindful to avoid the mistake I made:  I'd told them the duration of my trip, and simply multiplied the cheapest rate (the weekly) times three.  Upon return, I was told I owed another $1400, since longer rentals reverted to the higher rates.  Lucky for me (?)  1) I dealt with a human being upon my return,  and 2) the bike had proved such a nightmarish piece of shite that he called it even (and I assumed the costs of a front bearing job and replacing a puncture-repaired tire that gave out).  If the bike had been a gem, I'd have paid twice as much!  I had tried to find a cheap bike on-line before flying over, figuring that, if I failed to sell it upon leaving, I could give some kid the keys and papers and walk away. 

hammo wrote: Do you want to hire BMW / Harley ? there are plenty of hire companies for Harley , not sure about BMW though , try BMW on the net .

I guess I would prefer anything but a Harley.

Littlebriar,  My sentiments exactly.  About a decade ago, wanted to fly into NYC, hire a bike then see the changing leaves (which hadn't!) . Dozens of websites for dealers advertising various rental bikes, ALL of which said that they no longer offered rentals due to "insurance costs".  Finally flew into Boston, and then went 60 miles to rent a Harley - the ONLY bikes I found for rent.  Got a 1200 Sportster (it sorta looks like a bike, no a Barcalounger on two wheels) and was stunned by how slow it was!  Good luck finding another brand.