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BMW rentals in SoCal

GRANTMACEACHERN

taller than wide
Hi,

I am considering a quick trip down to California near the end of February.
The plan would be to fly in, rent a bike for 7 days and tour 2-up.
I would prefer either a K1200/1300GT or R1200RT for the touring.
I am also hoping to cover widely differing landscape in those 7 days.

I am flexible for my starting location depending on what area has the most to offer for riding at that time of year. I am currently thinking about either San Diego as a start point or further north such as SanFran.

Can anyone offer suggestions for:
A: rental places
B: possible routes or must sees (yeah, I know that is a vague topic....)

Much appreciated.

G
 
I was stationed in San Diego in the 80's . the riding west and northwest of Diego is some of the best I've ever rode. Mountains and Desert riding. now all you need is a place to rent the bike from...
 
I flew into Long Beach last fall and was in the BMW dealer there which is very close to the Long Beach airport and they had BMW bikes for rent. You might check with them for availability and rates.
 
Currently -5??C....

Here in Toronto.

Southern California is sounding very good right now. AND, my cousin lives just outside of San Diego. I think I'll sniff around for rentals in that area.

Was currently looking at:
http://www.jupitersnyc.com
but it is only out of LA (or NYC). Rates seem good.
However, ideally I wouldn't have to spend too much time in the cities.
Thanks for the notes so far......

g
 
The two San Diego County dealers, at least on their websites, don't seem to support any rental programs. As mentioned above, the Long Beach dealer does. And I note that the Las Vegas dealer does too.

You could fly to Long Beach (LGB) via JetBlue from JFK or BOS or BUF, but otherwise LGB is probably hard to get to from Toronto. Flying to Las Vegas is probably more direct from Toronto. Then riding to SD from either LV or LB is easy. (Flying to SAN, SNA or LAX might work too, but getting the rental bike could be a struggle).

And riding in So. Calif. or So. Arizona should be fine then if you happen to miss the occasional rain. You won't be able to get over the high passes in the Sierra and you may have problems trying to get to the Grand Canyon in AZ, but otherwise the coast and deserts are great riding areas.

I'm fairly familiar with SoCal riding and could provide some more ideas once you've firmed up your rental plans.
 
California in 7 days sounds about right. I've lived in California most of my life and I've been riding motorcycles most of my 45 years. I lived in NorCal until about 2 years ago, now I live in the San Diego area. San Diego to San Francisco is about 500 miles. Probably have to return the rental to the same place so that would mean a round trip. I know there's a place in the Long Beach area that rents R1200RTs. If you start in San Diego or the Long Beach/LA area you might head up the coast highway all the way to San Francisco. Do that in two days. Ride over the Golden Gate Bridge, and stay that 2nd night in Napa Valley. 3rd day...about 180 miles to Lake Tahoe...3rd night there. 4th day and night...Yosemite. From there 5th day to Mammoth Mountain. From there on the 6th day about two hours to Palomar Mountain. Lunch at the top at Mother's Kitchen. About another 1:15 ride into San Diego. Then on the 7th day, ride to breakfast at the beach, return the bike, and head back to the airport.
 
bmwocsd.org

Click to our club website and then go to resources. You will see a link for motorcycle rentals there. It is owned by one of our members, all late model bikes maintained by the dealers. As for riding, we also have info on the site for you, plus we meet for breakfast every saturday and sunday and ride after that. You will get more info than you can fit into a week.
I a week, I would start here, ride up the coast to hearst Castle, head inland after that and back around the 395 to Death Valley, Big Bear, Palm Springs, etc etc.
 
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