Well for the past few years I've just been dragging my feet in general. Day in and day out I'm stuck in this monotonous cycle and seem to be lacking the motivation but not desire to break free.

My ex-gf recently told be she has resigned from her corporate job in order to find a better work-life balance. This hit close to home as I'm kind of in the same situation and this really got me thinking.

I have way too many interests to even begin to list but I think ATVs would top the list. Now I have an idea that is probably pretty crazy but here goes...

Pack up a large trailer of ATVs (20+) and travel the country hosting ATV tours, with a focus on the most exotic. Could probably handle a two or three day tour each week. People could participate in the tour with ATV provided, or bring their own for a lesser fee.

About once per month, maybe less, host an international tour, however the ATVs would have to be sourced on location.

I think this would work the only thing that would deter people would be the cost. A per day/package fee would have to be significant just to cover costs. Much more than regular ATV tours averaging between $85-$250 however these are short 1-4 hour trips.

Any thoughts?

 

The one thing that comes to my mind is LIABILITY...watch yourself, you could be opening a big ol' can of worms here! Just watchin out for you...not trying to rain on your parade.

 

You are correct, and I don't think a standard liability waiver would be sufficient. I'm sure much of it would relate to maintenance of the machines, might be hard to perform five star service while on the road.

Don't worry about it, any and all criticism is welcomed. Get this crazy idea out of my head!

 

why would you want to do a tour? why not buy up several acres and build an atv park? then you'd be local in your area and have a stable/local job which is atv related and not mundane. you could then supply/rent/lease atvs. heck, i've thought about doing that myself, but alas, land is hard to come by..........hmmmm...now you got me thinking about it again......

 

That is also an option. I live in Wisconsin so it would be rather difficult to obtain a decent amount of land, I'm thinking that would require 1,000+ acres to make it worthwhile? We do have some ATV parks that mostly just consist of a MX track, campground, and small 20-40 acre trails.

I think I thought of the traveling tour aspect out of selfishness. It would primarily be for me and my desire to travel and ride in new, exotic places and still be "working".

Still on the fence here guys. I'm just unsure of the revenue VS overhead. Not looking to get rich here, just want to be able to eat.

If I decide to pull the trigger on this I can get the ball rolling rather quick. Buy a large truck & trailer, pack it with ATVs. Coming from the technology sector I could setup a great website.

All input is appreciated! Thanks for the replies so far!

 

You could start with far less than 1,000 acres. I have 160 acres of woods, and have several miles of trails criss crossed all through it. you could have a mud pit, hill climbs, inclosed race tracks, etc, etc....

 

that's always been a dream of mine! 100 acres in northern maine (cheap)- build a dozen camps and go nuts with a dozer / back hoe.

they just closed a motocross track here in uxbridge, ma that a guy built on his property- started a club and all.
town shut him down because he refused to carry insurance.

 

You are setting yourself up for a MAJOR lawsuit without insurance on a public track.

 

I don't remember the exact issue- but I think because it was a "private" club and you had to sign waivers to join- he was all set. I think the issue was when the club was closed, other kids would use the track.
So then I think the stipulation (from the town) was to either build a 20' sound barrier / secure fence around the property to keep the kids out who were not members or he had to carry some kind of liability insurance. He didn't want to do either so they shut him down.

He was only charging like $75 for the year to ride-but he was going to have to raise it over $300 for the year if he had to cover the costs of insurance or to erect a fence around the whole property- the track was over about 15 acres. It was more of a motocross style then a "trail"

Pisses me off- all the teenies cry about not having a place to ride their dirt-bikes- but then don't want to fork over a lousy $75 to secure a place to ride- instead they ignored the signs and still rode there. It's their fault.

 

Well, you're starting out on the right foot by asking for other opinions.

How would you finance this venture? Assuming you're going with ute quads and they cost $4-5k each, plus truck, plus trailer, plus insurance,etc . . . did you come up with a ballpark start-up cost? Did you look into making a business plan, or will you just wing it? If you're going to finance through a bank, I'm pretty sure you'll need to write up a plan.

I wish you luck!

ps - I know she's your ex gf - but how did she make out with her new life?