[Closed] Cost of demo-ing a bike .

I don't see the problem. Each bike needs to be set up, cleaned and checked before and after each demo ride. It also loses value each time it's been ridden. Few shops shift enough stock to be able to absorb this.

it's shit. £25 would cover any costs incurred.
Skyline (who I think are ace) charge £50! No chance!

£25, not bad

£40, bloody hell

Guess if the bike is ordered in then postage has to be covered

If not that's (£40) damn expensive, mind you so is hiring a bike for the day.

backhander - Member
it's shit. £25 would cover any costs incurred.
Skyline (who I think are ace) charge £50! No chance!

So - if you went into a shop, you'd willingly pay top whack for a bike which had been out on demo round Glentress/Inners/(insert your favourite trail centre here)a few times?

At the moment I recon to do £10 of damage to the brakes, fork and drivetrain every hour I ride.

Onion is spot on, as soon as you put a bike out for one test ride, it's a used bike. The first test ride on a £2500 bike probably costs about £500.

The Hub at Glentress refund the cost of the demo if you buy the bike, I think, which is quite a nice touch.

Northwind - Member
Onion is spot on, as soon as you put a bike out for one test ride, it's a used bike. The first test ride on a £2500 bike probably costs about £500.

The Hub at Glentress refund the cost of the demo if you buy the bike, I think, which is quite a nice touch.

That's quite common. However, a customer might trial 3 or 4 bikes before settling on the right one.

My ex demo bike was 1/2 the RRP @ £1400, quite a loss of profit for the manufacturer for a year old bike, but if that one sacrificial demo bike brought in a few sales then I guess it balances out the loss on the demo bike.

But as the charge is from the LBS for the demo of a bike, then costs need to be covered although some shops do seem to charge OTT prices for a demo.

A lot of shops will refund the fee if the demo bike is bought, a friends Meta 553 had the £25 fee refunded

I spent £50 to demo a Trek EX9 from Leisure Lakes in Wolverhampton. Got the money back if you then bought a bike from them.

I didn't buy a bike from them in the end, but was quite happy to pay the £50 to give me the peice of mind that it was getting the right bike.

Had I wanted to test more than one bike (the Spesh I tested was an official test bike and therefore free), it perhaps would have started to get pricey.
CyB for example were willing to let me test the EX8 and the Stumpjumper but said I would have had to pay for each bike (£50 hire for the day), but they might be able to 'sort something out' if they were having a quiet day.

£25 sounds like a good deal to me if you are thinking of spending a couple of grand on a bike. I have known people in the past who have booked a Demo bike just so they can have a decent bike for a local race. That is not right in my book. Most places refund the money if you buy from them. I wonder how many people demo a bike and not buy it? Any statistics anywhere? I guess a lot of people buy on looks alone.

Well i had a zesty for a whole week on demo this week and rode 3 demo bikes (trek ex9, stumpy and enduro )yesterday all for free!

Courtesy of worcester cycle centre 😀

Tested an Orange 5 and a Zesty 514 from my LBS, Congleton Cycle Centre. Cost £60 in total and I had each bike for a weekend. The £60 was then deducted from the Orange 5 that I purchased. Very happy with the whole test fee set up.

loadsof people on here used to get a demo bike from lbs roadtrip to wales wreck the bike then drop it back and say no thanks.

£40 sorts out the blaggers.

always demo days to travel to to try bikes - if you don't wanna pay.

How much is hire bike a day £20ish? If you pay that much for a mid range hire bike then a fiver more for a 2 or 3k demo bike....bit cheap really.£40-£50 demo fee is more about sorting the wheat from the chaff....there's far too many tyre kickers willing to take the mick to have a rag on an expensive bike.Margins are tight enough as it is for lbs's by the time you've had to discount,throw in freebies,1st free service and cover warranty claims. And its a LOT of capital to have tied up in a demo fleet.
Most places refund the fee if you buy a bike.

Skyline were odd. When I booked my ST4 demo they didn't tell me the cost. I assumed thirty quid or so but didn't ask. The mechanic was ace, took time setting up the shock and fork and the bike was in top mechanical nick.

But the lady running the shop was hard work. Originally wanted it back at 1pm (I arrived at 10) saying "oh you want to hire it do you" / "No if I'm going to spend this much on a frame, I want to ride it all day because when I buy one, I'll be riding it all day"

But she certainly made me feel like I was blagging something. I loved the bike and could have had the £50 back if I'd bought it from there, but her attitude put me right off.

Shame as every other time I've been in there, they've been great. Ended up using Sunset MTB who were also very good.

It's a tough one...I was considering 3 bikes but I would have to go to 3 different shops for a demo and they wanted around £50 a time and yes, only one would get my business...I wasn't willing to lose £100 (one would have returned the £50 when buying)...I dithered trying to get to ride the bikes for free, and a great second hand frame turned up. Their loss.

...I would have been willing to spend £50 a time if they would then let me have that £50 back on other items in shop...or return portion off it if buying other stuff, but the rule was always only returned on purchase of bike.

and have you seen the prices some shops try to sell demo bikes for ...around 80% of rrp...so they still make a proft after charging it out all year

bah

Does a car dealership charge you to test a car? Frankly I reckon it's taking the piss, and I actively avoid buying any bike I have to pay to demo - as far as i'm concerned it should be a loss leader. Couldn't avoid it with the last bike I demo'd but it really annoyed me. If i'm spending 3k on a bike, you shouldn't have to pay to try it - I guess I could go else where, but I'd imagine that balances out. There's little price differential between shops for most brands (cough. price fixing. cough) so if a shop offers a good service and the bike is right, i'll buy it from the place I test it.

would not consider paying to test a bike, unless it was comparable to a full days hire. I'd rather put that extra money on upgrades, as i would want to try out other bikes to gain some perspective. Regardless, i only buy second hand and rarely exdemo, there are too many bargains on STW classifieds.

It would be a good idea to meet up with someone local who has the bike you want, and to swap bikes for a day. STW would be a good forum for that.

Of course no-one would be so slimy as to take a new bike out for a demo (no charge) and then buy it over the internet from elsewhere?

Last demo bike I had cost me nothing, had it for a week and they didn't even swipe my credit card. I would not be happy having to pay anything. I realize this is probably the exception.

I can only infer that the dealers/LBS think that charging a fee is in their best interests and that most customers are happy with the principle. Otherwise why would they do it?

My LBS always has a handful of demo bikes and AFAIK doesn't charge to try them (they don't charge me anyway 🙂 ) they also have demo days when a manufacturer brings down a van load of bikes, no charge there either, just some form of security.

£25 is reasonable for a shops 'stock' demo bike.

£40 is reasonable if the shop has to get a bike in specially from the manufacturer.

Either way, i would expect to refund this to a customer if they bought a bike.

At the end of the day, there are some tyre kicking time wasters out there who will borrow bikes if there is no cost implication, even when they are not looking at buying a bike.
This costs the shop money in time and wear & tear.

Reality is if more people were willing to pay, shops could afford to lay on more bikes as demo's.

J

A subject close to my heart, oldfart 🙄

Naturally being a girlie means there is less choice to demo and I will freely admit that along the way I've made some mistakes with bikes and frames.

But then I had a mid-life crisis and accordingly wanted the prerequisite mid-life crisis bike. Something I could only dream about, in a material I would only ever have one of, a once-in-a-lifetime purchase, with quality components, together with a stubborn refusal to justify it to anybody.

Cue long discussions with my brilliant lbs where I have shopped and spent lots of money over many years. Frame could not be obtained from distributor but another model, by same manufacturer in same material, was ordered for demo'ing. However, it was a size too big but, hey, was worth a try.

Kept demo bike for a good few days, furiously studied geometry against my others, measuring here, there and everywhere. I was spending serious money so it HAD to be right.

Did not have to pay a penny, my lbs knew I was deadly serious, and therefore did everything they could to help and assist me.

At the end of the day, I honestly believe that manufacturers are shooting themselves in the foot by not making available demo bikes that could be moved around the country upon lbs/customer request. Why should it be the responsibility of the lbs? After all, they only have so much room in their shop, and so much time to prep bikes.

No, I will not pay for a demo bike. Manufacturers need to take some responsibility, they may even sell more bikes by doing so.

End of rant-ette 🙄

C_G
(bike tart)

Meh - I offered a loan of one of my (own) bikes to a customer at zero cost. As has been mentioned above, if it's part of a long-term relationship, your LBS is likely to be more understanding.

druid - presumably you can fairly easily sort out who's blagging and who genuinely wants to buy?

epicyclo - Member
Of course no-one would be so slimy as to take a new bike out for a demo (no charge) and then buy it over the internet from elsewhere?

Oh aye - there's that as well. Happens with clothing and shoes too. Order up a couple of pairs of boots/shoes for someone so they get to try on for the correct size and then you're expected to match CRC/Wiggle for price. 🙄

cinnamon_girl - Premier Member
druid - presumably you can fairly easily sort out who's blagging and who genuinely wants to buy?

Oh - lots want to buy. But maybe not from us 🙂 Your tale is the way we'd like to handle regular customers.

We charge for borrowing our demo bikes, and refund if you buy. We have to buy the bikes and maintain them. The price is fairly high if only to put off blaggers 'hiring' a £2k bike for £20...

Apologies for sounding really thick here but why should an lbs have to buy demo bikes in the first place? Why is the onus not on the manufacturer?

That's just the way it works in my experience. I guess a manufacturer/distributor would end up with a fleet of hundreds of bikes, so the cost to them would be enormous.

OMG.......I'm hoping/praying thats irony.

But surely the manufacturer is making more of a profit than the lbs? They don't need to end up with a fleet of hundreds. Just a bit of common sense as to what sizes/models are available for demo.

I'd happily pay £25 if they had to order it in. As long as I got £25 knocked off the agreed sale price.

hora - Member
I'd happily pay £25 if they had to order it in. As long as I got £25 knocked off the agreed sale price.

Hello, hello.

Earth calling Hora....

I had a go on a couple at Mountain Trax near Wokingham, Spark and a Yeti ASR-SL, no charge incurred and had them 2-3hrs each at Swinley. Decided I liked the Yeti best, and that I wanted the ASR-Carbon. Kept pestering them for a quote on a custom build but they are useless at returning calls and emails so ended up getting it from Bromley Bike Co! You'd think thye would be abit keener to sell something that expensive...

Just done a quick calculation - I've had 8 bikes/frames in the last 10 years.

So ... either I get it wrong frequently or I get bored 🙄

andrew - I am very surprised with your experience, they are my lbs and have without fail given good service and not batted an eyelid whenever I request my silly component swopping.

I can only infer that the dealers/LBS think that charging a fee is in their best interests and that most customers are happy with the principle. Otherwise why would they do it?

Well they think it is their best interests, I think it isn't, it has lost sales from me and I'm sure others.

Can see the attitude here...assume everybody is a time waster / tyre kicker / blagger. The attitude appears to be that just because a customer doesn't get their credit-card out at the end of the ride that they taking the mick.

I can see that it would be a problem in big tourist areas e.g. Lakes, and some people would abuse...at least if some of the money could be returned against purchases other than bikes as there is always some item I need...and the shop still gets some return.

I've only (really) 'demo'd' two bikes.

I consequently (currently) still own these models. Looking at it from an other angle spending £25 to get the right thing could be a mere drop in the ocean compared to riding a frame for 2months and disliking it.

I bought a Orange Five on the mbr reviews. I couldnt understand why soo many people love them but I just couldnt get on with it at all- that cost me £700. £25 is better than £700.

Next thing you know, the local car dealer will be charging you to test drive the latest fonda mondivic or what ever. Surely cars loose just as much (in percentage terms) as bikes do when they become "ex-demo" models.

Maybe I was just a one-off, they were very helpful when I had the demo, but didn't seem interested in sellling anything!

Had trouble going for test-drives in S/H cars too. One garage tried to sell it to me before I'd even driven it, knocked a fair off too. Turns out it wasn't quite as advertised (milage, service history etc and the clutch was shot) One place wouldn't let me drive one becasue he's just had it valeted and I might get it dirty again. Other places gave me the keys almost as soon as I walked in. Serious about buying, but had to try seven before I found the right one. None of them charge, although the one mentioned above expect me to put a gallon of fuel in it when I'd only had it 10mins...

I recently demo'd 2 bikes from different shops. I paid £40 to ride an EX8 that was covered in gaffer and insulation tape so the frame wouldn't get damaged. Felt kind of like riding a prototype!! Didn't buy it so lost the money.
Also took a Stumpy out from Tredz in Swansea for £25 and when I returned it got £25 worth of vouchers. Seemed a good deal to me. Didn't buy that either, mind.
In the end bought a Cube without trying it. Ah well.....

I don't pay for any demo bikes from my LBS.
Then again they know I'm not just looking for a free ride on something new.

demos sell bikes. simple as that. i always understood that manufacturers gave deals on demo bikes to the lbs?
throw in not having to charge VAT on the final sale of that demo bike, as it's effectively second hand, and they don't end up out of pocket at all.