hi there,

we're off to sri lanka in januari and we're planning to hire two small bikes there. i've seen honda baja's and xr's for rent, in several places, but am just wondering:
-should i book them in advance, and is the general conditions of the bikes ok?
-any chance for road assistance in case of breakdowns?
-any good recent adresses for bike hire? i've found some here in older posts, but don't know if there still up to date...

we're planning to tour hill province, tea plantations, up north to the ancient cities and loop down via galle. nice (off)road suggestions welcome.

as for the driving: is it indian?

thx
gaea

Hi Gaea

See my earlier post here:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...e-or-not-37921

For closer to Colombo airport you might try: Negombo Motorcycle Tours

I exchanged a few e-mails with the owner before I went and although he was more expensive, he replied promptly and courteously.

,
Stephan

Hi, i have hired bikes from Suranga at Negombo motorcycle tours after a good friend recommended him. The bikes were in good condition and he proved to be a decent trustworthy man. i highly recommend him and hope to return in the next year or two. Cheers Andy

hi there,

thx for the reply. i've enquired in the mean time, and the rate i have been offered sounds rather high to me. 25$ per bike, even though i'd be hiring two for 14 days. any idea how much you paid? and is there an alternative in/near negombo?

thx in advance
gaea

Hi Felix

way back in 2006 (or so) we had already paid around 15€/bike/day for a two week journey of three bikes, so nowadays 25US seems quite a reasonable price to me. We got our bikes from "Yellow Fleet" at Negombo, but their HP doesn't seem to be updated since 2007, looks like their out of business now... :confused1:

Hope this will help
Cheers
Jörn

Hi, i does seem a bit high, why not offer $20 a day,he may accept that. He can also collect you from the airport, for a fee. Cheers Andy

I would not recommend Suranga! I just left Sri Lanka after a three week tour around the beautiful Island. Two of my friends hired from him, they cost $20USD per day and they were a hunk of shit! Every day we had to deal with a new problem, and I mean EVERY day! on both bikes.

When they picked the bikes up - they were not ready and needed new tires, chain adjusted and a new battery. This was only the start of many many problems!! like carburetor issue to radiator seals blowing.

Suranga, promised to pay back the mechanical fees but when we returned the motorcycle, he refused as the tail light cover was missing - this fell off on the day somewhere!! He wouldnt give them a discount for the number of days waiting to get the bike fixed. either. My poor friends had to walk off as the talking would have continued into the night.

I rented from Yellow Fleet (just down the road) and got an almost new bike and had no trouble what so ever! I was glad to pay the extra $3 per day. I picked my bike up within a few minutes, and dropped it of within a few seconds. He even gave me a ride back to my guest house.

Another tip - Yellow fleet will tell you via email they cost $30 per day, do not book - just wait until your there (unless your a huge group) and negotiate the price. Hence why i paided $23.

Have fun in Sri Lanka - its amazing country - I would go back in a heart beat. Just remember its a bit more expensive than other Asian countries.

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Hi there

I am the owner of Sha Lanka Tours (negombo-motorcycle-tours.com).
About the report of MAximondo is not 100%truth. When she inquiries the bikes from me, All my bikes were booked by Australian group (8 riders) for 18 days. Their report on web :http://www.aridesomewhere.blogspot.com/[/URL]
December is High season in Sri lanka. So i told her that i am borrowing the bikes from my friends. I had no choice. So when i pick the bikes from my friends there were visible problems on the spot, After i requested from my friends they were fixed. After Maxmodo returned, She wants money back of lost days. But i paid my friends in advance all cash. So they refuse to pay back. Also Maxmondo lost Tail light & she didn't agreed to pay back. It cost about 30$ to replace new. She want to pay only 2$ for it.
After the decent discussions, she lost her temper & threat us that she will write a bad post about us on internet, Suddenly she jumped forward & snap the security money from my wife, then she went out & kicked the bike to get the revenge!!. In this case this bike broke front break leaver & broke the plastic parts. I have attached the picture this bikes incident.


And her boy friend was so upset about her bad behavior & he apologize for the situation from us. In front of him we called the bike spare shop & check the prices, And he realize that the price of tail light is 30$.

Cheers
Suranga.

Suranga - I (Maximondo) am the person who hired from 'Yellow Fleet' not from you. I did not do these things, i was the person who helped fixed the problems on the bike!

- I wasn't even present at the time of returning the bikes as I was trying to get my Indian Visa!

Please do not confuse my postings - im sure your normal bikes are fine but its your business, and if you do not have the capacity then say so or if you DO borrow off friends then you need to make sure they are sound bikes.

When people only have a few days off a year, they want to make sure their trip goes smoothly as possible.

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Well, after the mixed reviews of Suranga in this thread (his site: ....:::: Contact Us ::::....), I thought I would give him a try anyway.

I e-mailed him to reserve a bike a few weeks ago, he confirmed the reservation. Today he's come back and said that he's had an "unexpected booking" for all of his bikes, and that the bike he had reserved for me is now, well, being given to someone else.

In the meantime I had planned my vacation around picking up a bike with him, so it is rather inconvenient, to say the least, that he has cancelled my reservation. I have cancelled all of my arrangements with him (moto, room, airport pickup) and let him know that I will do business with people that know how to keep their word. I urge everyone to do the same.

Bummer.
Guys like that do not deserve to be in business.

Did he know your Profession?

I hope he finds out in due time that you are an International Lawyer, when you have quantified your additional costs of your holiday resulting from his Breach of Contract.

(I imagine the Sri Lanka legal system is pretty much based on the UK one, but a few years behind)

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well I'm certainly not going to waste my time with that, but I do hope to alert people on this and other sites that this guy cannot be relied on.

Well I've just gotten back from a week in Sri Lanka and wanted to let people know the deal...

I mentioned the problem I had with Suranga, so I obviously didn't use him. I spent a lot of time searching the net for another place to rent a bike, and found another place that looked promising until they demanded full payment up front. I was OK with that since it is high season and all, until they said that they wanted full payment upfront, including the $500 deposit for the bike, upfront (this was about a month I was going to arrive). I told them I was not going to pay the deposit until I picked up the bike, since that is what a deposit is for, but they refused to change their "policy" (scam?).

Finally I contacted Hanees at Yellow Fleet, based in Negombo. He reserved a bike with a partial downpayment via CC over the internet, and then when I arrived he had a few bikes to choose from, I put down a deposit ($200) and off I went. He was good to deal with, no complaints at all. PM me for his contact info if you can't google it.

The bike, a 250 Suzuki Djebel, was in good condition. While I did get a flat tire and had a hard time starting the bike a few times, I think those were pilot errors, so in general I think the bike was in fine condition (plus had a nice luggage rack).

That's all the good news. The bad news is that I was not that keen on Sri Lanka as a riding destination. I've ridden in many countries, including Russia, China, Laos, and Sri Lanka was the worst by far in terms of riding conditions. On any main road, the riding pretty much consisted of sucking up diesel fumes behind some bus or truck as you waited and waited for a break in oncoming traffic to allow a pass. Buses and just about everything else will also run you off the road in your lane without a second thought while they are passing (if you're lucky they will flash their highbeams to remind you to get out of the way). Am I exaggerating? Yeah probably, but most of the riding was not very pleasant.

That said, I did try to spend a lot of time on the back roads, some of which are incredibly beautiful and exotic (mountains, tea plantations, buddhist stuff, monkeys, etc.), but I was often frustrated by the lack of adequate signs (I got lost on a very regular basis) despite having a decent map. I couldn't believe the number of times that none of the 2-3 towns mentioned on the road signs were on my map.

Another good thing was that the people were in general very friendly and everywhere I went, even in the small villages, there was someone that spoke at least a little English (I didn't know what to expect in the countryside).

My experience is a little dated as I spent 3 months in Sri Lanka back in 1998 but my experience of Sri Lankan roads was quite enjoyable...despite the issues of lanes just ending and continuing as dirt tracks, large pot holes, crazy & drunk bus drivers, 4x4s. I hired 3 or 4 bikes from 2 different places in Hikaduwa 2 Honda Superdream 250s and 2 Honda XLs - one of the superdreams was crap and once i'd gotten back to the rental place (a truck picked us up and gave us a lift back), they gave us a replacement with no hassle. I can't remember the company name though.

I took one of the XLs up to Columbo for the day, which was one of the highlights for me - being able to ride around the city and take myself off to the suburbs was great.

I guess it depends on the person. I get a buzz from being challenged on a bike and thus, getting lost, having to raise my concentration because of traffic conditions, dirt roads, etc, add to the experience for me. But that's just me. I'd rather ride a bike in Sri Lanka on a daily basis than have to commute to the centre of london.

I did not particularly enjoy riding on the West coast as it was very congested but found the East coast to be the opposite and on the way to Aragum Bay the road was almost deserted. Andy