Money means independence. How independent you want to be though, decides how much money you are hoping to make. So here’s the thing, you love motorcycles, and you are short of funds, so is it possible to combine the two? Read on and discover ‘how to make substantial money from your love of motorcycling.’
This article is not about how to get rich quick. No, these suggestions are real-world options, based on facts and intended to give you food for thought.
- A Career as a Courier
The world is deadline oriented, and even though it’s possible to send many things digitally, there will always be the need for the personal touch. Plus of course, the more congested our cities, the more popular queue slicing bikes become.
A courier business may not only be a good way of getting some experience under your belt but also it’s a way to see if being paid to ride around all day is a viable option. It’s not as glamorous as it sounds and clocking-up serious miles and dicing with city traffic can wreck your ride and leave you wishing your bike had built in spidey-sense.
Most companies pay by the mile or will offer set prices for specific jobs. They may also provide a company bike to use or pay a higher rate should you decided to use your own.
Launching a courier business will give you great independence. It is one of those occupations though that you may need to take time to build a list of clients and a reputation for reliability.
Being a one-man band, you will need to buy a seriously reliable bike, the best breakdown cover you can afford, and specialized insurance to cover your business for carrying goods while in transit.
- Bike Taxi
Once again, we can thank car-clogged city streets for the emergence of the motorcycle taxi. This service sees fare-paying passengers jump on the pillion. It has become increasingly popular with hip business people wanting to get in and out of busy city airports in a hurry.
Two-wheeled limo services have been around for a long time, especially in East Asia and cities such as Jakarta offer women-only bike taxis specifically for female clients.
As with many courier services you can try and get a job with an existing company or if one doesn’t exist, start your own. You will need specialist insurance, plus a sizeable touring type motorcycle, and it wouldn’t hurt to have a couple of advanced motorcycle courses under your belt.
- Tour Guide
A motorcycle tour guide conjures up images of leading a posse of bikes off the beaten track and in all reality, the wilderness is most likely where they will most be needed.
If you live in a particularly picturesque region and have lots of local knowledge regarding the best back roads and beauty spots, this is the career for you. Guiding bike tours would work equally as well in the city though, especially if you are fortunate enough to live in a place that is both rich in history and heritage.
- V-Blogger
Make a few shaky GoPro vids of yourself, stick them on YouTube, and sit back while the free money rolls in! If only it were that easy. First of all, are you riding somewhere, doing something, or recording someone interesting that people will want to watch? If not, the only one subscribing to your channel will be your mom.
Churn out regular, entertaining, opinionated, informative or fun vids, and it can be quite lucrative though. So be your own brand, but be warned, without watchers my friend you ain’t got nothin’.
You will also need to get creative with the vids, not just in the topics covered, but also in the editing so that watchers will subscribe to your channel and return regularly.
Before you get carried away here’s some stats. You make money by allowing adverts to appear on your vids and Google (who incidentally own YouTube) take a whacking 45 percent of whatever you make.
This translates to you earning less than 10 USD for every 1000 views. So whether you go down the YouTube route or start your own blog site, be original, tap into a vein, build up a following, and you can make money.
- Test Rider
I saw this suggestion feature highly in one of those “Top 10 Ways for Bikers to Make Money’ listings and I thought at the time, that this is the type of garbage that gives online blogs a bad name.
Unless you’re an ex-pro rider or consistently placed amateur with a high degree of technical knowledge, no bike manufacturer is going to let you past the chain-link fence around their test track.
Test riders are required to give highly detailed, technical feedback regarding every aspect of a bike’s performance and in most cases, expected to suggest tweaks to make the test bike perform better.
Instead, why not tie it into your YouTube channel as already mentioned. This idea is not as crazy as it first sounds. Get friendly with your local big brand dealers and put your name down for a test ride on any new model about to hit the showroom floor.
Tell them what you are doing and explain that they’ll get a brief mention in your vid. You never know some dealers may even put you at the top of their test ride list.
Most bikers would prefer a real-world assessment of a new model by another real-life rider rather than some glossed up bike-journo thrashing around a track.
- TV and Movie Extras
Grumpy looking tattooed dudes have been making good money as extras since Clyde the Orangutan, KO’d the Black Widows, way back in 1978.
Fast forward 40 years and SOA not to mention big ad campaigns by the likes of Carlsberg are proof that the classic outlaw biker look will never go out of fashion.
A quick search will kick up plenty of ‘how to be an extra’ sites as well as companies running talent books. No need to go all Shakespearean, arrange some pro-quality mug shots and get scowling.
- Collection and Delivery Service
All you theoretically need for this is some form of four-wheel transport capable of towing a covered trailer, a ramp and tie downs. Not to mention, of course, some insurance that will cover you for the goods you’re carrying, i.e. motorcycles.
You could start a two-wheel breakdown service within a set radius of your home, or offer collections for ‘trigger pulling Ebay-ers, who didn’t consider how they’d get their ‘bargain’ home.
Unless you’re incredibly lucky, making money from riding or relating to your enthusiasm or knowledge of motorcycles, is just like anything else, a hard slog that will eventually pay off if you put in the time.
Be realistic about your abilities and if you need to add weight to your credentials either in the form of relevant courses or equipment, think of it as an investment in your future.
Remember, whether you’re applying for a salaried position, going it alone or spot a gap in the market; consider your unique selling point. A USP may get you the gig, without one though, you’re just the next in line.
As with every money making enterprise, it’s a business so treat it like one. Make a plan, set some goals, and if you’re serious about how to make substantial money from your love of motorcycling, you’ll eventually make it happen.
Bio
I bought my first motorcycle, a Honda SL125 at 16. I went on to become a welder and fabricator until in my mid-twenties when I jumped ship to work for a local newspaper. Since those early days, I have been lucky enough to own and build over 40 motorcycles and have gained a Masters Degree in Interactive Journalism. I enjoy writing for motorcycle magazines, websites and blogs all over the world and have interviewed and photographed some pretty cool leading lights in the biking world.
