Need feedback on a motorcycle business idea

[barncat]

I owned a DRZ 400 and loved it, but the seat height is tall. I have 33" inseam, and I had no issues, but shorter riders will be in trouble.
I think your idea is a good one. Even China is promoting tourism. You never hear about Central Asia

[marcham]

Has any of the terrain been covered on "The Long Way Round"?

[still.southern]

Originally Posted by marcham

Has any of the terrain been covered on "The Long Way Round"?

They get close. Episode 3 covers Kazakhstan I believe. That is just north of us, more developed, but harder from a visa standpoint. Kyrgyzstan's mountains are also more dramatic and the people are supposedly "more friendly."

[SirMoby]

Originally Posted by superdiver

What is the car rental market like there? What does it cost to rent a car (if you can) vs a MC at $100+ a day??

In Maryland/DC area:

Sportster about $130
Goldwing about $160
Rebel about $70

[Shadowhoss]

SS...my .02...

I think your thinking a bit small. Try to come up with capitol to build some mountain chalets that will work in all seasons. Try to make it nice enough to bring in the moderate to high dollar clients...think Aspen, CO or something like the Swiss Alps. If you can build say 3 locations, then you can start bike, jeep, horseback...tours (summer) and skiing in the winter between them. The key here is to get people staying on your properties, even schedule them to rotate around your properties. This all sounds daunting, but there is a lot of "emerging market" investment monies out there. Just need to go out and find it.

I'm pulling for you. You made a go of it here in Hamtown, road cross-country and moved to another continent! I think you can do this...

Shoot for the moon. You just might make it!

Sent from my PC36100 using Motorcycle.com Free App

[still.southern]

Originally Posted by SirMoby

In Maryland/DC area:

Sportster about $130
Goldwing about $160
Rebel about $70

In Almaty, Kazakhstan you can rent a Suzuki DR650 for about $140 per day plus insurance.

As far as car rentals this is the only one I could find (see link) While it looks cheap because it says $30/day you pay for each Kilometer (1.6KM=1 mile) and you have to pay for food and lodging for your driver...who is required.

[still.southern]

Originally Posted by Shadowhoss

SS...my .02...

I think your thinking a bit small. Try to come up with capitol to build some mountain chalets that will work in all seasons. Try to make it nice enough to bring in the moderate to high dollar clients...think Aspen, CO or something like the Swiss Alps. If you can build say 3 locations, then you can start bike, jeep, horseback...tours (summer) and skiing in the winter between them. The key here is to get people staying on your properties, even schedule them to rotate around your properties. This all sounds daunting, but there is a lot of "emerging market" investment monies out there. Just need to go out and find it.

I'm pulling for you. You made a go of it here in Hamtown, road cross-country and moved to another continent! I think you can do this...

Shoot for the moon. You just might make it!

Sent from my PC36100 using Motorcycle.com Free App

Definitely looking into it! The issue here is two fold...first I hate debt, started the biz in Hamtown without it, and hope to do the same here. I prefer to start small and build up to big. The second difficulty is that a few people moved here when I was about 5 years old...aka when the Soviet Union fell and bought up a lot of that stuff...so there is a reasonable saturation of the market given the current number of tourists who come. My thinking is to start by trying to increase the number of tourists who come and as that grows add the Dachas (local version of a chalet)...not to count I need to learn to ski! ...maybe this weekend...

Thanks for the support!

[Shadowhoss]

Have you spoken to the people that own the Daches and ask them what Bitch service they need or you can provide? Don't give them too much detail, or they might do it without you. Good luck in your quest!

[John Hopkins]

It looks to me as if you have two things going against you..The American economy is squeezing people worse than they have been squeezed since the 30s and the high cost of air fares..you can't do anything about the economy but if you could get group discounts on the air fares and maybe the same for the hotel costs you might be able to lower the cost of the vacation to a price that may be affordable to a larger section of the people..

It looks as though more people will be able to spend $2,000 than $5,000..

The other problem is that once a man takes on the responsability of a family, he usually takes them with him on vacations unless he sends them on a package vacation and just hits the road on his bike..

John.

[Buicknick72]

I think a key thing to this is that this wouldn't be marketed to the "average" person. The average person is not going to a country they cannot pronounce to ride a over sized dirt bike thru the mountains. The average person is going to Aruba to drink mojito's on the beach.

The person taking his trip is someone who already rides and owns a bike(s). They are going to want to have a 'bigger' trip than they could have setting out from their own driveway over their week or 2 vacation time. They are going to be in a higher income bracket. $5000 for a vacation is not that much. 4 bikes for two weeks at a clip wound only need 104 total customers a year to keep each bike rented everyday of the year.