Q.Motoziel and Edelweiss Bike Travel Announce Joint Venture

Motoziel, a Gurgaon-based motorcycle touring company and Edelweiss Bike Travel, an international motorcycle tourism company based in Austria, have announced a new joint venture called ‘Motoziel Edelweiss Pvt. Ltd’. Headquartered in Gurgaon. The joint venture aims to provide complete motorcycling experience by offering customers premium bikes including Harley Davidson, Ducati, Triumph and Royal Enfield. The JV company will offer experiences including self-guided and guided tours in more than 10 countries in the Indian sub-continent, in addition to offering rides across continents. Motorcycle enthusiasts in India and tourists seeking big-bike travel experience through the sub-continent terrains, can now opt for a big bike of their choice, a pre-designed tour package or customise it as per their preference and enjoy the thrill under guidance of international experts. So, I checked the site online and found the pricing to be a little on the higher side. The Leh trip on either a Triumph Bonneville T100 or a Ducati Scrambler costs $3,699. That amounts to around Rs 2,40,000 for both rider and pillion. The trip is for 17 nights and 18 days; starting and ending in Gurgaon. Add another Rs 85,000 and you can tour California- Nevada in the United States on a BMW G 650 GS! Talking about the partnership, Biswaroop Banerjee, co-founder, ED & CEO said, “With this JV, Motoziel has embarked on a very exciting journey and we now have very aggressive plans for developing our business and boosting revenues in the future.” Rainer Buck, managing director, Edelweiss Bike Travel quoted, “There is immense potential in the motorcycle tourism sector in India and its neighboring countries and we are aiming at the untapped market opportunity that is available.” [B]Fleet of big bikes in India and Indian Sub-Continent:[/B] Harley Davidson 883, Ducati Scrambler and Triumph Bonneville T100 and Royal Enfield Classic 500. [B]International Fleet:[/B] BMW, Harley-Davidson, Triumph, Ducati, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Royal Enfield. Sure, the idea of riding a premium motorcycle on regions such as Leh- Ladakh sounds interesting, but personally, I think these trips are best done on a Royal Enfield. Another catch is the batch size cannot go more than 10. So, if you're planning to go on a group ride using your own bike but want to use Motoziel's services, there must be at least one bike that is rented from Motoziel. Additionally, Motoziel also offers riding gear and accessories such as saddle bags, tail bags, etc. for various motorcycles like Royal Enfield, KTM, etc. Again, prices are on the higher side owing to the branding as most of them are high-end imported goods. [B]Here are their tour offerings: Tours across India:[/B] Rajasthan, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, North East and South India (coming soon). [B]Tours across Indian Sub-Continent:[/B] Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, Myanmar (coming soon), Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. [B]Tours across the world:[/B] Europe, North & South America, Africa and Asia Pacific. [B]Tour Categories:[/B] * Long Rides ranging from 7 nights to 14 nights * Short Rides ranging from 1 night to 4 nights * Custom Rides designed as per customer preferences * Weekend Getaway Rides and Thematic Rides- This includes rides like breakfast rides and 'Wine and Cheese tours'. The former is pretty much self explanatory while the latter involves riding to vineyards, witnessing the wine making process and indulging in wine tasting. Of course, you can get back to the saddle only when you are sober! This has been planned only in Pune for now. * Big bike rentals- Harley Iron 883/ Ducati Scrambler/ Triumph Bonneville T100. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n13390[/ATTACH] L to R Biswaroop Banerjee, co-founder, ED and CEO of Motoziel Pvt. Ltd, Kalyan Mazumder co-founder, MD of Motoziel Pvt. Ltd. and Rainer Buck, MD, Edelweiss Pvt. Ltd. In the joint venture, Motoziel has 74% control of the stake and Edelweiss has 26%. Edelweiss also offers its international clients a round-the-world tour spanning for 365 days! Managing director of Steelbird Helmets, Rajeev Kapoor also graced the event with his presence. Apart from the joint venture, various other initiatives such as branding and merchandising, group rides with Honda Navi's (to give a unique experience to motorcycling newbies) are also on the pipeline. Although no definitive dates for those have been confirmed yet. When it comes to motorcycle tours in India, you may find better bargains, especially in normal motorcycles. The USP of Motoziel is that it offers premium bikes for these trips and in my opinion, it is a very good way to get the hang of powerful bikes. Maybe you can first rent a bike or go on weekend rides and then decide on which premium bike you'd want to buy. Incidentally, this is a good way for premium bike buyers to try out big bikes! It is a win-win situation, right! :)