Making Money with Your Own Motorcycle
This story, by Alex Baldridge, originally appeared on TwistedRoad.com
It’s a beautiful thing, your motorcycle, and have you noticed how many people ogle it as you cruise four blocks to your local hipster coffee spot? Or the number of folks that stop and ask questions about it, or maybe even give you “Man, I wish I had one of those?” One last question, have you thought about turning ogles, questions, and the “I wishes” into cold hard cash? No? Well let’s talk about how you might do that.
In certain parts of the world it’s not a terribly hard thing to do. African and Asian countries are riddled with bodas; small capacity motorbikes essentially designed to answer the question “How much can one person carry on two wheels?” These vehicles are essential to local transportation within their countries, and even tech companies are starting to capitalize on this .
In the US though, the Uber version of motorcycles just doesn’t exist, and likely won’t, so you’re left with only a few options here: delivering food, or renting your bike to strangers. I’d prefer my bike and gear didn’t smell like chimichangas and sloshed Mountain Dew. Sure it’s a viable option, and I know of few that do it in my neck of the woods too, but for them it’s not so much about making money off the bike, it’s more about making money to pay bills. Delivering food, no matter how many wheels, is often a necessary side hustle for these people.
So let’s explore the second option, renting your bike to strangers. Renting may be the only passive way to earn with your motorcycle. Twisted Road in particular makes it as easy for owners as possible. You need a motorcycle, insurance on that motorcycle (already legally required), a camera, and the internet.
I won’t go through how to actually put your motorcycle on the site, there’s already instructions for that. Instead I want to talk about how to maximize your rental opportunities.
First, include quality photos in your listing. Don’t snap a low resolution pic from the garage and think you can sit back and watch the cash flow in. Take pride in these, it’s the first thing people see.
Second, set a reasonable price. Do a little searching in your area to see what other people have listed and at what prices; if you find a bike that even interests you, see if you think the price they are asking is reasonable. Use that knowledge as your basis for setting your own. The bikes listed for $100 or less a day get the most attention.
Third, put as much info in the listing about the bike as you can. Put more emotion into it than just the spec sheet.
Fourth, be responsive to the requests that come through and try to be as accommodating as possible. Both renters and owners get to post reviews, and a good review can go a long way to convincing a potential customer to pick your bike over another similarly priced moto.
Fifth, do a little self-promotion on social media. It’s easy and it’s free, and I know I’ve had a least one customer from shameless self-promotion on Instagram (“Do it for the Gram, y’all!”)
Are you going to retire off this? Unlikely. But if it pays a few months of bike notes, or covers that next maintenance, do you think it’d be worth it?
Originally published at https://www.twistedroad.com.
