Park'n'Ride - Pyrenees; anyone interested?

[Simon_100]

I'm just finalising a deal to rent out some spare space in my underground parking lots to a biker who wants to leave his bike here long term, flying in two or three time per year to have his fun.

This idea has cropped up over the years with people asking on forums or mailing me from my blog and I'm wondering if it's worth pursuing further as I have an opportunity to extent my 'empire' ... But this means money outlay and I need to test the water, so:

The parking is located in Tremp, i.e. the perfect base to travel in the Pyrenees on a smaller or full on Adventure Bike. There are direct coach service from Barcelona, two a day, as well as rather tortuous train service but that also links to Spain's excellent High Speed Train network down in Lleida.

My place is about 100 yards from the bus/railway stations - NB I don't give out the actual location to folks who have business knowing it! - and there is plentiful accommodation in the town, including a well known place that is also over the road from a bike mechanic, tyre shop, and all the other services - these are about another three hundred yards away.

My first 'tenant' is paying the normal going rate for a long let for this kind of parking, i.e. €25 per month based on a year's tenancy plus a €5 p/m extra for about 0.25 cubic metres of storage in my store/workshop, i.e. enough for full riding kit and soft luggage. He can also use my tool kit to do basic maintenance on his bike when he arrives and leaves and I will run his bike every few weeks over the winter to keep the battery in trim.

One caveat with that is that I/we have to be there when he uses the store as it's has a lot of our own personal stuff there. But anyone not using this can come and go as they please.

I've looked around and found some 'professional' bike storage, e.g. IMT tours and bike rentals, they do 'short term' storage @ €60 per month - possibly plus VAT @ 21% with a minimum stay of one month. So I'd do the same, plus the €5 pm storage option.

For the latter 'mode' I could expand the space just by leaving my car out of doors from say the beginning of April to the end of October so could start operating without committing my hard earned cash.

There would be a slight possibility of having bikes delivered by contacts of mine as Tremp is quite close to a major border crossing from France. But I'm not using that specifically unless there's a reasonable demand.

So, anyone interested?

Regs

Simon

[herman]

I would imagine your market would be Americans and Canadians ? ADV always has threads asking and there are a few folks that do it dotted around Europe. If you could sort out or at least point them in the right direction as to the legalities of long term Euro use then I should think you would fill space quite rapidly. Good luck

[Simon_100]

I would imagine your market would be Americans and Canadians ? ADV always has threads asking and there are a few folks that do it dotted around Europe. If you could sort out or at least point them in the right direction as to the legalities of long term Euro use then I should think you would fill space quite rapidly. Good luck

Thanks Allen, as well as here it's also on UKGSer and the TET forum but I'd forgotten about ADV. In this case my 'client' isn't European buy nor is he from over the pond ...

Regs

Simon

[Tonibe63]

I think the problem could be with the owners insurance, most policies only allow a max of 30 days continuous cover outside the UK so if a claim happens they will want to know when and how did it leave the UK.

[Benson-1215]

Hi Simon
What would be the rate per bike for 5 bikes plus gear 12 months

[Simon_100]

I think the problem could be with the owners insurance, most policies only allow a max of 30 days continuous cover outside the UK so if a claim happens they will want to know when and how did it leave the UK.

I can only get a little bit involved with this aspect but I think some UK policies allow a total of 180 days road use abroad and at least one Spanish company, Liberty Seguros, will insure foreign vehicles. I used them for the first year or two when we moved here in 1997 and they also had English speaking staff. They were even happy with a 'voluntary' ITV (Spanish MoT) but that is invalid for getting your UK road tax. You can SORN a bike here, giving the address of the parking, but it would be up to owners if they fancied riding without a valid tax disk as in theory you'd have to have this to be on the road.

I think my present client's bike is register in Russia - heaven knows what the rule are there but he's happy with his Green card cover!

Good point though, thanks.

Regs

Simon

[Simon_100]

Hi Simon
What would be the rate per bike for 5 bikes plus gear 12 months

PM on it's way!

Regs

Simon

[Tonibe63]

I think the problem could be with the owners insurance, most policies only allow a max of 30 days continuous cover outside the UK so if a claim happens they will want to know when and how did it leave the UK.

I can only get a little bit involved with this aspect but I think some UK policies allow a total of 180 days road use abroad and at least one Spanish company, Liberty Seguros, will insure foreign vehicles. I used them for the first year or two when we moved here in 1997 and they also had English speaking staff. They were even happy with a 'voluntary' ITV (Spanish MoT) but that is invalid for getting your UK road tax. You can SORN a bike here, giving the address of the parking, but it would be up to owners if they fancied riding without a valid tax disk as in theory you'd have to have this to be on the road.

I think my present client's bike is register in Russia nd- heaven knows what the rule are there but he's happy with his Green card cover!

Good point though, thanks.

Regs

Simon

For me it is the major hurdle to overcome and has stopped me looking into a ride, park & fly type of continuous onward travel. If this could be overcome then it would open up a multitude of options for me and I suspect many others, ok leaving your £10k pride and joy could be a bit daunting but you could use a £2k bike which you are not too precious about.

[Hoggyf]

wonder how say 4 or 5 mates could club together to buy, insure and leave a spanish bike down there, all the running costs added up and divided by the number of peeps involved, could be a cheap way to do it, as long as someone is prepared to do the donkey work.

[Bart1]

Hi Simon, I was just thinking about something like this last month, I'll have a ponder ???