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What costs are they not covering at £35 a day?
The bikes cost what £5k at full retail but Rapha aren't paying that (I hope - if so they need to negotiate better). If bikes are hired for 200 days a year and in service for only 2 years that's £14k (200 X 2 X £35).
Not being facetious here - I'm genuinely asking what are the £9k+ in costs for providing a hire bike service.
amac090-
Hire bikes get trashed as well. My old shop operated a hire scheme on touring hybrids and city bikes and I can assure you, everything @hoops is saying is completely correct.
Done right, a hire is a time consuming and expensive business. Bikes need regular parts and servicing, time spent with customers, answering emails, sizing people up. It’s a time toilet. Then you’ve got bikes coming back damaged and the challenge of pursuing that with the customer, we generally absorbed costs of damage, bent forks, snapped mudguards, broken lights, broken helmets, lost keys, lost tools and pumps etc etc. So factor all of that in. There’s a reason not many places offer hire bikes, it’s a complete PITA.
If it’s expensive maintaining a £500 hybrid that goes out at £20 a day, scale that up to a high end road bike that’s being hired for 60-100 mile days. Given that shimano quote 12-1400 miles on a chain and cassette, 11 speed parts ain’t cheap.
TM
I charge £50 per day to rent Genesis Eqilibriums with 105, and £65 for a Zero with Ultegra.
They will be barely covering costs at £35 a day.