Can Bikes Be Investible Assets?

Is renting your bike out (like AirBNB) the future of bike ownership?

Bicycling is BOOMING

The 2020 pandemic caused non-electric bike sales to surge 65% and e-bike sales to surge 145% between 2019 and 2020 (weforum.org)! The world is realizing all the benefits of bicycling; it’s good for the climate, air, your physical health, mental health, and your wallet! You can go alone, with friends, or with your family! And now, you don’t even need to be fit or get sweaty! E-bikes are giving bicycling ability to commuters in suits, families shopping for groceries, and those still building their fitness. No wonder bicycling is on the rise!

Bicycles … can get expensive and hard to maintain

Sadly, owning a bike isn’t cheap or easy. Good quality road and electric bikes start at a minimum of $1000 and they can easily get into the range of $3,000 — $5,000. It doesn’t stop there though, after you purchase a bike, you have to buy clothes, shoes, tools, a helmet, luggage racks, and bike bags. Then, you have to keep your bike clean and maintained by either doing it yourself (requiring time to learn, money for tools, and some skills), or, you have to take it to a bike shop and pay for their service every couple of months.

This makes it challenging for new entrants and long-time riders, let alone those who own multiple bikes! With all the new bicycling disciplines these days: road, gravel, mountain, electric, city, race, and touring, some bicyclists are forced to own multiple bikes! Imagine taking care of all of those and finding somewhere to store them ;)

Let’s make bicycling easier

New startups, like PolyCycles, are creating bike sharing services where individuals, retailers, and direct-to-consumer bike brands can list their bikes for monthly rentals.

Once a bike owner signs up, PolyCycles creates the listing (with photos and component specs) and markets it. When someone wants to rent the bike, PolyCycles picks it up from the owner’s home, checks it to make sure it’s ready to ride (fixing anything if necessary), and delivers it to the renter.

The bike renter can pay for optional bike fits and accessories. They’ll rent the bike for at least a month and when they’re done, PolyCycles comes to pick the bike back up, checks it for damage, fixes and cleans what is necessary, and then repairs it to the owner!

Hmmm, so, can bikes be investible assets like AirBNB rentals?

Well, if a bike owner lists their bike for a monthly rate of 5% of its value, and assuming that fees and maintenance brings their profit down to 4% of the bike’s value, then the owner can potentially pay off the cost of their bike in 25 months! So, after about 2 years of ownership, the bike they paid for starts to become an asset instead of a liability. The bike pays them money instead of the owner paying for bike. Pretty cool, eh?

Why rent a bike?

• Anyone who is tired of:
  - Replacing parts (eg. tires, tubes, chains, cables, etc.).
  - Cleaning their bike.
  - Maintaining their bike.
• Racers who don ‘t want to spend $$$ on bikes they only use in races.
• Adventurers who want to try multiple bike genres (road, gravel, mountain).
• Families with kids growing and changing hobbies.
• Casual riders who only ride a few times a month.
• Tech geeks who always want the latest and greatest.
• Seasonal riders who only ride when the weather is nice or in their off-season.
• Apartment renters who don’t have room for multiple bikes.

Why rent your bikes out?

Some individuals own too many bikes! Maybe they have a race bike that they only use a few times a year, or a mountain bike that they only want to ride in the summer. Why let it sit around when plenty of people would love to ride it? Bikes are assets! We ensure that it stays in good condition and we’ll replace anything that breaks.

Bike retailers will have bikes that they’re having trouble selling. PolyCycles provides them a way to clear inventory, make money, and resell the bikes as used whenever the right customer comes along. We also drive customers to their business by letting them know that they can buy the bike if they liked it after renting it.

Direct to consumer bike brands don’t have a way to let customers demo/try their bikes. PolyCycles is their solution. We won’t retail the bikes, we’ll just take a commission from any purchase that comes from one of our customers. This lets D2C brands stay direct to consumer while also letting interested customers try before they buy.

Where We Are Now:

We’re just operating in Berkeley, CA, and the surrounding East Bay Area at the moment. We’re getting new customers (both owners and renters) daily.

Down the road:

We want to spread nationwide and maybe go global. Our customers will then be able to travel to any destination and they’ll have a bike waiting for them. We also want to start a bike club and host monthly rides where customers can try out any bike they’d like for the day, for free!

Contact:

If you have a question or comment, send us an email at friends@polycycles.com!