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"Then again they know I'm not just looking for a free ride on something new."
Bingo.
"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 know what you're saying but... We hire run of the mill mountain bikes for £20 a day, so it seems only fair that the consumer pays a bit more for a top dollar bike and all the maintenance that goes with it, the refund is the shops way of making it fair for a buyer rather than a hirer.
Was going to have a demo on a Pace 303 once, from Riverside Cycles. No charge & quite happy for me to have it for the weekend so I could take it round my local Cannock Chase.
Potdog - Member
Surely cars loose just as much (in percentage terms) as bikes do when they become "ex-demo" models.
I don't think they do.
OK onion, if a shop has a £2500 demo bike which is demoed out lets say one half day a week at £50 for 52 weeks (It would also be out multiple days in a week so once a week is fair over a year IMO) =£2600. Bike then sold at ~half retail @£1200. £3800 is far better than selling the thing (IMHO).
You guys can't seriously compare the both of testing a bike and a car.
I am at the moment looking for a new motorcycle. So far it's the same process. I get into the shop and ask if they sell monocylinder bikes. Each time the obvious anwser is no (bear with me here...). All of the dealers usualy tell me that monocylinder was crap bla bla bla bla and that I should buy their new amazing 4 cylinder or twin that works so well. Two of them told me well try ours [b]notmonobike[/b], like it or not but you'll be fixed. Which seems nice of them, but:
They are official test bikes, therefore, bought at discount from the manufacturer (sometimes even lend by the manufacturer) and not a stock bike.
You have 30 minutes to test them (not much and not very usefull if you consider they are all located intra-muros) and the roads have to be dry. Testing a car is along the same lines (and you get to have someone with you in the car). But yes they are free to be demoed.
Now if you want to demo a bike fro free, but the guide-lines were:
You only have 30 minutes and "no sir you can't demo this bike now, the track is wet/muddy/dusty". How usefull do you think it will be to demo a bike around the car park (ok maybe like what some mags do).
But obviously we can't really expect the people on here who usually buy online and want everything for nothing to agree with the fact that a LBS are not here for charity. If you want to demo a bike for free, go to a demo day or get a mate to lend you one. Otherwise it cost money to the bike. Why should this money not be passed to the customer.
That are my 2p worth of thoughts. When there will be no more LBS to demo bikes, you'll be in deep sh1te.
Having test days seems to be a better idea. Like C_G being a girly the chances of finding a demo bike to suit me is fairly difficult. I would quite like to try the WSD Lappiere Zesty and an Orange 5 Diva - near here that means going to two different shops and therefore two different charges for testing. My own LBS will loan me a Scott for nothing (though its not really on my shortlist).
Didn't Singletrack do some demo days last year?
Also, anyone know where you can test the widest range of womens specific bike - I don't currently ride a womens specific bike but I am pretty short and do think my next bike may be a womens specific.
As a customer, I've never paid any dealer to test ride a bike. Never crossed my mind that they may charge.
As a dealer, I don't charge either. I only keep one demo bike - Giant Trance X2 - and potential customers are welcome to rag it round Swinley till their hearts content. It's a demo bike, there to be ridden and over the year will earn it's keep. All you need is an honest face, current passport and a recent utility bill........and maybe some biscuits 😉
backhander - Member
OK onion, if a shop has a £2500 demo bike which is demoed out lets say one half day a week at £50 for 52 weeks (It would also be out multiple days in a week so once a week is fair over a year IMO) =£2600. Bike then sold at ~half retail @£1200. £3800 is far better than selling the thing (IMHO).
OK - back to reality. Demo'ed out half a day a week? Do you really think so? This would be some sort of magic demo bike that was a full-sus, singlespeed rigid 29er, with hub gears drop bars, risers both SRAM and Shimano, 700C tubeless 2.5 DH tyres would it? In reality, the bike might go out 5-6 times and it's lost a huge percentage of its value after the very first ride.
As Juan says, if you want to pop in and ride round some dry roads near the shop for 30 minutes, feel free. There would be no charge for that.
Alternatively, you end up like VR above. One "demo" bike in the shop. OK if you're looking to buy that particular model, otherwise a bit pants eh?
"full-sus, singlespeed rigid 29er, with hub gears drop bars, risers both SRAM and Shimano, 700C tubeless 2.5 DH tyres"-you forgot- fits 4'10" to 6'6" men and women
oh oh oh I'll demo that.....not paying owt tho.....I only want it for a month...or two.
P.s stw bears only a passing resemblance to reality btw ;0)
My LBS has just got me a test bike in to try that I didn't even ask about.
I bet they'll encourage me to take it away for the weekend and ride it on my favourite trails whatever the weather and conditions are like.(as they normaly do)
Why do they do this?
Because they want me to buy a bike that I'll [b]really[/b] like.
OK onion, if a shop has a £2500 demo bike which is demoed out lets say one half day a week at £50 for 52 weeks (It would also be out multiple days in a week so once a week is fair over a year IMO) =£2600. Bike then sold at ~half retail @£1200. £3800 is far better than selling the thing (IMHO).
One bike will not suit everyone is one thing, but maintenance costs have to be included as well. The drivetrain will wear out, shock and fork will have to be serviced, even if it's being done by the lbs it will still cost them as the time could have been used to service a paying customer bike. So the bike will loose on wear and component replacements as well.
I might be wrong as I don't know how often shops change drivetrain/chains on the demo bikes and whether they service the forks/shocks but I would imagine that they have to keep the bikes in tip top condition so that it will be a pleasure to ride etc.
I wouldn't pay, but then again all the lbs I use have free demo bikes or at least they were free last time I rode them.
But one day whilst in an lbs I saw a bloke walk in dumps a demo bike and walks out, before anyone could say anything or even look at it, turns out he'd just wrecked a x0 rear mech, without even as much as a sorry.
I can see why people do charge.
Surely cars loose just as much (in percentage terms) as bikes do when they become "ex-demo" models.
Maybe they would if you could walk into a Landrover dealer and borrow a Discovery for the weekend to rag on your local tracks.
[i]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
[/i]
😯 blimey has Dennis retired/sold the shop, he'd never do that normally i'm sure!
i think if you are not a regular customer then paying for a demo bike is fair, if you are well know to the shop and spend money there and have recommended loads of people to buy their bikes there in the past then they look after you when it comes to trying bikes, well that's my experience anyway
I had about 8 demo bikes from Leisure lakes...
Orange
Marin
Santa Cruz
Specialized
Cannondale
etc...
Never paid a single penny for any demo, ended up buying a Orange 5 Pro from them with a couple of upgrades as a consiquence! Brilliant service!
I had already bought from them before though, worth noting I guess! 🙂
if you are well know to the shop and spend money there and have recommended loads of people to buy their bikes there in the past then they look after you when it comes to trying bikes, well that's my experience anyway
No shit sherlock. 😉
i think you know what i'm saying 8)
I never paid for demo bikes and I never will.
"I never paid for demo bikes and I never will"-Substitute 'sex' for demo and its funnier.
riding a 29er but not blowing a trumpet about it - Memberi think you know what i'm saying
What's that you say? You want an arguement about a certain shop? 😀
Back to reality....... it seems that your demo bikes aren't massively popular. I wonder why?
Maybe your shop isn't popular?
Maybe bigger shops (chains) can absorb the costs? My ex-demo Stumpy was £1400 when the full retail was £2200 so they do lose their value.
IMO i am surprised if a bike shop does not try to recoup some of the monies invested in their demo bikes. As onion said demo bikes will only ever get a handful of outings and will only be worth about 50% of their value, especially if they are mainstream full builds. Really the amount of people buying these types of bikes are very small, and the shops are aiming at a very narrow band of people/customers so the uptake on demo bikes is not that great.
The bike industry is not in the same league as the car industry and thus is not subsidised by the manufactures to the same degree with things like demo's etc.
IME most people will buy a frame/bike without a demo, as most are likely to swap their bikes/frames quite frequently anyway and in this day and age their are very few poor bikes out there so the risk is less.
Up shot is if you really want to try a bike before hand then i think a small rental fee is fair.
the best demo's I've done have been specific demo days at Glentress and Laggan. Only the Laggan one cost (£5) and got to ride a ton of bikes around trails that I know and are representative of a good portion of riding that I would be doing. I ended up buying bikes after two of the days that I had demo'd.
£40 is probably fair, but beyond what I can afford as I tend to buy 2nd hand frames rather than full price full builds.
blimey has Dennis retired/sold the shop, he'd never do that normally i'm sure!i think if you are not a regular customer then paying for a demo bike is fair, if you are well know to the shop and spend money there and have recommended loads of people to buy their bikes there in the past then they look after you when it comes to trying bikes, well that's my experience anyway
Yep, i think you're right. Stu (used to work there) bought it off him a while ago. Yes I do know him 🙂
The [url= http://demodays.bikeradar.com/ ]bike radar demo day[/url] looks pretty good
I never paid for demo bikes and I never will"-Substitute 'sex' for demo and its funnier.
But I [b]always[/b] pay for sex?
I don't have a problem with paying to demo, but my LBS have never asked that I do.
I can also see why most people are charged, otherwise rather than hire bikes they'd just 'demo' them.