PolyCycles — A Bike Subscription Service

Hi, I’m Colin, the founder of PolyCycles located in Berkeley, California (polycycles.com).

The Idea:

We want to be a bike subscription service. Similar to car subscription services (examples), we’ll own a fleet of many different bikes that customers can pay a monthly fee to have access to. In addition to different bikes and wheelsets, our subscription will include bike maintenance, cleaning, repairs, insurance, and convenient delivery and pick-up. We’ll come by to the customer’s home every month (or week if requested) to service their bike or swap it out for a different bike or wheelset (if they’d like). We want to offer road, gravel, mountain, electric, race, triathlon, and commuter bikes, along with different sizes ranging from small children to large adults.

Who a bike subscription service would be great for:

• 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.

Alternatives / Competitors:

• Anybody can buy multiple bikes and either keep them maintained themselves or take them to a bike shop.
• SportsBasement offers bike rentals but it’s not their main focus and their daily rates are quite high.
• Companies like Lyft have bike share programs but the bikes are all city / commuter bikes, you can’t bring them home, and it’s not set up for a long term bike ownership alternative.
• Revel just came out with an e-bike subscription but it’s for their bikes only.

How We’ll Differ:

Our company will specialize in long-term bike subscriptions that can actually replace and be better than owning a bike. Unlike Sports Basement, we’ll have many bikes for monthly rentals and we’ll offer more competitive prices because bike subscriptions will be our focus. We’ll also let customers easily swap between different bikes or wheelsets throughout the month.

The Challenges:

This business will require a huge upfront cost. We’ll need to buy an inventory of bikes, rent a warehouse to store them, and build a bicycle mechanic and business team.

Where We Are Now:

As of June 2021, we’re gathering feedback on the business (by having people fill out a form on our website) to see the consumer demand and consumer desires. If we get enough positive feedback, we’ll approach investors to get the capital necessary to launch this business.

Post-Launch Plan:

If we launch and are successful, we’ll 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 take out any bike they’d like for the day.

Mission, Values, Background:

For our mission, values, background, and more, please go to our website (polycycles.com/about)

Contact:

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