Plus the hassle of having to collect and return the damn thing. Useful not just for track days but when needing to transport the bike for service, tyre changes, loading for European track-days etc. I opted to sell my car and buy a SWB Transporter recently. I'm lovin' it. Using it take my bike to London next month for transport to Mugello, and shortly after for a couple of weeks in France - firstly a few days riding in Normandy, then on to Paris for work for a few days and finally down to Magny Cours for a weekend on track with the French run DRC.
You must have a great local site then, as cheapest vivaro size I couod get even from the local shed-renter was £45 per day for less than a week.
I have just booked a van this week from Enterprise for a Snetterton track day mid week, just over £115 for three full days hire which spanned four and it was unlimited mileage, the extra's are expensive at £15 a day for collision damage waiver and the excess is £850 if you don't take it out. Even with collision damage waiver they still want £250 excess, that is the only drawback. Fuel cost me £40 which was ultra cheap as it was a trip from South London and back, over 250 miles. I took two bikes as well and all gear so a fair weight in there and it still delivered good fuel consumption.
Me an a mate rent a van we usually have a long wheelbase there's plenty of room for the bikes and plenty of room to manoeuvre inside to get the bikes in you can stand up properly inside and get your leathers on and as we've had quite a few now we get a deal £50 all in including collision waiver and pickup at 4pm the day before with drop off the morning after so that's £25 each for van plus £30 each diesel....it's the way forward for us an you don't look like a pikey with a van parked outside your house
That is a good deal ^^^^ It's a pity other van rentals won't do the same they just want to charge for full days, so a minimum for me would always be two days.
Here its a min 3, collect on a Tue, Td wed, return Thur. Thats 150. Kerching. I got a good deal on mine but bought for 800, ins 400, which is 6 trackdays. In fact I would have spent nearly 300 in June so a way towards paying for itself so far, and if it goes pop I'll get 300 weighing it in
I used to rent mine by the day. They would drop it off the day before and pick it up from my place. Not very expensive. In the end I got fed up of having my kit rattling around the bottom of the van crashing into the bikes tho. I looked at buying a van but we have the London clean air zone here so it would have been a newer more expensive van and the first years insurance was stupidly expensive too. So I bought a Range Rover and a big box trailer. I drive around in a nice car and I can take two bikes when I need to.
Ive been thinking about this too recently, but for me, having a van as a 2nd vehicle would cost me a fortune. You can only use your NCB on one vehicle so insuring the van would cost mega money (regardless of what these "multi car" policies try to tell you, in my experience they never workout cheaper than insuring vehicles sepeately). Plus the extra cost of MOT, servicing, road tax, tyres... not to mention any repairs etc... So for me, hiring a van for the days I want it is an option, or buying some small bike trailer I could possibly hook onto the back of the missus car.
When I bought my van, the insurance company(autonetinsurance) mirrored my car ncb on the van policy. Cost £300 fully comp vans gone now and the same company allowed me to do it again for the run around I've just bought.
I've got a transporter Kombi SWB. I use it as my daily driver. It easily fits my two bikes in side by side on the paddock stands. I recently fitted a tow bar to pull my £400 pikey caravan to the race meetings. It is plenty powerful enough to haul both bikes, all my kit and pull the caravan. No too bad on fuel either. When all that's done I pop the rear bench seat back in and it's perfect for pushchairs, dogs and all the other family faff. Appreciated it's probably quite expensive compared to a basic vivaro but it's the best vehicle I've owned in terms of versatility and practicality. Not too bad on insurance or servicing either. These were taken last year when I only had the one bike so I used to rest it against the side. A lot of that kit now lives in the caravan so I can fit two bikes in on the rear paddock stands with the bars strapped down at the front.
have now had 4 SWB vivaros, great van, never tried to get the duke in there, but always get my dirt bike in no prob, KTM etc ,just PX ed my 05 one last month for 2.5k , now on his forecourt for £3999 lol , kev
toyota hiace van, i use mine for carting the track bike around, mountain biking,taking the dogs out, camping,(not all at the same time) everything really nice low floor and big single door for shelter if it ever rains, its great, 182000 miles and still goin strong.
Really like the transporters and vitos myself as I think u could run one of these instead of a car and not look like a pikey but it might be a struggle taking 2 bikes and kit. I used to run a LWB transit for mx which never let me down but it looked rough as F#*k
Don't want to piss on your campfire but I don't think it'll be very competitive? A bike might be a better option... :biggrin:
Yep, my mate used to have a vito instead of a car and loved it. I drove it a few times and it was just like driving a car. Nice, comfortable and completely unlike the LWB T125 350 transit I used to have as a "company van" - now that was proper pikey style.
I hired a Renault Trafic Quickshifter (Automatic) to take my bike to Bristol from London and stay overnight. It was better and more economical than my car despite being an Auto. It was easy to drive and just as comfortable, the only drawback is the slightly greater width than a car and it would not fit into any very low height restriction car parks. I would say a van is almost as good as driving a car on a daily basis. It's a long way from when I used to have a van for racing in the 1980's a Transit with a side door, real luxury at the time!!! It was so basic, very juicy on fuel and not very quick, I paid £440 for it, had it about 8 years and sold it for £225. The bloke that bought it had it nicked within two days with all his plumbing tools inside it. Vito's and all the Trafic style vans are a great improvement these days and seem to run on air. It cost me £40 in fuel to get to Snetterton last week from London and back, would cost me £60 in my car. I'd consider a van if I did more trackdays.
I just bought a small van (citroen jumpy, I'm not sure it's called the same in UK) with just 2m of cargo length and it suits my needs fine, although it does not take 2 bikes unless you remove the passenger seat. The Van is pretty small (my Chrysler 300M is both longer and wider than the Van!) and drives/parks like an ordinary car. It also has windows all around which greatly enhances driving and parking it but is less great when you sleep in the car. I do 10-12 trackdays a year and some of them are 4-5 hours drive away. I might drive even further next year to try the great German tracks too. For some time I was planning to get a large closed trailer but that would mean 6 hours instead of 4-5 hours driving and the trailer costs the same as the van (but is practially free to own, I know). If you get a Van, do a test drive on a fast road and check the noise. There are huge differences in the way they treat the cabin and cargo room and you will get pretty tired driving for hours in a noisy nightmare. When the van is bought you find that you can't understand how you ever could live without it! I'm driving the van almost more than the American Cruiser, there is always something to buy, stuff to deliver, a bike that needs service, a child that needs to be driven with her bicycle, stuff to be thrown out, furnitures to be moved. I am considering to unite the two cars into one luxury van next year, maybe even a camper (if I can find a smallish camper that allows a bike inside). HERE is my small setup. I use the Van as my 'house' and the small tent has extra wheels and stuff and my small refridgerator (a bit noisy in the car). I am working on a solution for some kind of pit tent (sun/rain screen), the usual 3x3 m pit tent will be pretty hard to fit inside with the bike and all the other stuff. br Jim
