Need feedback on a motorcycle business idea

[still.southern]

First some background, then the business idea proper
So haven't been on here as much due to moving to Central Asia after my 9000 mile 'round the US run back in the early summer on my Shadow. Well, part of the reason for moving to Central Asia was to explore business opportunities. My wife and I are teaching English right now and setting aside money for a business start-up in a year or so. I'd like some feedback on this idea to see if y'all would be interested in a project like this. I'll put this later on ADVRider and on the HUBB but I'm looking to see if it has appeal to riders who aren't already Adventure nuts!

The idea proper

The idea in a nutshell is to import a few bikes (probably about 4) into Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and start renting them out. Price would probably be around $100-140 US per day. The country is nothing short of spectacular (check some of my other threads for pics) and the tourism industry is only marginally developed. The bikes could be rented for self-exploration along with appropriate gear (GPS, sat-phones, riding gear, etc) or larger guided tours could be arrainged. This could be an ideal starting point for riding the Pamir Highway or just exploring the Tian Shan mountains.

Right now round trip airfare from the US can be had for about $1500 (sometimes less) and US citizens along with most Europeans can enter visa free for 60 days (basically no entry cost, just a stamp in your passport) unlike any other Central Asian country. Kygyzstan is generally hospitable with lots of opportunities for staying in Yurts and a great exchange rate so hotels and most other services are cheap (Luxury hotel room is often less than $100 per night, regular accommodations can be had for $40-50).

So the first question just a general feedback request. What do you think? Is it a type of vacation you'd be interested in? etc.

The second question is what type of bike. One idea is 2008 or newer KLR650s (I know, this is a Honda forum, but Honda doesn't have a good competitor to the KLR). The second idea is to go for a vintage theme and order some brand new Royal Enfields, set them up as Scramblers, and promote the business with the nostalgic appeal of yurts and '50s style British thumpers.

Interested in any and all feedback. I'd like to try to promote this business to people outside the normal Adventure Bike world. Let me know what you think!

[Bowie-]

As a business owner, I love your ambition. A few things about this concern me though. First, you say that the tourism industry is not well developed. Bikes won't bring in tourists and you don't want to start a business without plenty of potential customers already there. The other is that I don't know that a lot of tourists are going to want to (or have the ability to) ride a bike. Add great hassles with maintenance, insurance, handling injuries/accidents, etc and it's a big bite to take. Do you think you could start out as a jeep tour and expand if things go well? Seems like that would be a safe route and allow you to ultimately reach your goal.
Hope you're able to start this venture and best of luck.

[still.southern]

Bowie...thanks for the quick response! I've run a business before (sold my Home Inspection business a few months ago to move here) and have therefore been working through the insurance and maintenance angles. I suppose "not well developed" with regard to tourism is a relative statement. There are several companies who run jeep tours and even more who arrange hiking and trekking tours. There are hotels in most major towns (though there aren't that many major towns) and there is a pretty good network of homestays available through a cooperative called CBT. The most recent statistics I've found were from around 2008 and there were nearly 14,000 tourists from the US who came through that year. So there are tourists who come, it's just not extremely well known.

I've been trying to figure an angle that would differentiate myself from any other tour company and motorcycles seems like a decent angle. Other options (or in addition to motorcycles) could include buying a дача (dacha or country house) and running some indoor plumbing so that it could be used as a guest house/dude ranch type home base. I've also thought of combining the rental business with a parts dealership for the small biker community here or opening a Royal Enfield dealership as part of it, just haven't figured out if classic British style bikes would appeal to the local economy. Anyway I've got ideas rattling around in my head and figured what better place to get feedback than this forum?

[still.southern]

If your interested here are some photobucket albums of the country...I've posted some of these up on the forum before, but not most of them.

October 2012 Village Photos by ryanbeth | Photobucket

September 2012 Issyk Kul Photos by ryanbeth | Photobucket

August 2012 Al Archa Photos by ryanbeth | Photobucket

August 2012 Issyk Kul and Jailoo Photos by ryanbeth | Photobucket

[vonh]

A four bike investment isn't a major risk financially and you can always sell the bikes and recoup some of the loss if things go south. I'd check out what the others are doing to make their rental business successful in that area. You prolly need to be able to fix the bikes to survive. I've also read a few stories on this site about people going over there and renting bikes for a holiday maybe check them out too and see what they have to say.

[droland]

Personally, I think your target customer base may be too small to support you.
Seems it would only appeal to the most adventurous type.
I know I would not be comfortable renting/riding a MC in another country.
Although I would rent a Jeep to go sightseeing.
As a prior business owner, I can see your logic that you would not have any competetion, but just think the demand might be too low.

I got lucky in my business and found a product that almost every homeowner needed and had very little competetion. Grew enough in 4 years to sell out and retire.

Good luck to you.

[still.southern]

Hmmm...good point Vonh, I hadn't factored that in yet. Truth be told it is probably possible to make a profit just off selling the bikes, any vehicles imported here generally command a very high markup...though for a variety of reasons I don't want to pursue that as a main course of business (not the least of which is that it usually requires bribes to be paid to keep it going).

droland, That's kinda why I'm putting this out as a survey question...I'm concerned the market may not be big enough so I'm trying to get a feel for what interest may be out there. I've considered adding some jeeps, but they cost comparatively is is pretty high. A Toyota Prado (Land Cruiser) often commands upwards of $15,000 even for an older one, while I can import a bike for about $3500. Russian jeeps are cool, but have a high frequency of maintenance and lack almost all creature comforts westerners expect. Definitely more thinking required!

[Sgoatley]

I would be more inclined to rent a quad than a bike. With a quad you can go automatic transmission and the renter doesn't need prior bike experience. Now if you add some arctic cat type vehicles to the mix, a family might just be interested enough to rent at least one of each. Also, the greater carrying capacity of those vehicles might allow you to rent camping equipment as well. You could do the guided tour thing and do some camping along the way.


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[MikeB]

Since this is the type of thing that would interest me (I've rented bikes in India) I like the idea. However, I'm not at all sure that the American market is where you should be looking for either guidance or potential customers. It's a pretty small segment of the biking public here that knows or cares about the rest of the world, and most of them will never get beyond the Fox-News-inspired idea that Americans in Muslim countries are anything more than handy moving targets.

But I would think such a business would be attractive to European riders.

Since the scenery and culture are really the main attractions the choice of bikes is more practical than anything else, and that certainly argues in favor of the legendarily bulletproof KLR over the Enfield. But if the tours you envision will be on paved roads you could probably expand your consideration to include smaller Japanese road bikes (150-200cc) which might be less daunting to stature-challenged riders and females. After all, it's easier for a rider accustomed to large bikes to move down in size than for a novice to move up. But probably the most important consideration is what maintenance and parts support network you have locally.

And you may want to talk to the economics officer at the U.S. Embassy about your idea. That person is there to advance U.S. business interests, including local ventures. There may be things on the horizon that would influence your decision.

Keep us posted. Sounds interesting. And if you need an uncomplaining "guinea pig" to test the initial itinerary (at a deep discount of course) keep me in mind.

[steve2010]

I would also have 50cc scooters for short local hops.