I am not going to talk you into this. Riding a scooter in Bali carries real risk, and the roads are the reason: mixed traffic, no shoulder, gravel on the corners, and drivers who read the road by a different set of habits than yours. Whether you should ride at all, what licence you need, and what to put on your feet are covered in getting around Ubud, and that is the piece to read first.
This one picks up a step later, where you have decided, and deals with the rental itself. Most of the trouble guests report traces back to the first fifteen minutes.
The honest reason people rent despite the risk is time. On these roads a scooter is genuinely quicker than a car, because it goes around the queue a car has to sit in, and the gap is widest exactly when Ubud is busiest. That is a real advantage, and the only argument for it I find convincing.
Where to rent, and what we will not tell you
We name no shop, no chain, no brand. Not positively, not negatively. There are hundreds within a few kilometres of the villa, from careful family operations with a mechanic out the back to somebody’s cousin with three tired bikes, and a shopfront can change hands between one season and the next.
Read the reviews yourself, Google among others, and make your own call. Go to the one and two star ones and read what they are about rather than counting them. A shop shouted at for slow deliveries is a different proposition from one shouted at for withheld deposits and charges appearing after the bike went back. The second pattern should stop you.
And to be plain: we cannot guarantee that any given rental will be problem-free. Nobody can, including the shop.
Inspect the bike before you accept it
Every scrap of leverage you have sits in the minutes before you ride off. After that, every fault on the bike is arguably yours. Do the check standing next to the person renting it to you, out loud, so it is joint rather than an accusation later.
- Brakes. Squeeze both levers with the bike still. Each should firm up well before it reaches the handlebar. A lever that comes back to the grip, or feels spongy and slow to return, means the bike is not ready. Then push the scooter forward and try each brake in turn: it should stop, not slither.
- Tyres. Look for actual tread. A tyre worn smooth down the middle strip is the fault that matters most, because these roads flood in minutes. Check the sidewalls for cracking too, since tyres age in this climate whether ridden or not.
- Lights. Headlight, both beams. Then the brake light, squeezing each lever separately, since they are frequently wired so only one triggers it. Indicators front and back, and the switch that cancels them.
- Horn. It gets used constantly here, not in anger but as a signal that you exist. A dead horn is a real problem, not a cosmetic one.
- Mirrors. Both present, and tight enough to stay where you put them.
- The rest. Fuel gauge reading something believable, key turning the steering lock and the seat, kickstand springing back, and the helmets counted with their buckles worked by hand.
Then ride it up the lane and back before anything is signed. Listen for a scrape from the brakes, feel whether it pulls to one side, see whether the throttle picks up smoothly.
If something is wrong, ask for a different bike rather than a promise. A good shop has another. A shop that does not is telling you something.
Film it before you ride away
Photographs are fine. A video is better, because it is one continuous take that nobody can accuse you of assembling later.
Walk a slow circle with your phone recording. Both flanks, front, back, the wheels, under the seat, and a close pass over every scratch you find, saying what you are looking at as you go. Get the number plate in shot once. Finish on the odometer and the fuel gauge. Ninety seconds, and it settles almost every dispute before it starts. Do the same when you hand the bike back.
Deposits, and the passport question
Some places will ask to hold your passport for the duration. Do not agree to it.
Your passport is your identity document in a country where you are a guest. You may need it for a hotel check-in, a bank, a domestic flight, a visa matter, or a hospital. Handing it over makes getting it back conditional on the shop still being open and still being reasonable. And in any argument about damage on return, the person holding your passport is the person who wins it.
Offer instead:
- A photo or photocopy of the passport page and your entry stamp. This is what most established shops actually ask for.
- The address where you are staying, and a phone number they can reach on WhatsApp.
- A cash deposit, counted in front of you and photographed.
- The rental paid in full up front.
Keep your driving licence and your permit. Those are what the police will want to see, so they belong in your pocket, not in a drawer at the shop.
If a shop will accept nothing but the passport itself, walk away. That is the entire negotiation. There is another shop a hundred metres down the road.
What the paperwork does and does not do
The agreement may be a printed page, a form photographed on a phone, or nothing at all. Whatever it looks like, read the part about damage and theft, because that is what it is for. Most rental terms here make the renter liable for repair or replacement whoever caused it.
What it is not is insurance for you. Cover offered alongside a rental is generally cover for the bike. Your own body, and anything you do to someone else’s, sits with your travel policy, which loops back to the licensing point in getting around Ubud: a rider not properly licensed for the machine is usually an uninsured rider, and no rental sheet changes that.
One document should stay with the bike: the STNK, the Indonesian vehicle registration. Roadside checks are routine and foreign riders get waved down often. Ask where it lives on the scooter, usually under the seat, and photograph it too. A missing registration is the shop’s failing that arrives as your fine.
Fuel
Petrol comes from Pertamina stations, sold by the litre with an attendant filling it for you, and cash is easiest. Two grades matter for a scooter: Pertalite from the green pump and Pertamax from the blue. Ask which one the bike takes and stay with it.
The bottles on the wooden rack outside a village shop are the informal version, usually old spirit bottles, sold above pump price with no promise about what is in them. They are genuinely useful, open when the nearest station is a long way off, but they are how you get home rather than what you run on all week. You will also see small hand-pumped dispensers with a glass cylinder on top, priced by a marked measure that is not always a full litre.
Tanks are small, so you will stop more often than you expect and it costs very little each time. Settle the convention before you leave: some bikes come full and are expected back full, plenty arrive nearly empty, either is fine as long as you both said so.
When something goes wrong
Save the shop’s number in WhatsApp before you ride off, so there is a written thread rather than a call nobody remembers.
A breakdown. Do not abandon the bike and do not improvise repairs. Message the shop with a location pin. Whether anyone actually comes out varies enormously, so ask about it before you hand over any money rather than finding out on a verge: some rentals include roadside help, plenty do not, and every shop says it does.
For a puncture you are rarely far from help. Roadside repair stalls are one of the genuinely useful things about this country, on nearly every main road, signed Tambal Ban, Press Ban or Bengkel, and a patched tube costs very little. Most shut around the end of the afternoon, so an evening puncture is the awkward one. Tell the shop before you pay for a repair, so the bill surprises nobody.
A dispute over damage. Hand the bike back in daylight, in person, with the video. Walk the same circle together. Take the deposit back as you hand over the key rather than agreeing to settle it later, because later is where deposits go to die.
Anything involving another person. Not a roadside negotiation to handle alone. Tell the villa host and contact your insurer before agreeing to anything or paying anyone.
Delivery to where you are staying
Delivery is normal here and frequently free, and it is the better way to do it. You avoid riding an unfamiliar bike out of a forecourt into traffic in your first minute on it, and the handover happens somewhere quiet.
The one trap is social. The person who delivered it wants to get going, and it feels rude to spend a quarter of an hour going over a scooter while they wait. Do it anyway. That inspection is worth more at your gate, with the delivery rider next to you, than anywhere else.
How we handle it
We do not rent scooters ourselves. We use one operator, the same one every time, and the reason is everything above: he looks after his machines and does his own checks before a bike leaves. Choosing a shop is the part of this that a visitor is least equipped to do well, and it is the part we have already done.
In practice the scooter comes to the villa, it arrives with a full tank and we ask for it back with a full tank, and helmets come with it. Tell the host if you would rather have it handled than go looking.
I would still walk the video. Not because I expect trouble with our man, but because it takes ninety seconds and it is the right habit for every bike you get on for the rest of your trip.
The decision to ride is yours, and it should stay yours. If you make it, make the first fifteen minutes slow.
