bike hire prices

pholt89

I've just got back from a few days riding in Scotland including a day at Fort William which was amazing.
I took my hardtail with me as the rest of the trip was XC/trail stuff and could only take one bike because of getting the train there, so when we got to Fort Bill I thought I'd just check to see how much it would cost to hire a DH bike.
£40 for one run or £100 for a day! :shock:
I've never know bike hire cost anything like that much, especially as there was another £30 for the gondala.
Obvioulsy I just rode my hardtail and only did the Red DH route not the World Cup one.
Does anyone actually pay those prices or is it just to put people off hiring one and giving it a go with no previous experience?

mcnultycop

What sort of bike? It sounds a lot, but I'd imagine a lot could go wrong on a DH bike, so they'll have to factor in a lot of repairs.

pholt89

The one I saw was a Giant Glory so obviously an expensive bit of kit, but still seems a bit steep to me.
As for repairs costs surely you would have some sort of deposit for that rather than adding it in to hire costs? I dont know what sort of deposit they took as I took one look at the price and decide my hardtail would have to do, but i'm guess it was fairly large.

Northwind

£100 is for the full day package including body armour and full face helmet, bike hire is £70.

Offbeat used to be cheaper, but for your money you got a shagged-out Bighit. Alpine were doing Sessions for the main hire fleet, last time I was up, and I think maybe a couple of Glories and Mysts, and the Session my mate took out was very well kept. Session and Glory are £3500 each at RRP, and they get battered- not just outright damage, but wear and tear and servicing.

Have to say I think you're pretty out of order with this one.

MDobs

Northwind wrote:

Have to say I think you're pretty out of order with this one.

it's only his opinion so can't really see how it's out of order, it's not offensive and he's only asking if others actually pay it, which is up to them in the end. the only thing which is slightly miss-represented is that the price includes body armour etc.

you might consider it to be within reason and you do make some valid points about over heads. in the end everyone has a price they're prepared to pay for whatever and will have an opinion on what's overpriced.

paul.skibum

At our bike park in BC we rent out Norco Aurum 2's - our Platinum package which is basically the bike, shin/keen, elbox, back/chest and full face is $152 (including the lift ticket) - we have a $25 damage waiver which basically covers you for damage to the bike.

So a days riding at Silver Star costs around 100 quid (115 with the damage waiver) and that seems about in line with other resorts locally and other rental shops in the nearby town. Comparable to Fort Bill by the sounds of it too although for the record our bikes are brand spankign new as of a week ago.

I don't think the question asked by the OP was out of order, I personally think the price is pretty steep if you aren't expecting it!

Northwind

MDobs wrote:

it's only his opinion so can't really see how it's out of order, it's not offensive

Yeah? The title is "daylight robbery". How pleased would you be with that, if it was aimed at you?

bennett_346

It is mildly offensive. That is a lot of money however. But making a thread and posing it in the manner he did was a bit far i think.

cat_with_no_tail

If, as NW says, it includes armour and helmet, it's not too bad.

I'm paying £50 to hire a Session 8 for the day in July at Inners and obviously, you should expect to pay a premium for location.

With regards to the deposit, personally, I'd rather pay a slightly inflated hire price than risk losing a massive deposit, especially with a discipline like DH. If I'd been made to put a massive deposit down, I'd probably be too worried to really attack anything.

Also, I do think the thread title is perhaps a little strong given that the OP was supposedly asking a question rather than making a statement.

pholt89

Ok maybe the title was a bit unfair. But I wasn't aiming it at anyone or trying to put someone down just shocked at the price.
Northwind. You say they are 3500 pound bikes but that is not what a hire place will pay for them and any parts they have to replace will be bought at a lot less than rrp. Having said that I did not realise it included body armor so 70 for a day isn't so bad. But that still doesn't address why it is 40 quid for one run which still seems very high to me.
To go back to the original question do people actually pay these amounts? Or is it as I asked before just a tactic to put off a novice from thinking they'll give it a go and killing themselves?

pholt89

Have now attempted to change the title as looking at it again it did seem a little strong. Hopefully it has worked.

pholt89

Sorry for double post my phone doesn't work well with the forum

The Northern Monkey

Try and break it down a bit more and even though it is steep, you kind of understand where the money goes.

1) Bike (£3500+)
2) Armour and kit (£100-200+)
3) Staff to service and maintain the bikes to ensure they are in full working order (Wages etc)
4) Spares/repairs (To keep the bikes up to a good standard)
5) Insurance

I imagine that a lot of it goes on the final point. I mean, if a BMW driver* decides his OTB was due to a bike failure and he gets his lawyers involed to sue for £5,000,000,000 damages, the shop are going to need to cover themselves with some decent insurance.
Don't forget, Fort Bill is a demanding, world class DH track... So premiums are likely to be higher.

*not saying it is all due to BMW drivers... Audi drivers and Americans are just as accountable.

cat_with_no_tail

pholt89 wrote:

To go back to the original question do people actually pay these amounts? Or is it as I asked before just a tactic to put off a novice from thinking they'll give it a go and killing themselves?

As I say, I've booked one out at inners for the day @ £50, personally, I think it's an excellent idea. We're up there for a few days, I'm already bringing my AM bike as that's the one that'll get the most use, I've not got enough room to bring a big DH bike too, securely store it etc.

And I think it's the exact opposite to what you say actually. A novice is far more likely to pay £100 to try DH for a day than go out and spunk £3,000 on a bike, another £150 on a helmet, and another £200 on pads.

pholt89

I suppose it all comes down to perspective really then idea of spending 130 pounds on one day of riding is just so far from affordable that it seems crazy. But to some other I guess it wouldn't make them bat an eyelid.
I'm not sure they will have to worry so much about the suing thing as we had to fill out forms basically saying if we fell off while riding it was our own fault and we couldn't sue anyone over it. And that was just to ride the trails I'm sure there would be something similar for hire.
Having said that you make a valid point about there insurance probably being very expensive.

YeehaaMcgee

Seem to be in the same kind of price range as when I was in Les Gets.
There's a load of wear and tear on DH bikes, those courses bite. And Fort Bill is renowned for being one of the toughest on bikes.

felix.london

Makes Montgenevre (up the road from me) seem like a bit of a bargain @ €65 (EUR) for a DH bike, helmet & armour for the day + €13.50 for the lift pass

paul.skibum

pholt89 wrote:

Ok maybe the title was a bit unfair. But I wasn't aiming it at anyone or trying to put someone down just shocked at the price.
Northwind. You say they are 3500 pound bikes but that is not what a hire place will pay for them and any parts they have to replace will be bought at a lot less than rrp. Having said that I did not realise it included body armor so 70 for a day isn't so bad. But that still doesn't address why it is 40 quid for one run which still seems very high to me.
To go back to the original question do people actually pay these amounts? Or is it as I asked before just a tactic to put off a novice from thinking they'll give it a go and killing themselves?

The 40 quid one run thing is something we dont do in the bike park generally but we had a two run tester on our all mountain bikes for families and more genteel riders - basically for slow moving people this can equate to a 2 hour ride in any case and we give them gloves, a lid, a bike capable of doing the green and blue runs and send them on their way. The price is not significantly less than a full day and the reason is it still equates to wear and tear, it puts the bike out of use to other renters for a period of time and the bike still needs to be washed and teched before it goes out again. I'd imagine similar things apply for one run at Fort Bill - wear and tear could be significant and the bike is probably out of circulation for a half day between point of sale and return to fleet.

As for how much they charge vs cost of bike and so on - I am assuming somewhere along the line this business is trying to turn a profit? I dont know what our A-lines from last year actually cost to buy in but hey were significantly less than the RRP - probably more like cost plus 20% or something. We rent them for a summer (basically 2 months and a week) and sell them as second hand - last years A Lines sold for 1700 bucks each at the end of summer which was probably pretty close to what they cos us.