How do you rent a scooter in Bali?

Renting a scooter here takes about four minutes. Doing it in a way that does not cost you later takes a little longer.

What it costs

• Daily: roughly 70,000 to 100,000 rupiah for a 110 to 125cc automatic.
• Monthly: roughly 900,000 to 1,500,000 rupiah, often including delivery to your villa.
• Bigger bikes: 150cc scooters and above cost more and are worth it only if you are riding long distances or carrying two adults up hills.
• Fuel: a few tens of thousands of rupiah fills the tank. Roadside stalls sell it in bottles, petrol stations are cheaper and cleaner.

The licence question, answered properly

Indonesian law requires a licence valid for the vehicle. For visitors, that means an international driving permit carrying the motorcycle category, issued in your home country before you travel, alongside your home licence.

Two consequences follow.

Police checks. Random checks happen, more often in tourist areas, and an unlicensed rider is fined on the spot.

Insurance. This is the one that matters. Travel policies almost universally exclude motorcycle claims where the rider was not licensed for the machine, and many also exclude riding without a helmet. A hospital transfer and treatment after a serious scooter accident in Bali runs into tens of thousands of dollars, and medical evacuation home is more. People discover this from a hospital bed.

What to check before you ride away

• Brakes. Squeeze both. Front should bite.
• Tyres. Look for tread and no bald patches. Wet-season roads with slick tyres are how people fall.
• Lights and indicators, both sides, plus the horn, which you will use constantly.
• The mirrors. Many rentals have them folded in. Fold them out and use them.
• Photograph the bike from all four sides before you leave, with the date visible. This is how you avoid paying for damage that was already there.
• The registration document, the STNK. It should be with the bike. Police ask for it.

The passport question

Some rental shops ask to keep your passport as a deposit. Do not hand it over. Offer a cash deposit or a photocopy instead. A shop that insists on holding your passport is a shop that has leverage over you in any dispute, and there are hundreds of others.

Helmets

The one supplied is usually adequate and rarely good. If you are here for a month, buy one for a few hundred thousand rupiah. Fasten the strap; an unfastened helmet does nothing and is also what police stop you for.

Riding here, honestly

Traffic moves on the left. It flows rather than follows rules: people pull out expecting you to adjust, and the horn is used to say "I am here", not "I am angry".

The specific hazards are consistent:

• Sand and gravel on bends near beaches.
• Dogs, which run into the road without looking.
• Rain, which makes the first ten minutes of a downpour the most slippery roads of the year as oil lifts.
• Trucks and ceremony processions on narrow roads.
• Other tourists riding badly, often in swimwear with no helmet, which is a picture of exactly what not to do.
• Alcohol. Riding after drinking is how the worst of it happens.

Where not to ride

If you are new to it, avoid the Kuta and Seminyak main roads, the Ubud centre one-way system, and the coastal run at sunset. Learn in the quiet lanes inland from Canggu or in Sanur, which is flat, wide and calm.

What to wear

Cover your legs and feet at minimum. Shorts and flip-flops are what turn a slow fall into a month of dressings. Long trousers and trainers are unglamorous and they are what the residents wear when they are riding any distance.

If you have an accident

Stop, move off the road, and take photographs. Call your insurer before treatment if you can. BIMC and Siloam are the international-standard clinics in the south and they are used to handling insurer paperwork. Keep every receipt.