Rentals in Denver if not elsewhere

[William P. Zeller]

Probably directed mostly to Mr. Scappaticci, but who knows:

We, my Significant Other and myself, just did a New Orleans shorty 
vacation trip and rented bikes.

Given how little calendar time we had, and needing a break from winter 
weather, we hooked up with Eagle Rider Kenner adjacent to the airport 
and Southwested down.

The appeal of the Kenner location was that they had Yamahas. Now, the 
Missus is a 2.5 year rider of her own bikes now (SV650S, primarily) and 
the MT-07 they offered is a good match.

I went for a Tracer 900, mostly on the basis of price.  I'd ridden a 
Tracer 900GT at a factory demo day last summer and didn't like it much, 
and the base model held even less appeal.

But the prices: $49/day for the MT and $79/day for the Tracer, unlimited 
miles.  What great prices, right?

Yeah, but no.  We found out that if you declined their insurance 
upgrades, you have to cough up a $10,000 deposit.  That's a lot of 
plastic brutality.  And the first option is some kind of damage waiver 
thingy at $35/day/per bike.  So there's $140 bucks added to what was 
basically a 48-hour rental (which we stretched out to 2.5 days).

Yeah, but then at the closeout I discovered I'd agreed to roadside 
assistance at $10/day/bike, AND $30/day/bike for a liability insurance 
upgrade to $300K.

Trouble is, we have BP Motor Club roadside assistance already and have 
State Farm motorcycle insurance which not only fully extends to any 
lawfully rented motorcycle, but has a $500K/$1M limit, far beyond their 
upgrade.  No way would I have consciously signed up for all that junk.

Then came the local taxes and environmental charges and kitchen sink fee 
and who knows what else.  The ghastly total came to $581 for two beat up 
Yamahas (and they were indeed beaten)  for two days.

However, she truly enjoyed the bike (it is pretty nifty) and the overall 
experience.  Even doing a bit of French Quarter tootling didn't dim her 
enthusiasm and some swervery in the woods on the other side of Lake 
Ponchartrain got some good smiles.

So she started looking around for a different venue for another trip, 
sans, of course, Eagle Rider.

Many years back, I and my ex took Amtrak to Denver, rented a GL1800, 
connected with Charles and another associate and did about three-four 
days of pretty good riding about.  Even Mrs. S took a short turn on the 
back of Wing and seemed to like it.

That motorcycle rental company is long gone.  Too bad, they did a great 
job, the price was sane if not cheap, and the bike was good.

Any suggestions along such lines is welcome.  Other regions of interest 
are New England (no New York State!) and possibly Florida for next winter.

Bill Zeller
Lemont, Chicagoland, USA