[Closed] Cost of demo-ing a bike .

I don't see the problem. Each bike needs to be set up, cleaned and checked before and after each demo ride. It also loses value each time it's been ridden. Few shops shift enough stock to be able to absorb this.

it's shit. £25 would cover any costs incurred.
Skyline (who I think are ace) charge £50! No chance!

£25, not bad

£40, bloody hell

Guess if the bike is ordered in then postage has to be covered

If not that's (£40) damn expensive, mind you so is hiring a bike for the day.

backhander - Member
it's shit. £25 would cover any costs incurred.
Skyline (who I think are ace) charge £50! No chance!

So - if you went into a shop, you'd willingly pay top whack for a bike which had been out on demo round Glentress/Inners/(insert your favourite trail centre here)a few times?

At the moment I recon to do £10 of damage to the brakes, fork and drivetrain every hour I ride.

Onion is spot on, as soon as you put a bike out for one test ride, it's a used bike. The first test ride on a £2500 bike probably costs about £500.

The Hub at Glentress refund the cost of the demo if you buy the bike, I think, which is quite a nice touch.

Northwind - Member
Onion is spot on, as soon as you put a bike out for one test ride, it's a used bike. The first test ride on a £2500 bike probably costs about £500.

The Hub at Glentress refund the cost of the demo if you buy the bike, I think, which is quite a nice touch.

That's quite common. However, a customer might trial 3 or 4 bikes before settling on the right one.

My ex demo bike was 1/2 the RRP @ £1400, quite a loss of profit for the manufacturer for a year old bike, but if that one sacrificial demo bike brought in a few sales then I guess it balances out the loss on the demo bike.

But as the charge is from the LBS for the demo of a bike, then costs need to be covered although some shops do seem to charge OTT prices for a demo.

A lot of shops will refund the fee if the demo bike is bought, a friends Meta 553 had the £25 fee refunded

I spent £50 to demo a Trek EX9 from Leisure Lakes in Wolverhampton. Got the money back if you then bought a bike from them.

I didn't buy a bike from them in the end, but was quite happy to pay the £50 to give me the peice of mind that it was getting the right bike.

Had I wanted to test more than one bike (the Spesh I tested was an official test bike and therefore free), it perhaps would have started to get pricey.
CyB for example were willing to let me test the EX8 and the Stumpjumper but said I would have had to pay for each bike (£50 hire for the day), but they might be able to 'sort something out' if they were having a quiet day.

£25 sounds like a good deal to me if you are thinking of spending a couple of grand on a bike. I have known people in the past who have booked a Demo bike just so they can have a decent bike for a local race. That is not right in my book. Most places refund the money if you buy from them. I wonder how many people demo a bike and not buy it? Any statistics anywhere? I guess a lot of people buy on looks alone.

Well i had a zesty for a whole week on demo this week and rode 3 demo bikes (trek ex9, stumpy and enduro )yesterday all for free!

Courtesy of worcester cycle centre 😀

Tested an Orange 5 and a Zesty 514 from my LBS, Congleton Cycle Centre. Cost £60 in total and I had each bike for a weekend. The £60 was then deducted from the Orange 5 that I purchased. Very happy with the whole test fee set up.

loadsof people on here used to get a demo bike from lbs roadtrip to wales wreck the bike then drop it back and say no thanks.

£40 sorts out the blaggers.

always demo days to travel to to try bikes - if you don't wanna pay.

How much is hire bike a day £20ish? If you pay that much for a mid range hire bike then a fiver more for a 2 or 3k demo bike....bit cheap really.£40-£50 demo fee is more about sorting the wheat from the chaff....there's far too many tyre kickers willing to take the mick to have a rag on an expensive bike.Margins are tight enough as it is for lbs's by the time you've had to discount,throw in freebies,1st free service and cover warranty claims. And its a LOT of capital to have tied up in a demo fleet.
Most places refund the fee if you buy a bike.

Skyline were odd. When I booked my ST4 demo they didn't tell me the cost. I assumed thirty quid or so but didn't ask. The mechanic was ace, took time setting up the shock and fork and the bike was in top mechanical nick.

But the lady running the shop was hard work. Originally wanted it back at 1pm (I arrived at 10) saying "oh you want to hire it do you" / "No if I'm going to spend this much on a frame, I want to ride it all day because when I buy one, I'll be riding it all day"

But she certainly made me feel like I was blagging something. I loved the bike and could have had the £50 back if I'd bought it from there, but her attitude put me right off.

Shame as every other time I've been in there, they've been great. Ended up using Sunset MTB who were also very good.

It's a tough one...I was considering 3 bikes but I would have to go to 3 different shops for a demo and they wanted around £50 a time and yes, only one would get my business...I wasn't willing to lose £100 (one would have returned the £50 when buying)...I dithered trying to get to ride the bikes for free, and a great second hand frame turned up. Their loss.

...I would have been willing to spend £50 a time if they would then let me have that £50 back on other items in shop...or return portion off it if buying other stuff, but the rule was always only returned on purchase of bike.

and have you seen the prices some shops try to sell demo bikes for ...around 80% of rrp...so they still make a proft after charging it out all year

bah

Does a car dealership charge you to test a car? Frankly I reckon it's taking the piss, and I actively avoid buying any bike I have to pay to demo - as far as i'm concerned it should be a loss leader. Couldn't avoid it with the last bike I demo'd but it really annoyed me. If i'm spending 3k on a bike, you shouldn't have to pay to try it - I guess I could go else where, but I'd imagine that balances out. There's little price differential between shops for most brands (cough. price fixing. cough) so if a shop offers a good service and the bike is right, i'll buy it from the place I test it.

would not consider paying to test a bike, unless it was comparable to a full days hire. I'd rather put that extra money on upgrades, as i would want to try out other bikes to gain some perspective. Regardless, i only buy second hand and rarely exdemo, there are too many bargains on STW classifieds.

It would be a good idea to meet up with someone local who has the bike you want, and to swap bikes for a day. STW would be a good forum for that.

Of course no-one would be so slimy as to take a new bike out for a demo (no charge) and then buy it over the internet from elsewhere?

Last demo bike I had cost me nothing, had it for a week and they didn't even swipe my credit card. I would not be happy having to pay anything. I realize this is probably the exception.

I can only infer that the dealers/LBS think that charging a fee is in their best interests and that most customers are happy with the principle. Otherwise why would they do it?

My LBS always has a handful of demo bikes and AFAIK doesn't charge to try them (they don't charge me anyway 🙂 ) they also have demo days when a manufacturer brings down a van load of bikes, no charge there either, just some form of security.

£25 is reasonable for a shops 'stock' demo bike.

£40 is reasonable if the shop has to get a bike in specially from the manufacturer.

Either way, i would expect to refund this to a customer if they bought a bike.

At the end of the day, there are some tyre kicking time wasters out there who will borrow bikes if there is no cost implication, even when they are not looking at buying a bike.
This costs the shop money in time and wear & tear.

Reality is if more people were willing to pay, shops could afford to lay on more bikes as demo's.

J

A subject close to my heart, oldfart 🙄

Naturally being a girlie means there is less choice to demo and I will freely admit that along the way I've made some mistakes with bikes and frames.

But then I had a mid-life crisis and accordingly wanted the prerequisite mid-life crisis bike. Something I could only dream about, in a material I would only ever have one of, a once-in-a-lifetime purchase, with quality components, together with a stubborn refusal to justify it to anybody.

Cue long discussions with my brilliant lbs where I have shopped and spent lots of money over many years. Frame could not be obtained from distributor but another model, by same manufacturer in same material, was ordered for demo'ing. However, it was a size too big but, hey, was worth a try.

Kept demo bike for a good few days, furiously studied geometry against my others, measuring here, there and everywhere. I was spending serious money so it HAD to be right.

Did not have to pay a penny, my lbs knew I was deadly serious, and therefore did everything they could to help and assist me.

At the end of the day, I honestly believe that manufacturers are shooting themselves in the foot by not making available demo bikes that could be moved around the country upon lbs/customer request. Why should it be the responsibility of the lbs? After all, they only have so much room in their shop, and so much time to prep bikes.

No, I will not pay for a demo bike. Manufacturers need to take some responsibility, they may even sell more bikes by doing so.

End of rant-ette 🙄

C_G
(bike tart)

Meh - I offered a loan of one of my (own) bikes to a customer at zero cost. As has been mentioned above, if it's part of a long-term relationship, your LBS is likely to be more understanding.

druid - presumably you can fairly easily sort out who's blagging and who genuinely wants to buy?

epicyclo - Member
Of course no-one would be so slimy as to take a new bike out for a demo (no charge) and then buy it over the internet from elsewhere?

Oh aye - there's that as well. Happens with clothing and shoes too. Order up a couple of pairs of boots/shoes for someone so they get to try on for the correct size and then you're expected to match CRC/Wiggle for price. 🙄

cinnamon_girl - Premier Member
druid - presumably you can fairly easily sort out who's blagging and who genuinely wants to buy?

Oh - lots want to buy. But maybe not from us 🙂 Your tale is the way we'd like to handle regular customers.

We charge for borrowing our demo bikes, and refund if you buy. We have to buy the bikes and maintain them. The price is fairly high if only to put off blaggers 'hiring' a £2k bike for £20...

Apologies for sounding really thick here but why should an lbs have to buy demo bikes in the first place? Why is the onus not on the manufacturer?

That's just the way it works in my experience. I guess a manufacturer/distributor would end up with a fleet of hundreds of bikes, so the cost to them would be enormous.

OMG.......I'm hoping/praying thats irony.

But surely the manufacturer is making more of a profit than the lbs? They don't need to end up with a fleet of hundreds. Just a bit of common sense as to what sizes/models are available for demo.

I'd happily pay £25 if they had to order it in. As long as I got £25 knocked off the agreed sale price.

hora - Member
I'd happily pay £25 if they had to order it in. As long as I got £25 knocked off the agreed sale price.

Hello, hello.

Earth calling Hora....

I had a go on a couple at Mountain Trax near Wokingham, Spark and a Yeti ASR-SL, no charge incurred and had them 2-3hrs each at Swinley. Decided I liked the Yeti best, and that I wanted the ASR-Carbon. Kept pestering them for a quote on a custom build but they are useless at returning calls and emails so ended up getting it from Bromley Bike Co! You'd think thye would be abit keener to sell something that expensive...

Just done a quick calculation - I've had 8 bikes/frames in the last 10 years.

So ... either I get it wrong frequently or I get bored 🙄

andrew - I am very surprised with your experience, they are my lbs and have without fail given good service and not batted an eyelid whenever I request my silly component swopping.

I can only infer that the dealers/LBS think that charging a fee is in their best interests and that most customers are happy with the principle. Otherwise why would they do it?

Well they think it is their best interests, I think it isn't, it has lost sales from me and I'm sure others.

Can see the attitude here...assume everybody is a time waster / tyre kicker / blagger. The attitude appears to be that just because a customer doesn't get their credit-card out at the end of the ride that they taking the mick.

I can see that it would be a problem in big tourist areas e.g. Lakes, and some people would abuse...at least if some of the money could be returned against purchases other than bikes as there is always some item I need...and the shop still gets some return.

I've only (really) 'demo'd' two bikes.

I consequently (currently) still own these models. Looking at it from an other angle spending £25 to get the right thing could be a mere drop in the ocean compared to riding a frame for 2months and disliking it.

I bought a Orange Five on the mbr reviews. I couldnt understand why soo many people love them but I just couldnt get on with it at all- that cost me £700. £25 is better than £700.

Next thing you know, the local car dealer will be charging you to test drive the latest fonda mondivic or what ever. Surely cars loose just as much (in percentage terms) as bikes do when they become "ex-demo" models.

Maybe I was just a one-off, they were very helpful when I had the demo, but didn't seem interested in sellling anything!

Had trouble going for test-drives in S/H cars too. One garage tried to sell it to me before I'd even driven it, knocked a fair off too. Turns out it wasn't quite as advertised (milage, service history etc and the clutch was shot) One place wouldn't let me drive one becasue he's just had it valeted and I might get it dirty again. Other places gave me the keys almost as soon as I walked in. Serious about buying, but had to try seven before I found the right one. None of them charge, although the one mentioned above expect me to put a gallon of fuel in it when I'd only had it 10mins...

I recently demo'd 2 bikes from different shops. I paid £40 to ride an EX8 that was covered in gaffer and insulation tape so the frame wouldn't get damaged. Felt kind of like riding a prototype!! Didn't buy it so lost the money.
Also took a Stumpy out from Tredz in Swansea for £25 and when I returned it got £25 worth of vouchers. Seemed a good deal to me. Didn't buy that either, mind.
In the end bought a Cube without trying it. Ah well.....

I don't pay for any demo bikes from my LBS.
Then again they know I'm not just looking for a free ride on something new.

demos sell bikes. simple as that. i always understood that manufacturers gave deals on demo bikes to the lbs?
throw in not having to charge VAT on the final sale of that demo bike, as it's effectively second hand, and they don't end up out of pocket at all.

"Then again they know I'm not just looking for a free ride on something new."

Bingo.

"Can see the attitude here...assume everybody is a time waster / tyre kicker / blagger. The attitude appears to be that just because a customer doesn't get their credit-card out at the end of the ride that they taking the mick."

I know what you're saying but... We hire run of the mill mountain bikes for £20 a day, so it seems only fair that the consumer pays a bit more for a top dollar bike and all the maintenance that goes with it, the refund is the shops way of making it fair for a buyer rather than a hirer.

Was going to have a demo on a Pace 303 once, from Riverside Cycles. No charge & quite happy for me to have it for the weekend so I could take it round my local Cannock Chase.

Potdog - Member
Surely cars loose just as much (in percentage terms) as bikes do when they become "ex-demo" models.

I don't think they do.

OK onion, if a shop has a £2500 demo bike which is demoed out lets say one half day a week at £50 for 52 weeks (It would also be out multiple days in a week so once a week is fair over a year IMO) =£2600. Bike then sold at ~half retail @£1200. £3800 is far better than selling the thing (IMHO).

You guys can't seriously compare the both of testing a bike and a car.
I am at the moment looking for a new motorcycle. So far it's the same process. I get into the shop and ask if they sell monocylinder bikes. Each time the obvious anwser is no (bear with me here...). All of the dealers usualy tell me that monocylinder was crap bla bla bla bla and that I should buy their new amazing 4 cylinder or twin that works so well. Two of them told me well try ours [b]notmonobike[/b], like it or not but you'll be fixed. Which seems nice of them, but:
They are official test bikes, therefore, bought at discount from the manufacturer (sometimes even lend by the manufacturer) and not a stock bike.
You have 30 minutes to test them (not much and not very usefull if you consider they are all located intra-muros) and the roads have to be dry. Testing a car is along the same lines (and you get to have someone with you in the car). But yes they are free to be demoed.

Now if you want to demo a bike fro free, but the guide-lines were:
You only have 30 minutes and "no sir you can't demo this bike now, the track is wet/muddy/dusty". How usefull do you think it will be to demo a bike around the car park (ok maybe like what some mags do).

But obviously we can't really expect the people on here who usually buy online and want everything for nothing to agree with the fact that a LBS are not here for charity. If you want to demo a bike for free, go to a demo day or get a mate to lend you one. Otherwise it cost money to the bike. Why should this money not be passed to the customer.

That are my 2p worth of thoughts. When there will be no more LBS to demo bikes, you'll be in deep sh1te.

Having test days seems to be a better idea. Like C_G being a girly the chances of finding a demo bike to suit me is fairly difficult. I would quite like to try the WSD Lappiere Zesty and an Orange 5 Diva - near here that means going to two different shops and therefore two different charges for testing. My own LBS will loan me a Scott for nothing (though its not really on my shortlist).

Didn't Singletrack do some demo days last year?

Also, anyone know where you can test the widest range of womens specific bike - I don't currently ride a womens specific bike but I am pretty short and do think my next bike may be a womens specific.

As a customer, I've never paid any dealer to test ride a bike. Never crossed my mind that they may charge.
As a dealer, I don't charge either. I only keep one demo bike - Giant Trance X2 - and potential customers are welcome to rag it round Swinley till their hearts content. It's a demo bike, there to be ridden and over the year will earn it's keep. All you need is an honest face, current passport and a recent utility bill........and maybe some biscuits 😉

backhander - Member
OK onion, if a shop has a £2500 demo bike which is demoed out lets say one half day a week at £50 for 52 weeks (It would also be out multiple days in a week so once a week is fair over a year IMO) =£2600. Bike then sold at ~half retail @£1200. £3800 is far better than selling the thing (IMHO).

OK - back to reality. Demo'ed out half a day a week? Do you really think so? This would be some sort of magic demo bike that was a full-sus, singlespeed rigid 29er, with hub gears drop bars, risers both SRAM and Shimano, 700C tubeless 2.5 DH tyres would it? In reality, the bike might go out 5-6 times and it's lost a huge percentage of its value after the very first ride.

As Juan says, if you want to pop in and ride round some dry roads near the shop for 30 minutes, feel free. There would be no charge for that.

Alternatively, you end up like VR above. One "demo" bike in the shop. OK if you're looking to buy that particular model, otherwise a bit pants eh?

"full-sus, singlespeed rigid 29er, with hub gears drop bars, risers both SRAM and Shimano, 700C tubeless 2.5 DH tyres"-you forgot- fits 4'10" to 6'6" men and women
oh oh oh I'll demo that.....not paying owt tho.....I only want it for a month...or two.
P.s stw bears only a passing resemblance to reality btw ;0)

My LBS has just got me a test bike in to try that I didn't even ask about.

I bet they'll encourage me to take it away for the weekend and ride it on my favourite trails whatever the weather and conditions are like.(as they normaly do)

Why do they do this?

Because they want me to buy a bike that I'll [b]really[/b] like.

OK onion, if a shop has a £2500 demo bike which is demoed out lets say one half day a week at £50 for 52 weeks (It would also be out multiple days in a week so once a week is fair over a year IMO) =£2600. Bike then sold at ~half retail @£1200. £3800 is far better than selling the thing (IMHO).

One bike will not suit everyone is one thing, but maintenance costs have to be included as well. The drivetrain will wear out, shock and fork will have to be serviced, even if it's being done by the lbs it will still cost them as the time could have been used to service a paying customer bike. So the bike will loose on wear and component replacements as well.

I might be wrong as I don't know how often shops change drivetrain/chains on the demo bikes and whether they service the forks/shocks but I would imagine that they have to keep the bikes in tip top condition so that it will be a pleasure to ride etc.

I wouldn't pay, but then again all the lbs I use have free demo bikes or at least they were free last time I rode them.
But one day whilst in an lbs I saw a bloke walk in dumps a demo bike and walks out, before anyone could say anything or even look at it, turns out he'd just wrecked a x0 rear mech, without even as much as a sorry.
I can see why people do charge.

Surely cars loose just as much (in percentage terms) as bikes do when they become "ex-demo" models.

Maybe they would if you could walk into a Landrover dealer and borrow a Discovery for the weekend to rag on your local tracks.

[i]Well i had a zesty for a whole week on demo this week and rode 3 demo bikes (trek ex9, stumpy and enduro )yesterday all for free!

Courtesy of worcester cycle centre
[/i]

😯 blimey has Dennis retired/sold the shop, he'd never do that normally i'm sure!

i think if you are not a regular customer then paying for a demo bike is fair, if you are well know to the shop and spend money there and have recommended loads of people to buy their bikes there in the past then they look after you when it comes to trying bikes, well that's my experience anyway

I had about 8 demo bikes from Leisure lakes...

Orange
Marin
Santa Cruz
Specialized
Cannondale
etc...

Never paid a single penny for any demo, ended up buying a Orange 5 Pro from them with a couple of upgrades as a consiquence! Brilliant service!

I had already bought from them before though, worth noting I guess! 🙂

if you are well know to the shop and spend money there and have recommended loads of people to buy their bikes there in the past then they look after you when it comes to trying bikes, well that's my experience anyway

No shit sherlock. 😉

i think you know what i'm saying 8)

I never paid for demo bikes and I never will.

"I never paid for demo bikes and I never will"-Substitute 'sex' for demo and its funnier.

riding a 29er but not blowing a trumpet about it - Member

i think you know what i'm saying

What's that you say? You want an arguement about a certain shop? 😀

Back to reality....... it seems that your demo bikes aren't massively popular. I wonder why?
Maybe your shop isn't popular?

Maybe bigger shops (chains) can absorb the costs? My ex-demo Stumpy was £1400 when the full retail was £2200 so they do lose their value.

IMO i am surprised if a bike shop does not try to recoup some of the monies invested in their demo bikes. As onion said demo bikes will only ever get a handful of outings and will only be worth about 50% of their value, especially if they are mainstream full builds. Really the amount of people buying these types of bikes are very small, and the shops are aiming at a very narrow band of people/customers so the uptake on demo bikes is not that great.

The bike industry is not in the same league as the car industry and thus is not subsidised by the manufactures to the same degree with things like demo's etc.

IME most people will buy a frame/bike without a demo, as most are likely to swap their bikes/frames quite frequently anyway and in this day and age their are very few poor bikes out there so the risk is less.

Up shot is if you really want to try a bike before hand then i think a small rental fee is fair.

the best demo's I've done have been specific demo days at Glentress and Laggan. Only the Laggan one cost (£5) and got to ride a ton of bikes around trails that I know and are representative of a good portion of riding that I would be doing. I ended up buying bikes after two of the days that I had demo'd.

£40 is probably fair, but beyond what I can afford as I tend to buy 2nd hand frames rather than full price full builds.

blimey has Dennis retired/sold the shop, he'd never do that normally i'm sure!

i think if you are not a regular customer then paying for a demo bike is fair, if you are well know to the shop and spend money there and have recommended loads of people to buy their bikes there in the past then they look after you when it comes to trying bikes, well that's my experience anyway

Yep, i think you're right. Stu (used to work there) bought it off him a while ago. Yes I do know him 🙂

The [url= http://demodays.bikeradar.com/ ]bike radar demo day[/url] looks pretty good

I never paid for demo bikes and I never will"-Substitute 'sex' for demo and its funnier.

But I [b]always[/b] pay for sex?

I don't have a problem with paying to demo, but my LBS have never asked that I do.

I can also see why most people are charged, otherwise rather than hire bikes they'd just 'demo' them.