Would you lend a bike ?

[ColinJ]

Depends on the rider; I lent my Roubaix to an inexperienced rider and on a downhill he almost ran into the back of me, crashed and damaged the saddle. Could have been worse I guess.

I suppose the corollary to this is would you borrow a bike? I wouldn't as I'd have to spend too much time getting it to suit me.

I know @Globalti and am the same height as him. He was kind enough to offer me a ride on his Roubaix so I could see what I thought of riding a carbon fibre bike. I turned down the offer for 2 reasons - (1) I couldn't really afford to replace the bike if I were to wreck it in a crash. (2) I didn't want to ride it, find that I greatly preferred it to my best bike, but not be able to afford one for myself!

As for lending a bike ... I would be reluctant to lend someone my best bike because I couldn't afford to replace that if the other rider wrecked it and didn't/couldn't do the right thing. I wouldn't have a problem letting someone have a go on my cheaper/tattier bikes.

 

[ColinJ]

Also years ago, another friend asked if he could borrow my Roland-SH101 bass synth for a band practise. I lent him it in working order and got it back about 6 years later completely knackered. I can't afford to replace it or get it fixed and I'm still annoyed all these years later.

Hmm ... I once bought some music gear from a colleague (a bass guitar and amp). After a while I faced the fact that I was never going to be a bass player so when he asked if he could borrow them back off me for a gig I let him take them. He kept the kit for a while, then offered to buy it back from me for about 20% less than I had paid him for it. I agreed and he handed over the cash for the bass but said he was skint and asked for another few months to pay for the amp. I got the odd tenner here and there but ended up about £100 down on the agreed price!

 

[Heltor Chasca]

Only to have a test ride if I was selling or they were buying the same bike size etc. Other forumites yes.

No one looks after your stuff as well as you. I used to belong to a ‘Tool Library’ where a little agreed group of local tradesmen would list their stock of tools and we would all share. Seemed like a good idea until I had a stone cutter returned to me which I left for the night on the kitchen floor. When I picked it up to store it in the workshop the next day a pool of water had formed under the case. The pollock had left it out in the rain and instead of dry it out properly, had just shut the tool away hoping I wouldn’t notice. Apart from dishonest, very dangerous. I went round to see him and he couldn’t deal with the face to face. Dishonest people often can’t. He ‘paid’ me back with a fridge/freezer.

 

[NorthernDave]

No.
I've lent too much stuff of lesser value than a bike to people and either got it back damaged, or not got it back at all.

 

[iluvmybike]

Have seen bikes lent out to friends/family too often and they come back trashed - last one had seized seatpost and needed new brake pads, chain & cassette, hub bearings, bar tape

 

[Tin Pot]

Simple would you lend out a bike or not? I have lent out a bike a few times and %99 of the time every thing is ok its returned in good condition.

No.

I only lend something that I think people will treat as I would. Nobody treats bikes the way I do.

Gifting is much less stressful.

 

[Slick]

I've never been asked but as long as they were trusted friends or family, I would. I did give away my first bike though, to a friend at work who was thinking about giving cycling a go. It had done as much for me as I wanted it so seemed only right to pass it on.

 

[Tommy2]

I'm am tempted to lend a bike to a guy who's thinking of getting in to cycling/triathlon from a running background.
In all honesty the reason I won't is because if something were to fail on it I would feel responsible.
I don't know the guy that well but I trust that he is a decent guy, works for the same company as me but at different sites, he's been doing some work at our place as we are having a refurb so don't see him all that often.

Same as a wetsuit, which is more likely to get damaged than a bike, I would offer to lend it to him but if it ripped on the day of an event I would feel responsible.

Maybe I am naive to think that if something got damaged it would either be repaired or replaced by them but that is what I would do so wouldn't borrow something if I couldn't afford to repair or replace it should something happen.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

On the flip side there are some people you should never borrow from.

I know a couple of guys, both of whom I like and respect. Let's call them Charlie and Robert. Charlie brought his trials motorcycle to work for some reason and let Robert have a go on it. Robert, as far as I am aware, has never ridden a motorcycle, let alone offroad, let alone a trials bike. Predictably he flips it. This is taken with reasonable good grace by Charlie.

A couple of days later Charlie presents Robert with an itemised list of repairs covering multiple sheets of A4 down to things like: "left fork decal replacement - £1".

I can't understand how anyone that anal can ride offroad where scratched, broken and bent things are the norm. I went out with him once on an immaculate brand new bike and of course once we got back they were absolutely caked with mud and trailing brambles. The next time we rode together I had a weird glitch-in-the-matrix moment: his bike was once again absolutely immaculate. It looked like it had just come out of a showroom. I had no idea it was even possible to clean something that well. He must have been at it for hours with a toothbrush and a bottle of turtle wax.

 

[pjd57]

Last time I had to go and pick it up myself as it was being brought back " tomorrow "

No next time.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

I'd happily lend a cheap hack bike that's virtually worthless to a good friend/trusted colleague, because you'd never even notice a few scrapes & scratches and if the worst happens and it gets nicked or crashed then it probably only cost £10-20 in total, including any essential repairs to make it roadworthy after being dragged out of someone's skip!
What I won't do is lend out what I consider to be my "nice" bikes, even though none of them cost big bucks. The issue is none of them are being made any more and if something happened to one, I would have to start searching for a similarly good condition replacement - plus I would be pretty vexed and not kindly disposed to the borrower.
i don't want to fall out with soeone over lost/damaged items, so I will only lend out stuff I don't place any real value on.
Some years ago I lent a good mate a ratty old car I had been given, (Nissan Sunny) as he needed transport for work. He's not mechanically sympathetic, but that car meant nothing to me and I didn't pay anything for it myself. I wouldn't have lent him my main car!

 

[mustang1]

I dont lend anything to anyone. In return, I never have problems such as
"Oh bugger, he broke it and didnt even tell me (and no wonder he never asked to borrow it again)"
or
"WTH now I gotta fix this?... that rat bag"

In the past when I've lent stuff, most of the time it's been returned just fine. But when I do not lend anything, I have zero chance of thinking about things if they are ever returned not in the condition I lent them out in. Just one less thing to deal with: approaching people (esp if they have those entitled personalities).

 

[mustang1]

I'd happily lend a cheap hack bike that's virtually worthless to a good friend/trusted colleague, because you'd never even notice a few scrapes & scratches and if the worst happens and it gets nicked or crashed then it probably only cost £10-20 in total, including any essential repairs to make it roadworthy after being dragged out of someone's skip!
What I won't do is lend out what I consider to be my "nice" bikes, even though none of them cost big bucks. The issue is none of them are being made any more and if something happened to one, I would have to start searching for a similarly good condition replacement - plus I would be pretty vexed and not kindly disposed to the borrower.
i don't want to fall out with soeone over lost/damaged items, so I will only lend out stuff I don't place any real value on.
Some years ago I lent a good mate a ratty old car I had been given, (Nissan Sunny) as he needed transport for work. He's not mechanically sympathetic, but that car meant nothing to me and I didn't pay anything for it myself. I wouldn't have lent him my main car!

For me, it's not the money involved in repairing a bike that has been lent out, it's the time taken to repair it. Even if I give the bike to someone else to repair, it's still another-thing-that-needs-to-be-sorted-out.

 

[mustang1]

I suppose the corollary to this is would you borrow a bike? I wouldn't as I'd have to spend too much time getting it to suit me.

Nope. I dont borrow. I dont lend.

 

[rivers]

My winter/wet weather bike, sure. My carbon, hell no. It cost me too much and when out on It, it doesn't leave my sight.