Peace of Mind and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Why Motorcycle Maintenance Became the Most Important Part of Our Tour Business

When we first founded Ecuador Freedom back in 2009, we made a crucial miscalculation: for whatever reason, we thought we were starting an adventure motorcycle touring company.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that makes perfect sense. We certainly did at the time. We wanted to share our love for adventure, meeting new people, and the beauty of this country we’d come to call home with as many of our fellow riders as possible.

A storefront was secured, routes were mapped and scouted, and before long we were guiding our first customers through the Ecuadorian countryside. Mission accomplished, right?

It worked until it didn’t, and over the next few years we learned an important lesson: a successful motorcycle adventure outfit is actually in the business of motorcycle maintenance first and foremost.

Don’t get us wrong, we’ve spent more time and money scouting routes and building relationships with local businesses and artisans than anyone else on the planet. Still, as we learned from our mistakes in our early years, it takes more than passion and know-how to deliver customers the motorcycle adventure of their dreams. That is where our “Vacation Guarantee” comes in.

First Things First... What’s a Vacation Guarantee?

The Vacation Guarantee is a promise we make to our customers: if a motorcycle develops a problem that cannot be quickly repaired, we have the fleet, people, vehicles, and local network to get another motorcycle to you and keep your vacation moving.

This is one of the biggest advantages of operating a large motorcycle fleet. A smaller rental company may have exactly enough motorcycles to cover the riders who booked that week. If six riders rent six bikes and one motorcycle goes down, there may simply be no replacement available.

We built Ecuador Freedom differently. Our fleet gives us redundancy. If a motorcycle has a mechanical problem, we can send a replacement bike by support vehicle, dispatch a mechanic, work with one of our trusted local mechanics, or use whatever combination gets the rider moving again fastest.

The other half of the Vacation Guarantee happens before you ever leave Quito. Every motorcycle goes through an extensive maintenance and inspection process before departure. If something does not meet our standards, the motorcycle does not leave the shop. Period.

From the outset, we distinguish ourselves by purchasing brand-new motorcycles and maintaining them ourselves from the beginning. That means we know the full history of every motorcycle in the fleet: how it was broken in, what maintenance has been performed, what parts have been replaced, and how the bike has been used.

Ecuador Freedom's large fleet and extensive local knowledge allow for rapid response to problems that might occur while you're exploring. Thanks to years of experience on these routes, we have contacts throughout the country who can often lend a hand when needed. Whether that means sending a 4x4 truck with another motorcycle, dispatching a mechanic in a rescue vehicle, or activating our network of trusted local mechanics, we are prepared to keep the trip moving.

Now let’s get into the details of how we’re able to provide that guarantee to our riders.

Full-Service Maintenance Center

If motorcycle service is the most important part of keeping our tours running, our maintenance center is where that work happens.

At its core, our maintenance center is a two-part operation. There’s the repair shop where we handle mechanical repairs and routine maintenance, and then there’s the welding center.

Our repair shop is larger than some standalone motorcycle shops and is home to four separate working bays and three hydraulic bike lifts. It is also stocked with diagnostic equipment, including a Texa computer scanner system used to diagnose and service modern motorcycles.

This facility represents a major investment in our customer experience. Since building the shop, we’ve been able to wash and maintain our entire fleet of more than 60 motorcycles in-house. We used to contract much of that work out to third parties, and the difference is obvious.

The welding shop is where we build much of our protective equipment. We’ve written extensively about the importance of these accessories, and we build everything from full-coverage crash bars and skid plates to heavy-duty luggage racks.

Absolutely Dialed Suspension

Of course, some things are best left to the pros, which is why all of our fleet’s suspension is handled by our friend Diego Salvador of Racetech Ecuador. If you’re not familiar with the Racetech name, you should be: they literally wrote the bible on suspension tuning and are one of the most respected names in the business.

Diego has been building and maintaining high-performance suspension systems for motocross, enduro, and adventure bikes for years, and he comes by the shop once a month to test and adjust the suspension on our motorcycles.

A brand-new adventure bike leaves the factory with suspension settings designed to work acceptably for a huge range of riders and conditions. Ours are set up for the kind of riding we actually do in Ecuador. The result is a rental motorcycle that can ride better than a brand-new bike straight off the showroom floor.

Better-Than-Factory Maintenance Schedules

When we made the decision to bring all of our maintenance duties in-house, we knew we wanted to make the process as foolproof as possible. Hiring the best mechanics we could find was the first step, but we took things further and enlisted our friend Martin Janiot to help create a bespoke maintenance regimen for the fleet.

Martin played a crucial role in our success here at Ecuador Freedom. As the man responsible for maintaining the Ecuador National Police Force’s fleet of BMW motorcycles, Martin knows what it takes to keep motorcycles running under hard, high-mileage conditions.

With Martin’s input, we designed a comprehensive maintenance program that is more proactive than the standard manufacturer schedule. We also fully computerized the maintenance schedules for our rental motorcycles so we do not miss important mileage milestones.

Rental motorcycles live a different life from privately owned bikes. They accumulate kilometers quickly, carry luggage, operate at altitude, climb steep roads, get ridden by people with different habits and skill levels, and spend a lot of time working. Our maintenance schedule reflects that.

Gear That Works

We know you can’t run a successful adventure touring operation without reliable bikes, and we believe the same applies to the gear and accessories you add to them. When it comes to crash protection we build everything we can in-house, but some upgrades are best left to companies that specialize in them.

Take our luggage, for example. We use Mosko Moto luggage throughout our fleet because it has proven itself under the kind of use our motorcycles see in Ecuador. It takes abuse, handles dirt, rain, vibration, and repeated use, and does the job we need it to do.

Another great example of this approach is the Motoz tires we install on our adventure bikes. We genuinely believe these are the best dual-sport and adventure tires on the market, so much so that we decided to start importing them ourselves.

Adventure riders know Motoz for a reason. We’ve yet to find anything that outperforms them for our combination of dirt, pavement, altitude, rocks, mud, wet mountain roads, and serious mileage. More grip, more durability, and fewer flats mean more time riding.

We also equip our chain-driven motorcycles with Scottoiler chain oilers. Chain maintenance matters anywhere, but it matters even more when a loaded motorcycle is climbing steep Andean roads day after day.

Automatic lubrication keeps the chain consistently lubricated, reduces wear, and helps reduce the risk of a chain failure in exactly the kind of place where you do not want one.

The less our customers need to worry about the condition of their rental bike, the more they can focus on enjoying the ride.

What Happens When a Motorcycle Comes Back

When one of our rental motorcycles returns from a tour, the first thing it gets is a full wash and detail, followed by an inspection by a certified mechanic. Every part of the bike is checked from top to bottom, from the operation of the controls right down to the tightness of the spokes.

Next, the motorcycle’s scheduled maintenance is performed. The mechanic then takes the bike for a proper test ride before signing off on it and returning it to the rental pool.

Before the bike goes out again, a second inspection is completed by our staff. Then a third inspection takes place when you and a staff member go over the motorcycle together before departure.

If this sounds excessive, it should.

Redundancy is a key component of critical systems, whether we’re talking about riding motorcycles in Ecuador or flying rockets to the moon.

The Work Happens Before You Touch the Key

We do the maintenance before the trip because the side of a mountain is a lousy place to discover something should have been replaced back in Quito.

And if something still goes wrong, the Vacation Guarantee kicks in. We have mechanics, support vehicles, spare motorcycles, and a network around the country to get the trip moving again.

That fleet depth matters. If you are traveling with a group of six riders and the operator has only six bikes available, a single serious mechanical problem can change the entire trip. We keep enough motorcycles, people, and support capacity in reserve so one failed machine does not have to become a failed vacation.

The customer sees the motorcycle on departure morning. The real work happened long before they ever touched the key.

That is what the Vacation Guarantee means to us: maintain the motorcycles aggressively, inspect them repeatedly, support them properly, and if one still lets you down, get another bike under you and keep the vacation going.