Top Scooter Rental in Danang – Review of Da Nang Bikes, Son Tra Peninsula, Vietnam – Tripadvisor

Dear readers,

I’ve been backpacking through Southeast Asia for quite some time now, and I’ve got friends that live in Danang that are teaching English; This is not my first rodeo. In addition, I am a certified BMW mechanic, so I know my way with cars and motorcycles.

Danang bikes does provide a quality, well serviced bike (brakes, engine, starter). However, both times I’ve rented a bike from these folks my back tire has seem to go flat.. coincidence, I’m not sure, it cost about 5-8 USD to fix, not really a big deal. I also noticed that when I began riding the bike there was a small wobble in the ride (could be balance, alignment, the suspension, a plethora of possibilities. From my experience it was the alignment/balance, but I’m not an expert on Yamaha Janus 100-150°CC motorbikes).

Anyways, this is where my qualm is, my girlfriend and I were riding the bike and unfortunately hit a pothole and went down. No serious damage or injuries sustained as we were going about 5-7 MPH. I immediately reached out to them and let them know what happen via WhatsApp, they were very understanding and nice about it. However, when I returned the bike, I’m not going to sit here and write that there was no damage because there was. However, the damage was VERY minimal, some scratches to the plastic covers on the right side of the bike. Knowing that this business wasn’t run by locals I knew that I was going to be charged a pretty penny to have the bike repaired, which obviously since I damaged the bike, I understood I would be responsible. I asked on WhatsApp if I could have the motorbike repaired myself, and they told me to bring it back so they can take it to “Yamaha.” My girlfriend is a local Vietnamese and we went to the local mechanic to get a quote for the repairs, to repair the plastic covers, realign and balance both tires we were quoted at 825,000 VND. When, I arrived back to return the bike, the young man (a worker), hopped on the bike and said he’s going to bring it to the “mechanic,” he was back within 10 minutes, or less. I looked on google maps and there isn’t even a Yamaha motorbike dealer anywhere near Danang Bikes… didn’t take me long to figure out that they, too, bring it to a local mechanic, and have it repaired at a fraction of the cost of what the repairs actually cost. I’m usually not a confrontational person but I just didn’t like the way I was treated, considering my friends and I have all rented bikes from them multiple times. Not to mention I brought back the bike with 1 tick less full (5 or 6 ticks total) and they also way over charged me for the gas, 70k to fill up one tick, I filled the bike up for 60k from empty… I ended up paying over 2.1million VND for the 2 and half days I had the bike.. I told the owner, I could have it repaired for less than half, and he diverted my accusation and told me I was lucky they weren’t charging me for the 24 hours it’ll take to have the bike repaired..oh, and to top it off, their visa machine didn’t work so when I came to pay, I literally was left with 5,000 VND in my wallet, luckily I know my way around the city and had that much cash on me to even pay, I walked a couple KM to my hotel.

All in all, I’m not a cheap person, hence why I rented from these guys, you can get more powerful bikes at a cheaper cost from other local shops, but I figured the service would be top notch, motivating me to pay the premium.

Unless you plan on being a perfect driver, which is unlikely in the bananza of Vietnamese traffic, I’d suggest going to a local shop, and supporting the local people as they won’t do you dirty and charge you unscrupulous amounts for minimal damages you mistakingly and openly admitted to.

Thanks for taking the time to read my review, and hopefully it is considered in transactions with future clients.

P.S. my name is Noah, you can confirm I rented from you guys in mid-June 2019.