Bike rental in USA - more than a SUV?

[Tiberius]

Hi Everyone,

I just got a text message from my son. He's touring the USA with a friend and he says it cost more to hire two bicycles than one car. Maybe that's just his way of explaining why they are driving round in a 4WD SUV.

Actually, I suppose it could be the same over here. Car hire (auto rental) is a well established industry and bike rental is patchy, except for a couple of schemes in major cities. I've stayed in some hotels that have bikes available for guests but that's about all I've seen.

I'll try to find out exactly where he is.

Nick

 

[wesnewell]

Walmart did have a 30 day return policy. I think I returned 3 last year before I finally kept one. I had each for several weeks.

 

[dogman dan]

One way to skin that cat. Or even just buy a wallbike, and throw it to a charity thrift store when done. And of course, buying a bike at the trift store could work cheap too.

The downside, a rental might have actually been a decent bike to pedal. The wallbike won't be.

 

[John in CR]

Walmart did have a 30 day return policy. I think I returned 3 last year before I finally kept one. I had each for several weeks.

The approach you imply is theft AFAIC.

 

[SamTexas]

He's touring the USA with a friend and he says it cost more to hire two bicycles than one car.

Pretty common. I was in Honolulu in April this year, a cheap, wimpy chinese 50cc scooter rents for $30/day. My two week rental car came to $24/day.

 

[georgefromvt]

Car rentals are cheaper than bike rentals because the car industry just like the oil companies receive very generous tax breaks from the Federal Goverment. Cars depreciate and the depreciation is a business deduction. The Oil Companies employs thousands of well paid lobbyists to protect their interests and create new and creative loop holes supported by the Republican Party.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42996868/ns/business-oil_and_energy/t/big-oil-says-hands-our-tax-breaks/

 

[nuevomexicano]

Car rentals are cheaper than bike rentals because the car industry just like the oil companies receive very generous tax breaks from the Federal Goverment. Cars depreciate and the depreciation is a business deduction. The Oil Companies employs thousands of well paid lobbyists to protect their interests and create new and creative loop holes supported by the Republican Party.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42996868/ns/business-oil_and_energy/t/big-oil-says-hands-our-tax-breaks/

I'm one of the last people to defend corporate tax breaks and the Republican party's support of an ever growing chasm between rich and poor, but there's more nuance to what's going on here than what you present. Aren't the scooter or bicycle rental companies smart enough to depreciate their rolling stock? What else is going on?

Scale probably has something to do with it since car rental companies are usually multinationals while any scooter or bike rental place I've ever seen was a small business. Also, maybe more significantly, there are bike rental places, but almost no one in America rents bicycles. I'm an avid bicyclist and frequent traveler, but I've rented a bike all of once compared to the 2 to 3 times a year I rent a car. That one time was in New York City visiting a relative who only had one bike (and even then I considered just buying a K-Mart or Toy-R-Us bike instead of renting, but that meant a train ride to the store versus walking to a much closer bike shop). Bike rentals are usually viewed as play rentals similar to the fact that bikes are usually not considered seriously as daily transportation by most Americans. Rental cars are certainly picked up for play, but business and work are big chunks of their business. There just isn't support for bikes as long distance or daily transportation in the US. Now, that does get things back to big oil and the Republican party's apparent hatred for for public transportation and green concepts of all kinds. But it isn't just depreciation driving things here.

 

[nuevomexicano]

Walmart did have a 30 day return policy. I think I returned 3 last year before I finally kept one. I had each for several weeks.

The approach you imply is theft AFAIC.

Or maybe they didn't function right and the return was entirely justified since a bike should last more than a few weeks. I've bought plenty of cheap, box store bikes and a couple were just too poorly built to be salvaged. Walmart and its ilk have fairly accepting return policies because they know they sell cheaply made and poorly assembled products. The return policy is just a cheap replacement for in-factory quality control.

 

[jonathanm]

I think it is the same in the UK. I rented some bikes at Grizedale to go on the North Face Trail (which is brilliant by the way)

http://grizedalemountainbikes.co.uk/bike_hire

I think car hire companies get the benefit of huge scale. They probably make less per rental than a bike place would.

 

[John in CR]

Walmart did have a 30 day return policy. I think I returned 3 last year before I finally kept one. I had each for several weeks.

The approach you imply is theft AFAIC.

Or maybe they didn't function right and the return was entirely justified since a bike should last more than a few weeks. I've bought plenty of cheap, box store bikes and a couple were just too poorly built to be salvaged. Walmart and its ilk have fairly accepting return policies because they know they sell cheaply made and poorly assembled products. The return policy is just a cheap replacement for in-factory quality control.

I have no info about the reasons for his returns, though I'd suspect valid mechanical issues, but I wasn't commenting on wesnewell's actions. His post implied that someone buy a bike at Walmart and return it within 30 days instead of renting one, and I take issue with that.

 

[wesnewell]

The first was a Schwinn Meridian trike I bought for myself and wife. She couldn't ride it, so back it went and I bought the second one, and I returned the second one for mechanical problems, a cheap Roadmaster MTB. The third was a Huffy single speed cruiser. Slow and rough riding, so back it went. I kept the ones after that. A womens Avalon because they didn't have the mens, but sold it when they got the mens in a few months later. I put my first motor on it, but sold it recently. Suspension was weak for my 270lbs, but I liked it so much I bought the Kent Sierra Madra, a beefed up version at twice the price from Amazon. That's the one in my sig. Just the other day a bought a used Meridian for $150 and ordered a motor for it. Thinking about selling the car because we only drive about a 1000 miles a year, and I'll be damed if I pay 50 cents a mile just for liability insurance. I'll use the trike to go to the store and the wife will either learn how to use it or walk.

 

[sabb]

When I am in Montreal I am impressed with the way people use Bixi bikes, but these are really just short distance transportation in a city. This is the third summer of the bikes and they are all over the place at self serve racks.

montreal.bixi.com and chose english at top as it will default to french

Stephen