Been perusing in the shop this avo and noticed the new range of demo bikes, I assumed you’d pay a deposit but didn’t realise it was 70 quid to borrow one!!

It’s common to prevent people using them as free loan bikes and hammering them. All the shops I know will refund demo costs if you buy one.

Should be refundable against a frame/bike purchase.

Otherwise people will just take them out as a free hire bike, rag it and take it back.

Often you get the fee back if you buy a bike.

Not unusual, although £70 would be pricey – presumably that is for something interesting / full-sus?

You have to bear in mind that as soon as a bike is ridden, they have to knock a good chunk off the price to be able to sell it in future. Most shops will probably give you your £70 back if you buy though.

Edit:- slow fingers!

Yeah that was the score! Got the money off! Just didn’t realise!!

You normally get it back if you buy one, nobody would buy one otherwise, just demo one every week
Edit, super slow fingers

It also helps go towards covering the costs incurred in running demo bikes:

Cleaning them, maintaining them etc

It makes sense, but could restrict people from trying and buying. You might have to demo a few bikes before deciding and it’d start adding up quickly.

depends on the shop. I’ve had demo bikes from a few shops & never actually paid a deposit.

granted I’ve had my credit card swiped before I’ve been allowed to take the bike away, but as I’ve always returned the bikes in as good a condition, if not better, as I was given it, it’s never been gone through as a sale.

That way you get to choose the bike you like best & then buy it once you’ve decided. If you paid a deposit every time you tried a different bike, you’d soon be well out of pocket

I once enquired about buying an ex demo form my LBS, they wanted as much for the 6month old ex demo which had been knocked about a fair bit, as I could buy one new off the internet, so I bought one new off the internet

I took a heckler, orange 5, orange alpine and a nomad on different demo days. All came in about £40 for a days riding, £70 seems steep. In the whole scheme of things I spent £160 on four days riding that ended in me making a very informed decision when parting with the best part of £3k, value for money If you ask me.

We hire out £3K bikes and they cost a fortune to run in our demo fleet. £30 per day is a bargain in my mind and if you buy a bike, any bike, you get all your money back. I’ve had someone hire so many different bikes because his bike was kapputt after he bought a bike off the Internet, that after a few months, he walked away with a very nice bike simply based on what he had spent in the shop “demoing”.

Same as for the £2000 of hire lights we have available.

Unless we sell a load of bikes on the back of it, it’s not a great financially appealing position to be in. I just sold a Whyte 19 demo bike (worth £2300) for £650!.

Maybe if folk didn’t wreck them, it would be a little better.

So if I have to hire the bike, rather than just borrow it, is it acceptable to hire one if I have no intention of buying it?

It’s a serious question. I’d love to take an expensive FS round a trail center or two for the day, but have no thoughts of actually buying one. I’m thinking at least if I hired it I wouldn’t feel guilty about the odd potential scratch or getting it a but muddy.

UrbanHiker – Member
So if I have to hire the bike, rather than just borrow it, is it acceptable to hire one if I have no intention of buying it?

Not really, and most shops will try and weed out customers trying to do that.

UrbanHiker – Member
So if I have to hire the bike, rather than just borrow it, is it acceptable to hire one if I have no intention of buying it?

It’s a serious question. I’d love to take an expensive FS round a trail center or two for the day, but have no thoughts of actually buying one. I’m thinking at least if I hired it I wouldn’t feel guilty about the odd potential scratch or getting it a but muddy.Go to a trail centre with a hire shop then?

My gf took out a demo bike which was no charge. The limit stops on the rear mech weren’t set correctly, into first gear in some sticky mud, the Sram X0 carbon mech hooked up with the rear wheel, wrapped round and wrenched off the mech hanger. Low speed and gentle pedalling. Unfortunately the mech half pulled out of the threads in the replaceable hanger, jamming it solid into the stump. Offered the shop a new hanger but they graciously declined, I believe it was out of action for weeks and needed a new mech in the end 😯 Didn’t like the bike either 😳

When I bought my bike (Rockhopper), we’d planned to go on a biking holiday immediately afterwards. There was a delay getting it from Specialized, so the LBS offered to loan me a Marin Attack Trail 6.8 for a week, free of charge, without me even having to ask them.

Granted I’d just spent two grand with them on a pair of bikes, but even so, can’t argue with service like that.

http://www.blazingsaddles.co.uk/ rock. Fact.

To answer the question up there – if someone wants to hire a sexy bike just because they want to hire it but have no intention to buy then that’s no problem at all – it happens to us all the time. Any business is good business (sometimes I rejoice when I sell things at the same price as I had bought it for!).

And about the rear mech – we just had a really nice Athena 11 rear mech go into a Fulcrum wheel and shear the dropout off. All on a £3.5K Argon 18. That’s going to cost a little more than £30 AND £70!

Hmm. How ethical would it be, for someone like me, who only rides off-road a handful of times a year, to hire one a couple of times a year for a weekend, but with no intention of actually buying a bike? Because to me, £80-£120 or so would be less than the cost of maintenance over a year, and I’d always be able to ride the latest type bike. For the amount of riding I do, it would be insane for me to drop £2k+ on a bike I’d only propperly ride a couple of times a year. And it would depreciate horribly, and eventually die requiring expensive replacement.

I mean I’m talking about a demo bike rather than a hire bike, as hire bikes I’ve seen tend to be lower-end models.

This method would enable me to enjoy riding a decent spensive bike a couple of times a year, without the massive outlay. Would make far better economic sense, and ittud take me 15, 20 years or more before I’d even got near the full cost of a proper high-end full suss bike with XT and that.

Would it be taking the pee, or simply exploiting an economic situation in the same way bike shops charge me £5 for an inner tube?

just sold a Whyte 19 demo bike (worth £2300) for £650!.

What did you pay for it trade though is the point here though and it can’t have been worth 2300 if you sold it so cheap can it?

My closest LBS charges £10 a day to hire demo bikes. But then Swinely isn’t hard on bikes/rims and I guess they dont have as much business in winter when it can reduce a new drivetrain to pices in one ride.

Presumably they bill themselves less than the £34 they charged me for brake pads!

Surely at some point you end up buying a bike and paying hire charges?

I cant think of any bike shop in my area that would stock all the brands I would look at, maybe only 4-5. So at some point you are basically just hiring a bike because you will not get your money back…

Surely if manufacturers are so positive their bike is better than a competitors then they should loan out bikes FOC, maybe through a LBS, or local trail centre etc, or do a scheme where you pay to hire and then the manufacturer, not the LBS remiburse you.

Or is the simple fact that bikes are all much of a muchness and its which one has the best paint job and most rad (infentile) name that makes people buy?

Personally I dont get charging. When you want to buy skis they dont charge, when you want to buy a car they dont charge etc etc.

I so wish id shopped around a bit before shelling out, so many good deals to be had if you’re willing to have something a bit older! Hence the reason I’m now having to buy forks coz the stock ones are poo!! Ho hum, I’ll know for next time if she ever lets me have another!!!

From another perspective, buying an ex-demo bike at the end of a season is a pretty good idea. I got an absolute bargain with my Intense.

Fair enough, it’d had a bad paper round (getting ragged round Glentress), so there were a few scrapes cosmetically. But it had also been immaculately maintained so all round, if you’re not bothered about a few scrapes in the paintwork, they’re an absolute steal

Borrowed a demo bike for a full bank holiday for nowt. So impressed with the bike I bought one straight away. Excellent service since – big thanks to JD cycles. £25 for a bike at Chevin last year – worth the charge as I decided against and took it back covered in sheep s***

jonnyseven – maybe if you didnt take it back covered in sheep sh!t then they might charge less to hire one !

Yeah the charges are understandable, the only issue really is if you have to demo bikes from several different shops which can end up expensive. I’m also not sure on the damage side of things, I was told if I break it during the demo I have to pay for it to get fixed which again is understandable in some ways but you also have to trust them there are no issues already.

My LBS have never charged me or even swiped my credit card to borrow their demo bikes, but I do spend a fair bit in there and always give the bikes a good clean before I take them back. They also lent the daughter’s boyfriend one of their demo FS Marin’s for a couple of months while he was waiting for his 2011 model to arrive.

Edric 64 – Member

just sold a Whyte 19 demo bike (worth £2300) for £650!.

What did you pay for it trade though is the point here though and it can’t have been worth 2300 if you sold it so cheap can it?

Over double that. Margins are not as good as you think – the amount of times I see stuff we’ve bought available online for less than we paid for it trade is scary!

It’s not worth £2300 – it’s had lots of use to be fair and something is only worth what someone will pay for it. If one customer comes in that day and thinks that is what it is worth then perhaps that’s its worth?