Viewing 36 posts - 1 through 36 (of 36 total)
  • Demo’s from bike shops
  • jibm
    Free Member

    Hi all

    first post here been riding for years 🙂

    I am in the market for a new bike and my local bike shop have offered me a demo on a Trek EX9. I can take it out on my local trails for half a day.

    1. They want me to bring ID – Which i get and i’m happy with.

    2. They want a £200 deposit – which i am happy with

    3. But they also want a £25 fee which is only refundable if i buy a bike from them.

    I am not happy about point 3, am i being unreasonable?

    bearing in mind i have bought a bike from them in the last 2/12 years.

    any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Many thanks

    slowmart
    Free Member

    It’s a fair one.

    No doubt LBS will be sick and tired of individuals blagging a free ride with no intention of buying or buying off the Internet as it was £5 cheaper.

    Just make sure you get your monies worth, btw my local charge £40.

    jibm
    Free Member

    Ok thanks for posting 🙂

    are demos not supplied FOC from the manufacturer? or at a much reduced cost.

    teamhurtmore
    Free Member

    Good LBS shops do it for free (especially if they know you), and it is always worth asking. Others would disagree, but I think the analogy with a car test drive is apt. I give my trade to the guys who let me demo for free.

    hambl90
    Free Member

    Demos are usually sold off cheaper when they’ve finished with them so the fee probably goes to offset their loss.

    bencooper
    Free Member

    are demos not supplied FOC from the manufacturer? or at a much reduced cost.

    I wish! Some manufacturers offer demonstrators at a slightly reduced cost, but normally they cost standard price.

    The problem with free demos is people use you as a free hire scheme.

    buzz-lightyear
    Free Member

    What would you expect to pay for a days rental of a brand new bike?

    bellerophon
    Free Member

    I wish! Some manufacturers offer demonstrators at a slightly reduced cost, but normally they cost standard price.

    Hmmm, when I had a bike shop our demo bikes were 50% of retail, have things changed with the economy?

    bencooper
    Free Member

    Only one I had that good were Brompton – everything else I deal with the demonstrators are no cheaper.

    Orange-Crush
    Free Member

    Four years ago it was £50 to get a demo on an Orange hardtail at my LBS

    jonkineticcycles
    Free Member

    We own a lot of our own demos (about 25ks worth at last count) and for those we don’t charge. On occasions we borrow bikes from a distributor where there might be a small charge to us (carriage for example) which we often waive but in some extreme cases we may ask for a contribution . The demos are well worth it, we sell a lot more of the models we make available for demo

    bencooper
    Free Member

    Interesting shop name, Jon 😉

    bellerophon
    Free Member

    Hi Ben, not disputing what you say, but that’s quite interesting. I used to stock Kona, Marin, Norco and Commencal

    bencooper
    Free Member

    Depends a lot on the brands, I’m sure – I’m dealing with mostly recumbents and folding bikes, so probably smaller manufacturers.

    Also, though, I found with the bikes I do there’s an inverse relationship between the length of a test ride and the likelihood of buying – people who want to borrow a bike for a week almost never buy, people who take a bike for a coupe of hours much more likely to buy,

    tomhoward
    Full Member

    My lbs charge £50 (and a deposit obvs) for demos but it’s a flat fee for as many bikes as you like then refund when you buy one of them.

    timdb
    Free Member

    Bought my bike from Mountain Trax. Their policy is to charge £40 which lets you take any of their demo fleet out at any time for a month. The £40 is refundable if you buy a bike. No deposit was required, but you have to leave ID.
    I thought this was a pretty good deal really.. 8)

    cp
    Full Member

    A month??!

    Completely fair enough IMO to charge for a demo of half a day plus. If its just a ride round the block or half an hours ride then fair enough for free. But any longer and it just becomes a free way to ride different nice bikes every weekend.

    timdb
    Free Member

    Sorry, described that badly!
    I meant you can have the bike for up to 48hours. But you can take it (or others) out as often as you wanted for a month.
    Basically the £40 buys you a month’s ‘pass’ to ride their demo fleet for up to 48 hours at a time.

    Worked for me – bought my Santa Cruz there after demoing it. 😀

    stilltortoise
    Free Member

    Although I have had free demos in the past (well done to Bike Factory in Whaley Bridge) it was a few years ago and I wouldn’t expect it now. In fact, as someone struggling to find a demo Zesty, I’d happily pay a few quid to ride it on my usual trails.

    FuzzyWuzzy
    Full Member

    Had a couple of demos recently, one involved actually buying the bike and getting a refund the next day after the demo was over (so free but makes you be a bit more careful I guess!) and second one was £20 (refundable against a bike purchase. I’m happy enough with either, charging is fine as you’re causing wear & tear and they have to have a mechanic check it after before it can go out again so even aside from the bike’s depreciation the LBS incurs costs on it’s demo fleet. It can get pricey though if you try 4 or 5 bikes from different places (especially if you then go an buy a Canyon :p ).
    I’d say it’s makes sense for the LBS to offer demos though, not only shows they’re willing to invest in stuff but 3 of the last 4 bikes I bought were from the shop I demo’d it (the other was a cheap c2w one I didn’t need to demo).

    charliedontsurf
    Full Member

    From the shop point of view there could be half an hours work cleaning, checking and simple servicing when you give it back. That has a cost.

    Largely it’s just a filter to stop joy riders.

    I had a chap after a demo ride, I didn’t ask for money and said come back in a few hours. He asked if he could have it for longer. Longer?” About a week ” If you want a touring bike for a week, if you want a cycling holiday, you can buy one, or rent it at £50 per day refundable when you buy a bike. If he was serious about the bike he would have taken any of the options… But didn’t. Successfully filtered out.

    grum
    Free Member

    Sorry, described that badly!
    I meant you can have the bike for up to 48hours. But you can take it (or others) out as often as you wanted for a month.
    Basically the £40 buys you a month’s ‘pass’ to ride their demo fleet for up to 48 hours at a time.
    Worked for me – bought my Santa Cruz there after demoing it.

    Sounds like a great scheme, would definitely encourage me to buy from them.

    bencooper
    Free Member

    Charlie, I’ve had that – “Can I borrow it for a two-week tour of Scotland? I need to make sure it’s right for me.” 🙄

    timdb
    Free Member

    grum – Member
    Sounds like a great scheme, would definitely encourage me to buy from them.

    Yup, I thought so.. I think they do it for lights and GPS stuff as well. 🙂

    ti_pin_man
    Free Member

    timdb +1.

    Last year at Mountain Trax I demo’d about 6 bikes in their demo fleet and am glad I did. It really helped me sort out in my head which type of bike I want next. I didnt resent the 40 quid cos they set the bikes up, swapped pedals and would have checked the bikes worked fully before i left the shop. Good service. In the end something else came up I needed the money for, so they didnt get my cash but the great thing is they have a big demo fleet so there’s a lot to choose from if like me, youre not sure what sort of bike you want.

    jlbm – I would hope if I went to my local shop and they knew me well as I’d spent plenty of cash with them, then I would hope they let me demo a bike for free. Mountain Trax arent my local.

    I get the anology with demo-ing cars, and to be fair most of us are spending thousands so arent far behind in value when we buy a bike. But the bike industry is smaller than the car industry so we cant expect all shops to always do it for free.

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    I demo’d a Stumpjumper for free from my lbs. Leisure Lakes wanted £50 for the day to hire a Fuel EX, which was refundable.
    To me it was a small outlay for the chance to make the right decision. Glad I did it too, as the Trek was awful compared to the Stumpjumper.
    Also wanted to try a Zesty, but this was at the height of Lapierre fever a couple of yrs back & I couldn’t get a demo bike, short of driving 5 hrs or so to Edinburgh.

    jibm
    Free Member

    thanks for all the help guys…didn’t bother anyway due the white stuff!

    The thing is i am deciding between a Lapierre Zesty and the EX, and the LBS don’t stock lapierre so the £25 could well be lost.

    Coyote
    Free Member

    but I think the analogy with a car test drive is apt

    🙄

    Sancho
    Free Member

    were a small shop, so dont carry a big demo fleet, but we understand how people want to try a bike before shelling out, so we try keep a couple of key models as demo’s, but we dont get them that cheap from the manufacturers, we dont charge but now and then we have to be careful and take credit card details etc.
    We had a demo bike nicked, even though we had the guys passport, unfortunately the police couldnt give a shit, so we lost out on that one.
    Some people demo bikes because they want to decide on making the right purchase but some people take the piss and go out of their way to trash the thing and have no intention of buying, so it can some times leave you a bit peeved that you are being taken for a ride, but we have to strike a balance.
    were still waiting for our 2013 demo covert and bandit, and lapierre Zesty with the electronic fox suspension

    ojom
    Free Member

    It still amazes me quite how much damage a demo bike can sustain in one weekend. Staggering.

    DickBarton
    Full Member

    At a guess, the 25 quid fee may also cover insurance in case something goes wrong with the bike??? Seems ok if you get it back when (if) you buy the bike off them…

    andrewh
    Free Member

    I can get awfully expensive very quickly. I was considering four bikes when I bought my last one. If I had to go to a different dealer for each and pay £40 a time that would be £160 of which only £40 would be refunded if I bought one…
    .
    Go to some races, there will be demos there and never been charged for one of those, leave your own bike and a driving licence and off you go. These are usually manufacturers rather than dealers though.
    For example Cotic at the Classic Weekend, tried a Rocket (long story, but Cotic were very helpful) No way I could afford one now but it will be a definite contender when my big bke finally gives up the ghost.Wouldn’t have considered one from reading the spec, thought it was far too heavy for me but it actually rides quite light and I was really impressed with it.

    zelak999
    Free Member

    I was charged £50 for a go on a SC Blur LTc.

    esselgruntfuttock
    Free Member

    Bike Scene at Guisborough didn’t charge me to try a 5 & they even arranged for the rep to drop it off at my house! I’m a decent customer of theirs but had never bought a full bike from them, bought a 5 off them though!

    crftom
    Free Member

    £25 to borrow a bike for the day worth anything form £2000 to £4000 is a bargain

    flyingfox
    Free Member

    We used to do tons of demo bikes but people just used to take the mick. You can easily wear a bike out over a few days of hire. Ended up costing us a fortune. We still have demo bikes but we usually get an extra 5% off our margin (which isn’t very good anyhow). Naturally if you work in one of the bigger shops, you’ll get much bigger margins (although the manufacturers and distributors deny it!).

    £25 is not much at all. We do it for £40 per day and reduce if it’s a multiple day hire. We knock all the money off the bike when they come to buy one – in one case we knock £480 off the bike because he’d hired so many different bikes from us. Still got business and a good friend/customer so no complaints there.

Viewing 36 posts - 1 through 36 (of 36 total)

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