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).