eagle rider tours

fatbaldbob

fatbaldbob

Well-known member
UKGSer Subscriber
Joined
Apr 7, 2007
Messages
1,747
Reaction score
1,009
Location
Scotland
I'm thinking of taking an eagle rider self guided tour (www.eaglerider.com), you basically rent a bike and do your own thing round their suggested route and they pre book the hotels. looking at the Southwest II tour Las vegas north to San francisco then down the coast to LA.

Has anyone on here used them before , if so what was your experience, I have made a tentative enquiry and they are very keen to get my credit card number already, the rental form has numerous additional insurance options and there is no option for cancellation.
 
hi

Hi
I have just come back from LA me and our lass had a fab time we did a good part of route66 .
all you need to do get your flight booked get to a harley dealer hire the bike
LA to the needles and on you go motels are good over there much cheaper to do the booking when you get there.
We did vegas to the hoover dam then down and joined the mother road at
Kingman Awsome loved it going to finish it of in march2013 good luck enjoy
Regards Roger :cool:
 
Eagle Rider

Fatbaldbob,

In 2007 3 friends and I rented from Eagle Riders San Francisco - we did Coast-to-Coast to Daytona Beach in 18 days/4200 miles.

I'd say Eagle Riders was adequate - I'll ignore bike issues as HD had been on stike so the hire bikes were 20000 mile plus and a bit battered! Usually they are replaced annually/lower miles but we had a gear lever fall off, side stand spring go AWOL, tail light fail (done under warranty at Mother Road HD - they then had a gorgeous 6' blonde female service manager!) and one bike's lights failed (fortunately whilst still in SF so I swapped bikes).

We did have a problem on returning the bikes to the Orlando branch - they claimed we'd damaged them when we hadn't. We had been too lax in inspecting the bikes at pickup; TOP TIP note EVERY scratch/chip; take photos etc.

They tried to charge me for stone chips on the fairing - I argued they were normal use and they caved-in. Check under the panniers - one of our party was charged $175 for scratches which he definitely did not do (he fell the other way :blast but they didn't see that!)

As BikerBiker says, most HD Dealers will also do rental. Not sure how one-way works, but worth checking out too I guess.

Just do it - we had a fantastic trip and lots of memories, some of which we've even shared with our wives :D

A
 
I have read several reports of them trying to charge you for damage, you didnt do, that was one of my concerns along with additional charges for numerous insurances at the point of rental. I guess a thorough check is required before you ride away, but I thought they would account for wear and tear, stone chips are unavoidable. Perhaps this is to bully you into paying extra insurance cover at $18 a day to cover damage:nenau
 
Thanks Mutley, I'll have a look at your reports when I have the time as I'm at work at the moment.

I've cut and pasted the details from the booking form below and as you can see there a several insurance options, do i actually need any of them?
What is SLI, and when they say $2000 deductible is that like an insurance excess?

Optional Theft & Damage Waiver: Optional Supplemental Liability Insurance:
 No Coverage
 $18.00/DAY VIP Coverage ($2000 Deductible)  $24.95/DAY SLI Coverage – 1M
 $24.00/DAY EVIP Coverage ($1000 Deductible)  $18.95/DAY SLI Coverage – 300K 1 $29.00/DAY EVIP-ZERO Coverage ($0 Deductible)
 
Eaglerider

I used them for a one way trip from Denver to San Francisco via Vegas and my views are as follows: The hire was really easy and i had no problems and at S.F on return they didn,t even inspect the bike. I also took out most, if not all the insurance covers. I think the one-way surcharge is a bit steep myself. I would also caution against thier helmets which are really micky mouse. As has already been said i would caution against thier choice of hotels. Why would you bother? there is so much choice of high quality motels to suit every budget and unless you end up somwhere were there is an event on there will always be availability. Go for it though, there is no better place to ride a harley.
 
I'm thinking of renting a bike from these guys at Christmas. Other than a helmet, do they provide any other gear (yes I know, people in the US ride motorbikes wi no protective clothing:blagblah), or would we have to take all our stuff with us? We are thinking of renting a bike for part of our holiday, so don't really want to take a whole suitcase JUST for bike kit.:blast
 
fatbaldbob said:
Thanks Mutley, I'll have a look at your reports when I have the time as I'm at work at the moment.

I've cut and pasted the details from the booking form below and as you can see there a several insurance options, do i actually need any of them?
What is SLI, and when they say $2000 deductible is that like an insurance excess?

Optional Theft & Damage Waiver: Optional Supplemental Liability Insurance:
 No Coverage
 $18.00/DAY VIP Coverage ($2000 Deductible)  $24.95/DAY SLI Coverage – 1M
 $24.00/DAY EVIP Coverage ($1000 Deductible)  $18.95/DAY SLI Coverage – 300K 1 $29.00/DAY EVIP-ZERO Coverage ($0 Deductible)
Click to expand...

SLI is additional insurance cover as the cover that comes with the bike is third party only.

EVIP is coverage for damage resulting from theft or accidental damage. The 'deductible' amount is the charge that is levied against your credit card and refunded on return of the bike undamaged.

The US is a very expensive place to have an accident, and HD Electra Glides do not crash as well as a GS so a low speed incident can rapidly become a very expensive claim. I've just checked my booking and I did indeed take out both forms of cover on both trips.

There are a lot of hotels in the U.S. however I expect you'll be wanting to take in some of the national parks like Yosemite, Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon. You'll find accommodation in these areas gets fully booked early and is very pricey. The hotels EagleRider booked for us were basic but clean and mostly well located. It also saved all the hassle and the directions are in the road book. It depends what you want but for us this was our main holiday and Mrs. Mutley wanted to be confident of a good quality hotel in a good location booked in advance every night. We booked our own start and finish hotels this year as we wanted to upgrade, but they could have done that too.
 
The Nutty GSER said:
I'm thinking of renting a bike from these guys at Christmas. Other than a helmet, do they provide any other gear (yes I know, people in the US ride motorbikes wi no protective clothing:blagblah), or would we have to take all our stuff with us? We are thinking of renting a bike for part of our holiday, so don't really want to take a whole suitcase JUST for bike kit.:blast
Click to expand...

No helmets are the only thing they rent but they'll happily sell you stuff :toungincheek

We wore our leather jackets to fly out in, then didn't wear them for the first week we were there. We than rapidly found it was way too hot to wear them for half the trip as well :blast

EagleRider Fedexed our extra luggage from LA to Vegas for us: two cases $22 :thumb
 
I rented one from Phoenix a few years ago and you could hire everything from a helmet to chaps:eek: I declined the kind offer:D

When I returned the bike to San Francisco the only thing the guy checked was underneath the running boards which were pretty well scraped. As it was brand new when I hired it there was only one culprit:augie He just shrugged hos shoulders and said "What is up with you brits? Every time you guys return a bike the boards are scraped". He just grinned and said no charge........:thumb
 
Book via HC Travel and you only need to pay a deposit until six weeks before your trip. You also get ATOL cover.

I hired a battered RT and the mechanic looked pretty p*ssed off with us when we returned it until he checked the condition report from when we picked it up and realised it was already in that condition (scratches on both sides).

Just copy the Eaglerider route and book your own hotels. As mentioned above, popular places do get booked up early e.g.Yosemite (stop at Buck Meadows, not in the park), Williams/Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Death Valley/Furnace Creek.
 
Hi

Yes I have to agree with Sven some of these organised rides are expensive
Expedia book your flight find a bike shop that hires bikes look on a map and go
We did not have a problem anywhere we went for accommodation :blagblah
So get out there and enjoy the clock is ticking you only come this way once
Enjoy have a nice day all :Motomartin
Regards Roger
 
Mutley said:
No helmets are the only thing they rent but they'll happily sell you stuff :toungincheek

We wore our leather jackets to fly out in, then didn't wear them for the first week we were there. We than rapidly found it was way too hot to wear them for half the trip as well :blast

EagleRider Fedexed our extra luggage from LA to Vegas for us: two cases $22 :thumb
Click to expand...

Ok, thought that would be the case. I guess we'll have to decide before we fly out if we are definitely going to rent a bike or not.
 
fatbaldbob said:
I'm thinking of taking an eagle rider self guided tour (www.eaglerider.com), you basically rent a bike and do your own thing round their suggested route and they pre book the hotels. looking at the Southwest II tour Las vegas north to San francisco then down the coast to LA.

Has anyone on here used them before , if so what was your experience, I have made a tentative enquiry and they are very keen to get my credit card number already, the rental form has numerous additional insurance options and there is no option for cancellation.
Click to expand...

I took one of their Road Kings from Boston to Halifax, across Canada to Vancouver then to drop it off in Seattle in 2009.

That was the plan. Spotty faced kid wrote off the new Road King underneath me in Toronto in his daddy's Jeep Cherokee. Eagle Rider was good about it, arranged another new Road King in Chicago, so flew there and then north to Saskatchewan, then turned left towards Calgary etc.

I wouldn't hesitate to use them again. They had really great helmet/gear prices as well, so no need to take everything with you.
 
Scooter Boy said:
It may be worth joining H.O.G :eek:
If only to take advantage of their H.O.G. Fly and Ride special rates for members.
http://www.harley-davidson.com/wcm/Content/Pages/HOG/fly_and_ride.jsp?locale=en_CA
Click to expand...

HogHog said:
Bit naughty Ian ;-) ;)
Click to expand...

Why? :confused:

Seems like entirely reasonable advice to me :nenau

Of course they may not be to everyone's taste but Scooter Boy is hardly advocating the full endorsement of the 'lifestyle' with all that entails, just a simple commercial decision.
 
Scooter Boy said:
It may be worth joining H.O.G :eek:
If only to take advantage of their H.O.G. Fly and Ride special rates for members.
http://www.harley-davidson.com/wcm/Content/Pages/HOG/fly_and_ride.jsp?locale=en_CA
Click to expand...

I read their constitution and I am not eligible for membership and am apparently not the sort of person they want in their organisation:nenau

I have been in touch with Mutley and got some good advice as he has recently done one of their trips:thumb2

HOGHog, there is a common denominator here amongst HD organisations and it seems to be us not them! I guess we are just not destined to play well with others:augie
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

blaze591
Eagle Rider Questions
2
Replies
21
Views
1,352
JMacd62
shakey
An alternative to Eagle rider
Replies
14
Views
1,342
ymfb
ymfb
ymfb
Eagle Rider contact
Replies
15
Views
3,655
dirty_t
dirty_t
grantmac
just back from a tailor made trip with Eagle Riders
Replies
8
Views
4,014
Machagar
grantmac
Eagle Riders US Tours
Replies
14
Views
5,478
grantmac
grantmac


Back
Top Bottom