Motorcycle renting in Germany

[EPMAl]

We're going to Formula Student Germany this year and I was planning to go by the Nurburgring after the competition. I'm trying to find a place where I could rent a sport motorcycle (let's say a 600 so I'll still have a chance to survive the course). Has anybody done this before or knows a place I could rent motorcycles? I'm not sure also that my motorcycle license is valid in Germany. Does someone knows what type of license you need to drive a sport bike in Germany?

[EPMAl]

We're going to Formula Student Germany this year and I was planning to go by the Nurburgring after the competition. I'm trying to find a place where I could rent a sport motorcycle (let's say a 600 so I'll still have a chance to survive the course). Has anybody done this before or knows a place I could rent motorcycles? I'm not sure also that my motorcycle license is valid in Germany. Does someone knows what type of license you need to drive a sport bike in Germany?

[HenningO]

Driving with rented cars (or bikes as well I guess) is usually a pretty bad idea (especially if it's rented in Germany or any nearby country). I've heard about people being fined up to several thousand euros for driving a rental car on the ring.

However there are a couple of specialized car rentals that focuses on car especially prepared for the ring (such as: http://www.rent4ring.de/index....id=5&no_cache=1&L=1) (http://www.rent4ring.de/index.php?id=5&no_cache=1&L=1)). I haven't heard of any bike rentals, but I'm pretty sure Google can give you the answers.

[Damon Pipenberg]

I'm no expert on this, but I did have a co-worker who lived in Germany for awhile. I'm pretty sure he said the there were different levels of motorcycles licenses that allowed you to ride different classes of bikes. I think it took him a couple of years to get the license required to ride a sport bike - driving laws in Germany are really strict, at least compared to the US.

[DART-CG]

Uhhh,

this could be a quite hard task here in Germany. There are some major problems:
- Like mentioned before the german traffic law is very strict. You can earn a license with 16 to drive up till 125cc bikes with 80kph top speed. With 18 you can have a motorcycle license for any bike but you have to restrict it to 34hp. After a waiting time of 2 years you are allowed to drive any motorcycle. Another way is to gain your license with 25+. By doing so you can drive any motorcylce.
I don't know the regularities but I thnik it will be quite hard to to drive an unrestricted 600cc bike with a foreign license.
- I never heard of a motorcycle renting in Germany which allows to drive on racetracks for bikes. In fact motorcycles have a quite bad reputation in Germany so you only have very few people who will rent you a bike even for street purposes.
- I wouldn't suggest to drive on the ring with a motorcycle if you don't have the biggest experience... Beneath the legendary reputation of the ring it is to mention that motorcycles and cars are on the track simultaneously. With a cars much better decelerations (especially when you look at a downforce generating sportscar) you are quite in a danger in every single corner if you havent kicked the cars butt on the last corners exit http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Why don't you like to take some laps directly in Hockenheim? It is good fun to drive there on a motorcycle, especially the Motodrome is very tricky and demanding. Or we'll meet and I show you some beautiful low mountain streets often used for hillclimb events between Frankfurt and Stuttgart http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[teemee]

http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_eek.gif http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_eek.gif

I've you really plan to go round the ring, please read this:

http://20832.com/?rubrik=nordschleife&lang=eng

http://www.nurburgring.org.uk/safety-leaflet.pdf

http://www.nurburgring.org.uk/beginners.html

[Diablo_niterider]

@dart-cg - sounds interesting , how far is it from hockenheim.

[DART-CG]

Not that far, aaprox. 80km. Would be fun though...

[EPMAl]

I actually been driving a 600cc sportbike for the last 4 years (exluding my 8 monts probation period), so I'll have to check if it can be found equivalent in Germany. Believe me, I know the risks of driving on this track and I don't really planned to go there to break the lap record, just driving on that mythical circuit will be enough for me. I like your suggestions DART-CG, I'll check it out with you when we'll have our plane tickets bought and our schedule fix so I'll know how much free time I'll have in Germany. Although, like I said, I'll have to rent a bike since I'm from Montreal and I don't think the team will let me pack my bike with the car, lol.