Rent a bike

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Pale Rider

Legendary Member
There is a company offering long term rental of bikes for adults and children.

Looks like The Bicycle Club is mostly aimed at bikes for children, although mum and dad can get a bike as well.

Seems a good idea because it solves the problem of buying a bike for the child only for them to grow out of it in a year or two.

I first heard of the company at my local bike shop who have supplied a handful of Frog bikes to members.

The process seems to be the company pays the shop for the bike, then the customer collects it from the shop.

This presumably enables them to operate nationally, while at the same time offering a local service.

On the website there's a crowdfunding tab for expansion, if anyone fancies investing.

Good idea or doomed to fail?

https://thebikeclub.co/
 

wafter

I like steel bikes and I cannot lie..
Location
Oxford
Sady probably doomed to fail in our bike-hating, consumptive, disposible society.

Nice idea in principal though :smile:
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
The bikes will go the same way as the ill-fated Mobikes in Manchestah.... stolen, wrecked and vandalised by people whose lives are a chaotic unstable mess and who place no value on machines crafted for their benefit by dedicated engineers and builders.
 

annedonnelly

Girl from the North Country
The bikes will go the same way as the ill-fated Mobikes in Manchestah.... stolen, wrecked and vandalised by people whose lives are a chaotic unstable mess and who place no value on machines crafted for their benefit by dedicated engineers and builders.
Doesn't that depend on how people are paying the rental? Presumably this scheme ties them into a monthly payment so even if they trash the bike the company will still get the payments.

Isn't this how lots of people buy cars now - on a lease agreement? When the term is up, get another car and continue paying. In this case you get a bigger bike when the kid grows out of the last one.
 
OP
OP
Pale Rider

Pale Rider

Legendary Member
Seems a sound idea for growing children, and most of the bikes are Frog which are well thought of.

The bike choice for adults is underwhelming for those of us who take an interest in the equipment, but it's aimed at parents who are only cycling to accompany their children.

They've kept it going for a few years, although the fact they are crowdfunding an expansion may mean they have made very little money doing it.
 

icowden

Veteran
Location
Surrey
I suspect that the main issue is cost-effectiveness. It offered me a Forme LongCliffe1 refurbished for abour £30 per month. So after 10 months I might as well have purchased a second hand one off ebay.

On the other hand for a Frog 48 (RRP £250 ish) for a child, it is £10 refurb or £11.75 new per month, and given that that bike might only last 6 months and definitely won't last 25 months, it works out very well - at least until you read the small print:

We offer a flexible monthly subscription that lets you pay for your children's bikes as they use them, instead of having to shell out up front. It costs around £5 to £15 per month, or up to £30 for specialist bikes. When your child grows out of the bike, you can simply exchange it for a bigger one. We'll help you reduce waste by sending the old bike to another home.

If you'd like to own the bike, you can keep it after 30 months of payments, or if you'd like a new bike, you can exchange for free after 18 months. We'll collect the old bike and send out a new one.

So in one breath I can just exchange the bike for a bigger one when my child outgrows it, but in the next breath I can't - I have to keep the bike for 18 months or pay a premium to swap bike. So I have to pay £180 for a refurb or £211.50 for a new bike in rental before I can change bike. A whopping £40 saving on a new bike, or an overpayment on the refurb given that I can get one on ebay for £120 or my local recycling centre for a lot less.

To be fair, the early exchange fee is £20, so it's not prohibitive to swap, but the bike also has to be in pretty good condition or I could end up paying more. SO I also have to worry about small child looking after bike.
 
OP
OP
Pale Rider

Pale Rider

Legendary Member
I suspect that the main issue is cost-effectiveness. It offered me a Forme LongCliffe1 refurbished for abour £30 per month. So after 10 months I might as well have purchased a second hand one off ebay.

On the other hand for a Frog 48 (RRP £250 ish) for a child, it is £10 refurb or £11.75 new per month, and given that that bike might only last 6 months and definitely won't last 25 months, it works out very well - at least until you read the small print:



So in one breath I can just exchange the bike for a bigger one when my child outgrows it, but in the next breath I can't - I have to keep the bike for 18 months or pay a premium to swap bike. So I have to pay £180 for a refurb or £211.50 for a new bike in rental before I can change bike. A whopping £40 saving on a new bike, or an overpayment on the refurb given that I can get one on ebay for £120 or my local recycling centre for a lot less.

To be fair, the early exchange fee is £20, so it's not prohibitive to swap, but the bike also has to be in pretty good condition or I could end up paying more. SO I also have to worry about small child looking after bike.

Doesn't look so clever when looked into properly as you've done.

Frog bikes are a bit like Bromptons in that big discounts are not widely available, but I reckon you could get 10 percent or about thirty quid off a new one, which makes the rent scheme even less attractive.

Refurbed Frogs may not be a goer because most parents will be under enormous pester pressure to provide their child with a shiny new bike.

For that reason, the manager of my local bike shop told me there is a very limited market for a second hand child's bike.
 
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