If you have ever been lucky enough to see biker moto races, then, you must admit, they look cool: motorcycles sparkling with chrome parts, bikers proudly sitting on them with confident faces, measured chirping of engines. Yes, outwardly the column of bikers looks great, but have you ever thought about what happens then when the bikers leave the horizon and hide from your eyes? Where do they spend the night on the road, where do they look for repairmen when the bike suddenly stalls and refuses to start?
To solve the problems described above, some unknown but resourceful biker came up with and created what is now known as a bike post. There is an assumption that bike posts were needed not only for the legal help of bikers to each other, but also for hiding them from the tenacious hands of the police, since at the dawn of the development of the motorcycle movement, bikers were engaged in criminal activities with might and main.
Whatever it was before, but now the bikeposts perform two functions:
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Help “nomads” who went on a long journey. Help means providing a place to sleep, finding the right spare parts and repairmen to fix the bike. This is the minimum set. At the “advanced” bike posts, you can order, for example, the storage of a motorcycle in a separate apartment or a variety of entertainment.
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Communication and networking between bikers. And I’ll separately note that at the bike post, motorcyclists communicate live, in a relaxed atmosphere, not in a hurry anywhere, which is more conducive to establishing relationships within the biker community than during conversations on the Internet or on the phone.
What are the bikeposts
Due to the growing number of bikers in our territory, the number of long-distance bike trips is growing, as well as the need for bike posts. Naturally, a holy place is never empty, so entrepreneurs are actively exploring the topic of paid moto-hostels and moto-hotels. As of 2022, you can already find creative ideas in the interiors of biker hotels in Russia. The most famous, in my opinion, is a bike hotel in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, located near the M4 highway.
Of course, for the money you will get the opportunity to have a good rest after shaking on the potholes, wash off the caustic road dust, eat delicious food and tighten loose parts on the bike, and in case of a serious breakdown, contact the masters for a full repair.
And what about those who do not have enough or no funds for paid bike posts, or those who, on principle, do not want to pay? In this case, you need to look for contacts of motorhomes offering to use their services free of charge. Such bike posts work as follows: often the owner, who, as a rule, is an experienced biker himself, through acquaintances or via the Internet, offers traveling “nomads” to look into the light and talk about life, about motorcycles, exchange experiences. In return, the traveler can put himself in order, sleep in relative comfort and, of course, repair his “iron friend”. Such a bike post is a bit like apartments at the residence, when one of the young people is bored, and he / she invites acquaintances and strangers to hang out and have fun in their home.
In this motodom they will not take money from a traveler, as this is not customary here. However, according to the rules of good manners, it would be better if you still ask the owner about how you can thank him for his generosity.
Bikepost search options
The fastest way to find motorhomes and ways to contact them without getting up from your chair is to go online. And the first place you should go is the CryptoMoto app. Why? For three reasons:
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In my subjective opinion, a larger database of contacts on bike posts has not yet been found.
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Nowhere on other resources have I seen filters with which you can reduce the search time. Sorting is by the name of the region or city.
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The database stores data on many states, including: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
This is a very good resource with a good database of bikeposts, and in addition, a map is attached, where the geolocation coordinates of motorhomes are already plotted. The site is great for those who like to work with the map. On it, you can simultaneously think over the route, rest points and see if there is a bike post at the place of the proposed stop.
How not to quarrel with the owner of the bike post?
In the biker community, probably, like in any other, there are people who do not fully share the principles and beliefs of bikers. In other words, the family has its black sheep. Because of such unscrupulous people, some bikepost owners do not want to continue doing their business and turn it off. On the Web, you can find their cries of the soul and calls for bikers to treat other owners of motorhomes with respect and gratitude.
It follows that the first and most important dogma when visiting a bike post is to maintain an even and respectful attitude towards its owner.
Secondly, every wanderer is obliged to expel from his thoughts the slightest confidence that everyone owes him at a free bike post. And to do what he wants, you need to quickly and flawlessly. It is necessary to have an elementary understanding that the owner of a motorhome is not a slave and not a servant for travelers, he has his own life and interests, and he should not sacrifice them at the first request of the visitor and to his own detriment.
Thirdly, I want to say that the “nomad” needs to be friends with the time in the sense that one should know about time zones, as well as how the time at the bike post differs from his native time. If you approach this matter responsibly, then during your trip there will be no unpleasant situation when you have to wake up the owner of the motorhome in the middle of the night.