BikeFarm - Foreign-owned motorcycle shop


BikeFarm - Foreign-owned motorcycle rental, repair & sales shop

The fellow, who rents motorcycles, is opening his very own motorcycle shop for repairs, rentals and sales. He’s an English chap, named Jeremy. He opens next week. I’ll post the details and answer any questions.

Repairs- Bring your motorcycle or scooter in anytime between 12pm-10pm. He’s quite good and will actually repair your bike right the first time by figuring out what went wrong in the first place.

Rentals- You need to get ahold of him at least 2-3 weeks before you need a bike as he has a high demand for rental motorcycles They require a $7,000NT deposit, $2,600NT/month rent and must be taken in monthly for preventative maintenance. Sir Donald Bradman and I have used/use this service and been quite pleased.

Sales- I know he will have some new Kymcos and maybe some of his older bikes. Not sure on this one.

Taiwan finally has a proper scooter motorcycle mechanic as someone would say who has a cute fluffy highly inappropraite avatar.

CYA
Okami

[quote=“Okami”]The fellow, who rents motorcycles, is opening his very own motorcycle shop for repairs, rentals and sales. He’s an English chap, named Jeremy. He opens next week. I’ll post the details and answer any questions.

Repairs- … He’s quite good and will actually repair your bike right the first time by figuring out what went wrong in the first place.

Taiwan finally has a proper scooter motorcycle mechanic.
[/quote]
Okami, what part of town is he in? Also, is Jeremy factory trained/certified from anywhere in England or is he an experienced amateur? There is a difference between being “quite good” and “a proper scooter motorcycle mechanic.”

I can vouch for Jeremy’s motorcycle rental service - my brother rented one of his scooters for a couple of months. I’ve also had my bike maintained there, and everything seemed very professional and the prices very reasonable. Jeremy and Dave are two of the nicest guys… :notworthy:

I would be interested in this address, too.

BTW, what are the advantages of renting versus buying a scooter? I understand that some people are here for a short period of time (like Maoman’s brother) or perhaps some don’t have an ARC. But, with a "$7,000NT deposit, $2,600NT/month rent " wouldn’t it be cheaper just to buy a second-hand scooter for $10,000 or so.

Over the long term (a year, say) this seems as if it would be the cheaper option. Plus, you can get some money back when you sell the bike again.

Finally, how do the rentals work with tickets and so on? Who pays for those?

I rented one of Jeremy’s bikes at one point when I didn’t have enough to buy one. Benefits were exactly that, could save up to get my own. The other was that he took care of the maintenance and though it never happened, he’d sort out any breakdowns.

I don’t think he’s a qualified mechanic but he has an awful amount of experience and was at one point tuning bikes for racing. That makes him way better than a mechanic in my book.

HG

Jeremy’s shop info

Bikefarm
Xinhai Rd. Sec. 3, Alley 157, #4
Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
02-8732-1992

Go down Keelung Rd from Roosevelt Rd. towards the WTC. When you get to Xinhai Rd. turn right, then at the next light turn left(there’s a water treatment plant there). His shop will be the 2nd one on the right. He will have spares and be a fully functioning shop next week.

Now to the questions of my fellow Forumosans:

Wazai: He’s not certified, but neither are most of the guys working on motorcycles in Taiwan. He’s quite good, but Mr. Chen(the only man mentioned for his honesty in the whole lonely planet Taiwan book) can still identify parts better blindfolded(they’ve actually done that too). He’s been doing this for about 7 years now and knows his stuff quite well.

Fee: I find renting more advantageous because I don’t have an ARC and I don’t have to worry about maintenance. If the bike breaks down in Taipei city or close to it in Taipei county, Jeremy will come out an fix it. The problem with used scooters is you don’t know how well the last owner took care of it. So you could possible get lucky and have no problems or be really unlucky and have a nearly infinite stream of them. I basically see it as a service and one less headache. I had cars, trucks, and a motorcycle in the US. Repairs are what usually nailed me the hardest. You also will not have to worry about insurance, emissions, and tickets(though you still have to pay for them) because Jeremy takes care of all of that. When you get a ticket, Jeremy will show you the picture and pay the fine +$100NT for the trouble. You pay for fines. In 3 years, I have had only one fine, but my motorcycle towed twice(much worse experience.)

Jeremy is an excellent source of information. he may not know how to do something, but someone who rents or has rented from him will. It seems he’ll also have a board for people to post jobs, items for sale, and roommates wanted. I find having an experienced Fluent English speaking mechanic quite handy in the Taipei area. Having had to use a shop once and then having them have to fix the bike twice in 5 minutes because they didn’t do it right the first time.

CYA
Okami

Didn’t Jeremy use to run a similar operation out of “Lao Chen’s” shop on Roosevelt, past Keelung? Did they part ways on good terms?

Jeremy and Mr. Chen parted ways amicably and Mr. Chen has been very helpful to Jeremy.

The problem was Jeremy’s business was getting too large for Mr. Chen’s shop. He has around 70 bikes rented out and they all need to be serviced and have the rent paid for monthly. He can handle this better and do other work in his new shop. Jeremy can weld, do woodworking, and other misc. things.

Okami

Just wanted to add myself to the list of people vouching for Jeremy as (1) a top-grade mechanic and (2) a great bloke.

For those concerned about his abilities as a mechanic, some time ago he told me that as a young man he trained as a fitter and turner, and he has his own lathe in the shop. So, he’s well accustomed to making parts that are suffering from a bit of wear and tear fit properly.

Also, years ago when we played chess against each other he used to let me win occasionally. So, he must be a good bloke, right?

Latest updates regarding Jeremy’s Bikefarm:
-Footpath outside is being torn up and re-paved. Finish date is scheduled for mid-November. There is a ramp to get in and out of the shop, so if you’ve driven past and thought twice about going in because it looks messy, don’t worry, Jeremy’s open for business as usual (2pm-10pm, Monday to Saturday).
-New signs are up now, making finding the place a hell of a lot easier. Look for a yellow sign with blue writing. There’s a large illuminated sign inside the shop now as well.
-Grandma Nitti’s bookstore thing has half moved into Jeremy’s shop, so if you’ve got any books you’d like to sell or trade, take them in.
-Food is available after about 6:00pm, so if you fancy a feed while your bike’s being repaired, there’s a range of pasta and curry to choose from.
-If you’re thinking about hiring a scooter, do it soon, busy season is fast approaching and they’ll be in high demand shortly thanks to the September influx of new students and teachers into the country.
-If you find the place hard to get to from XinHai Rd., you can follow Heping East Rd. (going away from the city) across the Jilong Rd. intersection and then take a right at the first 7-11 you see. This road will lead you straight to Bikefarm, and the other side of XinHai Rd.
-Jeremy speaks excellent Chinese, so if you’ve got any Taiwanese friends with bike problems, they’ll have no trouble communicating those problems to Jeremy, nor he in explaining the solutions back.

More as it happens. :smiley:

Just had a visit to the Bikefarm and what a pleasant experience it was. The fellow with the most grease on his hands is Yang Zhong Xiao 楊忠孝; he does all of the day to day fix its. Though he doesn’t yet speak enough English, Jeremy or one of his other associates will be on hand to make sure your needs are understood.

Important Note: Because Mr. Yang is quite thorough about his job, he may replace parts or do something to improve the condition of your bike. I was caught off guard and didn’t have enough cash. The repairs he made were exactly what my scooter needed, but I wasn’t ready to have them all done at that time. So be clear about what you want done with your two wheeler and specify that you need to be notified ‘in advance’ if there are any repairs that will cost $$.

While you wait, in a comfy little nook they’ve got a computer set up so you can cruise the Web, or you can browse the books that are up for sale, or when the chef is in you can have a bite to eat. There is also a masseuse at times, who can massage the road rage away.

But back to the mechanics… This is the only shop I’ve ever been to where the bike was actually taken on a real test drive to acertain its condition, and they didn’t hesitate to show me the parts that were replaced and explain why. These actions, in my book, will warrant my continued patronage. Oh, and the fact that they were real good about my not having enough cash on hand :blush:

Currently there are several scooters available for rent. I asked if they sell any, but for the moment, no.

If you are wondering about prices, I’d say they are equivalent or even better than other bike shops. The best part is now I finally understand EXACTLY what’s been done, rather than only getting the gist of it with my rudimentary motorcyle vocab.

Hear ye, hear ye. Don’t delay, check out the Bikefarm today!!

Am I right that Jeremy was on TVBS TV channel the other day? What was the feature about? I couldn’t follow it and the actual section with Jeremy in was 30 seconds at most.

Any experience with Bikefarm? It looks like they speak English and I wonder how good they are.

bikefarm.j321.com

I moved your post here as there are some good things written about Bikefarm that you should see.

Do a search for “bikefarm” and you’ll find quite a few other posts, invariably saying good things.