In Reply to: If you posted by balid on Thursday, 16. April 2009 at 20:15 Bali Time:
You will need a International Drivers License with a stamp showing that you already have an Australian Drivers License endorsed to ride motorcycles. Alternatively, you get obtain a Balinese Tourist Drivers License in Bali.
In January this year, I hired a motorcycle from a fellow operating from the footpath near the Bombing Monument in Jalan Legian. He even had proper business stationery listing his place of business as the footpath!
Before accepting the bike I checked that there was:
* no more than 1 inch slack in the chain; and
* plenty of tread on the tyres.
I also put my foot on the rear brake pedal and pushed hard, the bike did not move, and I squeezed the front brake lever and pushed, again the bike did not move.
I paid Rp 20,000 per day as the bike was a 2005 model Honda stepthrough with a semi-automatic gearbox. I did not bother buying insurance from the hirer. An automatic scooter would have cost me Rp 25,000 per day.
On this trip, petrol was Rp 4,500 per litre from service stations. It cost me Rp 5,000 per litre from a bottle, when I purchased petrol from a roadside. I brought my own helmet and gloves from Australia. I wore lots of suncreen on my face and neck. I also wore elastic sided boots and a thick long sleeved shirt.
Bali is not a place to learn to ride a motorcycle. I came off twice. Once when coming down a volcano and another time when I hit a mudslide riding up a volcano.