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

I dunno...I don't consider sucking down diesel fumes and waiting for a break in the endless stream of oncoming traffic to pass the 257th bus of the day to being challenged on the bike. But that's just me. It sounds like you just did some day trips, if so your experience was probably different.

Fair comment. I was just saying that the experience I had was generally positive and the negative aspects didn't put me off. I spent 3 months there and I rode bikes, drove a tuk tuk, walked, hitched, narrowly avoided two suicide bombings, fell for someone and met some beautiful people along the way.

Well, quite the adventure, sounds fun! I had some really cool moments, but overall I've ridden in better places. In any event, if anyone wants to go there, I wanted to pass on my positive experience with Hanees at Yellow Fleet.

Mr.Motoreiter is wring this forum about my business. what i have to tel the people who reading this forum is : This guy is trying to get his revenge from me. He booked the bike with me, But i had to cancel it due to past booking from Russian bike tour organizer. I offered him Road bike, But he refused. He wants only Off road bike. then i said sorry.
But i didn't cancel his reservation at last the moment. As i remember, it was about 2-3 weeks early notice. So he had enough time to find another company. Instead of finding another company he was complaining me, Complaining friends who recommends me, Writing to all blogs & asking people to avoid hire bikes from me. Looks like this guy pretend to be an international lawyer

Motoreiter NEVER pretended that. He cannot pretend it, because it is true!

He NEVER stated that, even though it is true.

It was I that stated it, because it is true!

BUT

If anyone reads the posts again, they will see he was not going to waste his time bothering telling you, or anyone, what is his profession.

He very generously (in my view) preferred to only report to HU readers who might be interested exactly what happened and that you broke the booking. He then wanted to just 'move on'.


There is nothing revengeful otherwise he would possibly be taking other more positive action.

Your response, repeated below, helps HU readers be aware that dealing with you is not certain as you will happily cancel existing bookings to get your hands on bigger money of Russians - exactly as you admitted!

__________________
Vitim Bridge Clubwww.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=533442
www.sibirskyextreme.com

Thanks for confirming what I've already said: I booked with you, and then later you cancelled because you wanted to rent the bikes to someone else. And I didn't want a road bike because I am too tall to ride a 150cc road bike comfortably, and it is not the bike I reserved.

As to my profession, I don't think it is any of your concern. I did, however, want to warn other travellers that they should not rely on any reservation that they might make with you. I've always found that life is much simpler if I just do what I tell people I am going to do, I encourage you to try it sometime.

Does anyone have any contact details for Yellow Fleet? Google struggles to find anything.

sent you a PM with Yellow Fleet's e-mail. The guy's name is Hanees.

Thanks for the quick reply motoreiter, hopefully it will be a great trip. Looking forward to it.

Chaps,

Just got back from a couple of weeks in Sri Lanka and thought I would give you my two cents - I hired an XT600 from Suranga at Sha Lanka Tours, $30 a day, $25 for delivery to my hostel in Kandy from Negombo (paid in full, in cash, on delivery, with my passport as deposit).

I have to say, the whole experience was good. The bike ran well, started first time every time. One indicator bulb was blown, and the brake light didn't function from the brake lever (worked fine from the pedal) but it was agreed that I could fix that and he would reimburse me for the cost. In the end, fixing it seemed like too much hassle, so I left it.

The speedo cable snapped, again I didn't fix it, but there were no questions, no arguments, simply a "yes, don't worry about it, these things happen".

I added a few scratches to the bike and voluntarily gave him a bit of cash towards that.

Really a pretty good experience. The bike needs a little work (and it needs its forks straightened properly - someone clearly had a massive crash on it at some point in the past) but nothing that actually diminished the enjoyment of taking my girl around the country on a motorcycle. Good times.

Happy to give more info if anyone wants it!