Renting Road Bikes Chiang Mai

DOK

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Dec 11, 2010
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I booked a bike 3 months before arriving from N Z.Kept in touch confirming my rental dates.On arrival at Mr Mechanic i was told no bike available.Only bike they had was a heap of rubbish CB 400 tried it but no good.I had booked accommodation and planned a road trip.After losing a day finally got a bike at POPS.In my opinion you should NOT rent at Mr Mechanic they are completely UNRELIABLE and UNHELPFUL......POPS have a much better range of good reliable road bikes .were helpful and easy to deal with.Highly recommended.
 
May 25, 2010
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That's interesting - exactly the opposite advice to that given by GT Rider who say Mr Mechanic is the best outfit in town and POP are a bunch of crooks!
 

DavidFL

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Jan 16, 2003
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www.thegtrider.com
DOK;264313 wrote: I booked a bike 3 months before arriving from N Z.Kept in touch confirming my rental dates.On arrival at Mr Mechanic i was told no bike available.Only bike they had was a heap of rubbish CB 400 tried it but no good.I had booked accommodation and planned a road trip.After losing a day finally got a bike at POPS.In my opinion you should NOT rent at Mr Mechanic they are completely UNRELIABLE and UNHELPFUL......POPS have a much better range of good reliable road bikes .were helpful and easy to deal with.Highly recommended.

DOK
I spoke to Mr Mechanic today.
You had tried to book a CB750 for 3 days.
They do not do bookings for 3 days.
You never paid for the booking.
On arrival you asked for a CB750, they had none available.
You were supplied a CB400 which you paid 3 days rental for.
You used the bike for one full day & complained about the condition of the bike.
You were not satisfied & your full 3 days rental was refunded, despite using the bike for one day.
You cannot get much fairer than that.
 

DOK

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Dec 11, 2010
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I can only say it as i see it.I can assure my criticism of Mr Mechanic is genuine i was most disapointed with my dealings with them.DOK
 

DOK

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Dec 11, 2010
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That is not correct I booked a CB 750 from the 9 to the 13.and was asured by Benz there would be a bike available.there was not.i used the 400 as far as mai rim where it started to miss and would not idle properly i returned the bike i had it for about 2 hours...I had to argue like hell to get my money back and was still charged one half day for the rental of a faulty bike.plus i had filled the tank .any way its over now .what i am saying is i consider i was let down by mr mechanic.....also i asked if i should send a deposit to hold the bike and was told this was ot necessary ?????
 

feejer

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Feb 16, 2007
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No comment on any shops in particular, but based on my one and only time renting in CM, there are many other "2nd tier" rental agengies. If you are not happy with the quality of what you see or have a bad feel for the dealings at your 1st choice "recommended" place, leave and walk around a bit. You may find a better bike, at a better price, and with better terms (Credit card deposit and you keep your passport). That was my experience, but maybe I just got lucky?
 

feejer

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Feb 16, 2007
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DOK;264353 wrote: i used the 400 as far as mai rim where it started to miss and would not idle properly i returned the bike i had it for about 2 hours...I had to argue like hell to get my money back and was still charged one half day for the rental of a faulty bike.plus i had filled the tank

You say you filled the tank. By chance did you choose the super, super octane flavor? If so, that stuff is over the top with ethanol. Older CB400 carb innards will be unhappy drinking that and will punish you with exactly what happened in Mai Rim.
 
Nov 7, 2007
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BTW if you want to rent a road bike in CM, unless you're a fan of classic bikes that might break down, you really need to rent an er6-n/Ninja 650/Versys. All the other big bikes for rent are anywhere between ancient and old, and in an unknown state of repair. Not worth it.

I doubt anyone would hold a bike for you - that's not how it works here. Luckily there's many places to rent big bikes, even more so since new Kawasakis have become available in Thailand. "Not necessary" is a Thai euphemism for "we don't do it".

Not to say Mr. Mechanic was in the right in this case, just correcting some assumptions people might have before renting. If you know that nobody's going to rent you a new or even semi-new CB750, and that nobody's going to be able to hold a bike for you, you might save yourself some disappointment.

I'd never rent a CB400 here - while you might get lucky, all the ones I have seen were total crap. The rental shops obviously won't tell you that....

[1] Holding a bike seems trivial but in order to hold a bike you'd need to write that down somewhere, staff would have to be aware of what was written down, and would need to make sure people return the bike before that date - no shop in CM is going to bother doing this, and even if they try staff might not be aware, the customer might keep the bike longer, etc.
 
Jul 25, 2010
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For what its worth, booking or pre paying doesn't necessarily help anyway judging by experiences that I know of. A mate of mine, a top HK/BKK lawyer, booked and paid the full rental fee in advance (which was the only way to secure a booking) for a Rolls-Royce rental in London. Arriving at Heathrow from New York, the rental company told him that the car had not yet been returned from the previous rental and offered him a top of the line Benz as a replacement. He told them he didn't want such a thing (he lived in HK long enough to know well what one of those represents) so went down the road and took a Ford or something. He never got his money back so perhaps its better for he rental companies not to promise what they cant necessarily deliver if a bike/car is not returned in time. Its not like these shops in CM have many branches and can get a bike from another shop in the event that they run out.
 
Apr 23, 2006
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I've only ever needed to rent a bike once so far - & that was on behalf of a friend coming over from the UK. It was a VTwin Honda 400 & came from Tony's Big Bikes. Had known Jeff Pikey for a while beforehand. Yes, the bike was quite old, but it was very well turned out, tyres were new, chain in good condition. It covered over 3000 kms in two weeks & never missed a beat. I have no experience of other rental companies in CNX but the service at TBB was first class & all went to plan. Bike was booked about 2 months before collection, paperwork was in order so both myself (who collected it from CNX & returned it) & Steve my guest were well satisfied.
 

feejer

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Feb 16, 2007
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David Learmonth;264596 wrote: It was a VTwin Honda 400 & came from Tony's Big Bikes. Had known Jeff Pikey for a while beforehand. Yes, the bike was quite old, but it was very well turned out, tyres were new, chain in good condition. It covered over 3000 kms in two weeks & never missed a beat.
My experience almost exactly. The Super Four I rented was very far from a shiny new ER6N or the like, but for 500 baht/day I flogged it mercilessly for 2 weeks/3000km and it never gave me the slightest protest. Those older Hondas are virtually indestructible if you are kind enough keep oil in them. But you really have to know what you are looking for before you jump on one and head off to parts unknown.