Should Trek / LBS get into the rental business ?

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BananaFred

Well-Known Member
This is biased by what I am reading about inventory gluts, etc and coming back from a ski trip where I demo'd skis.
There are people still out riding bikes that are 10+ years old, because they used to ride and don't want to bite the bullet on a new bike just yet.
You could have a group of aluminum hardtail and full-suspension bikes for rent.
There could even be an argument for a demo at 15% of retail with a percentage of that credited against purchase.
At minimum it gets people into stores.
I mention Trek, because it would be great to connect with a known commodity when traveling (I have family in TX and it looks like the riding there could be fun).
 
Any biking destination has bike shops renting bikes. Non-biking destinations also have a few here-and-there bike shops renting demo bikes.

Bike rentals on a daily basis aren't low, $50+. So it doesn't make sense for someone to do a long-term rental as the cost of the bike will be eclipsed relatively soon.

I know little about skis but I would assume if you rent them on a seasonal basis they don't lose much value year after year. Meanwhile a bike after a season of riding has lost a ton of value and needs $$ for upkeep before you can just rent it out to another person. Plus there's not a "season" as you can ride them all year in most places. Anyone who rides their bike just in the summer probably isn't shelling out $$ for bike rentals for 3 months to die trying to pedal their bike while out of shape.
 
Is there anywhere in NJ (other than Creek) that rents mountain bikes ? This also talks to the Trek connection...if I knew Trek stores rented bikes I would know where to go when I travelled to get a solid rental bike.
I am not suggesting seasonal, as I don;t think there is the same synergy with add on's (don't have the same apparel sales opportunity). More so one-off rentals or individuals that want to try a style of bike before committing.
Mountain biking is such a fun way to get IN shape...
 
Some sort of subcription perhaps. 2k a year you can ride anything from a trek shop for instance. sunrise to sunset. Upgrade cost for ebikes or premium bikes. More money up front but consumers like the word unlimited.
 
Ironjunk said:
Some sort of subcription perhaps. 2k a year you can ride anything from a trek shop for instance. sunrise to sunset. Upgrade cost for ebikes or premium bikes. More money up front but consumers like the word unlimited.
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Not a bad idea based on depreciation as of late. Similar to how they loan out high end clothing accessories and exotic cars. Higher level subscribers have dibs on the top shelf bikes.
 
It's a lot harder to do than you'd think. We have dozens of demo bikes throughout our shops and almost never have the one thing someone wants to use on the day they need it. Also, no one wants to pay any money for Rentals. People think they should be able to rent a 15k S-Works for $50 a day and the shop will somehow make more than selling it? An enthusiats season is 6 months long if you're lucky, people that rent are half that at best.
 
Steve Vai said:
It's a lot harder to do than you'd think. We have dozens of demo bikes throughout our shops and almost never have the one thing someone wants to use on the day they need it. Also, no one wants to pay any money for Rentals. People think they should be able to rent a 15k S-Works for $50 a day and the shop will somehow make more than selling it? An enthusiats season is 6 months long if you're lucky, people that rent are half that at best.
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It's because you're in Summit. How many people are renting a bike to go ride Watchung? I don't think these are issues in Moab/Sedona/Etc where it's a similar type of bike being rented and the riding season is all year. I can't imagine anyone renting a bike outside of wanting to demo before purchase.

And it's Summit. They'll just throw it on the Amex Platinum Card and leave it at the curb when they're done with it as opposed to renting it and having to bring it back.

BananaFred said:
Is there anywhere in NJ (other than Creek) that rents mountain bikes ? This also talks to the Trek connection...if I knew Trek stores rented bikes I would know where to go when I travelled to get a solid rental bike.
I am not suggesting seasonal, as I don;t think there is the same synergy with add on's (don't have the same apparel sales opportunity). More so one-off rentals or individuals that want to try a style of bike before committing.
Mountain biking is such a fun way to get IN shape...
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Most people don't go to a mountain biking destination and think "Oh, I'd love to ride a Trek here." 🙂

Trek Travel is actually pretty popular, where you do trips through Trek and they have a Trek bike for you. I don't know if they do anything but road bikes.
 
Santapez said:
Most people don't go to a mountain biking destination and think "Oh, I'd love to ride a Trek here." 🙂
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i mean, id argue if you go to a mountain biking destination you (general, and MOSTLY) dont show up thinking 'i want to ride xxxx bike' with any specific bike in mind, maybe you want to ride the same model you own, maybe you dont, but id bet thats as much thought as most people give it.

Santapez said:
Trek Travel is actually pretty popular, where you do trips through Trek and they have a Trek bike for you. I don't know if they do anything but road bikes.
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ill try and remember to check next time before i delete the email, but alot of those trips are aimed at less seasoned cyclists from what i remember.

Steve Vai said:
An enthusiats season is 6 months long if you're lucky,
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so if this is true then what do you consider most of the members of this forum? id argue that a significant majority of us ride 12 months of the year.
 
shrpshtr325 said:
i mean, id argue if you go to a mountain biking destination you (general, and MOSTLY) dont show up thinking 'i want to ride xxxx bike' with any specific bike in mind, maybe you want to ride the same model you own, maybe you dont, but id bet thats as much thought as most people give it.



ill try and remember to check next time before i delete the email, but alot of those trips are aimed at less seasoned cyclists from what i remember.



so if this is true then what do you consider most of the members of this forum? id argue that a significant majority of us ride 12 months of the year.
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I would say people care. Most people flying into Moab don't want a short travel junk bike. People generally want a nicer bike than what they normally ride.

There's dozens of you significant majority. Dozens!

Seriously though, do you see a lot of riders out in the winter compared to the summer in North Jersey parks? It's definitely less popular, especially during the week.
 
Santapez said:
And it's Summit. They'll just throw it on the Amex Platinum Card and leave it at the curb when they're done with it as opposed to renting it and having to bring it back.
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You'd be surprised at how cheap and anti-bike the people of Summit actually are. Most of our customer base is not from town.
 
Zwift has definitely had a huge impact. I know so many people...including myself...that have become fair weather riders. I still ride outside all year (many don't), but I'm more particular on the type of day.
 
Santapez said:
Seriously though, do you see a lot of riders out in the winter compared to the summer in North Jersey parks? It's definitely less popular, especially during the week.
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there are certainly MORE riders out in the summer, but most of the people who are active on here, and the ones that stick out are riding year round . . . . my question was about what you would classify that year round group as. . . .
 
shrpshtr325 said:
i mean, id argue if you go to a mountain biking destination you (general, and MOSTLY) dont show up thinking 'i want to ride xxxx bike' with any specific bike in mind, maybe you want to ride the same model you own, maybe you dont, but id bet thats as much thought as most people give it.
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Yeah frankly I don't care what bike I rent so long as it's enough for the trails. I seem to remember one of us renting a Trek somewhere along the line. It was fine.

The thoughts about cost & destinations are valid ones. I'm heading out to Vegas next month and I may rent so I can ride Bootleg Canyon. The rentals are easily $100+ out there and I'm considering an eMTB to cover as much ground as I can for the single day I have available. Here is how many fucks I give about the cost: 0. But most people aren't going to be ok with $120 a day for a bike. And nobody is going to pay $100 a day to ride Six Mile.
 
Norm said:
Yeah frankly I don't care what bike I rent so long as it's enough for the trails. I seem to remember one of us renting a Trek somewhere along the line. It was fine.

The thoughts about cost & destinations are valid ones. I'm heading out to Vegas next month and I may rent so I can ride Bootleg Canyon. The rentals are easily $100+ out there and I'm considering an eMTB to cover as much ground as I can for the single day I have available. Here is how many fucks I give about the cost: 0. But most people aren't going to be ok with $120 a day for a bike. And nobody is going to pay $100 a day to ride Six Mile.
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100% rent an ebike for Bootleg. It's basically a downhill park.

Pay for the insurance.
 
I suppose leasing may be an option, but if you consider how auto leases are typically calculated, I would not expect one for a bike to be cheap.

Say you want to lease a $10K bike for a year. You're basically taking out a $10K loan, so there's the interest on that. Then there's the depreciation on that bike over a year. This seems to vary widely and is open to debate but say that $10K bike will be worth $6K after a year, so that's $4K of depreciation. So just for the depreciation alone you're paying well over $300/mo. for the lease. After the interest and some amount of profit margin for the shop and it's likely over $400/mo. Then when you return the bike at the end of the lease, there's the cost of any repairs. Like a car lease, the leaser would be responsible for maintenance and repairs during the lease time. A good way for the shop to make money would be to require significant repairs be done at the shop.

Depending on the rider, this kind of setup might work - say a racer-type who wants the latest and greatest bike every year. But for the typical weekend warrior rider, probably not.
 
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