Vacation Bike Rentals
 

No to BSOs
 

About a decade ago a fellow cyclist wanted to participate in RAGBRAI but he was unable to bring his Lightspeed road bike on the trip. He checked with one of the local bike shops asking if they had anything used in the right frame size. They did. He bought the bike outright with the arrangement that he would bring it back in the same shape after a week and have them buy it from him. He ended up riding a quality bike in the right size but at less than the local rental shop were charging for a more mediocre rental bike. The store made a decent amount and still had the bike to sell to someone else.

If you are used to riding a decent bike that is fully functional, you might be really disappointed by using a BSO bought from a mass merchandiser. I remember the time I was taking part in a cycling merit badge ride when the cranks fell off a brand new Walmart BSO. We had checked the bike for the normal safety check but who thinks to check if the assembler had tightened the cranks?

Resist the urge.

if you go the WallyWorld route, make sure the bike gets donated to a worthy organization.

For those of us that have to skim in costs this sounds like a great idea. I would, however, take a well stocked bike tool kit that included a pump, flat fix, and tools for adjusting brakes, cables and derailleurs. The Walmart bikes that I have seen fail, usually failed from not being properly assembled. They also lacked proper lubrication. I don't see a Walmart bike as being any less reliable then a rental bike.

To be sure I don't expect allot out of a Walmart bike or a rental bike to begin with. Also you are looking for a ride, and ridding, is ridding, so there it is.

Again I say, its a great idea and well worth pursuing.

Not a good idea. A Wally road bike is going to be a piece of garbage compared to a $50 a day rental road bike. If you want to enjoy riding during your vacation do not consider it. Instead bite the bullet and just rent a nice rental bike. A decent hybrid could likely be rented for half the price of a road bike and would still be more enjoyable to ride compared to a Wally road bike. Also if you have a problem a rental bike will be repaired while a Wally bike will simply be replaced by another piece of garage.

I've considered attempting a Craigslist purchase for this scenario, but it can be time-consuming to connect with the seller to complete the purchase. I still like the idea though - looks like Walmart bikes start around $200 plus tax, that's a decent budget for a short-term use CL bike.

Depending on what the use is for the bike, I wouldn't have an issue with it. Unless you are going to France and entering the TdF. Then you might spring for a slightly better bike from a bike shop over there even if it's several thousand dollars. And if you are going to be riding up a lot of steep hill for very long no matter where you are, then you might have trouble finding a BSO light enough and geared well enough to let you go far enough on those hills.

The OP could post on here where he is going , someone here might have a bike to sell that would work for him . I have a couple lower end bike shop bikes I could sell for 40 to 50 dollars that would be better than a new Walmart bike.

intriguing idea. but I don't vacation where there are Walmarts

I got tired of traveling internationally with bikes so I ended up leaving one of them at my winter location. It also gave me a good excuse to buy a new bike when I returned to my "summer" location.

a few years ago while visiting san francisco with my family i bought a used bike for 75.00 i'm sure i saved that amount on cabs and ubers. used it to round up food from the markets and supplies for an art show for my wife . this was when my kid was very small (2 or 3 years old) and couldn't walk too far. i donated the bike at the end of the trip to the local bike co-op. i thought the results worked out really well

Walmart bikes tend to have dry or next-to-dry bearings among other assembly issues. Be careful if you do this.

If $50 is for a whole day with a quality fitted for you road bike, in a great area to ride, I would consider that an excellent deal.

Walmart doesn't sell bikes. They sell bike shaped objects.

The 3 days X $50 in a week hypothetical situation is very accurate in my personal experience traveling and bicycling. If you're with the family or SO, and/or if you're in a place with any interesting things to do at all, you're not going to ride every day. At least that's been the case for me.

On the other hand, I would just rent the bike for the whole week. I'm not spending the time going to go back and forth to the rental shop transporting the bike, do the paperwork, install my saddle (or adjust theirs), install my pedals, etc. three times. Actually when I rent away from home, I usually bring my own saddle and pedals, and sometimes even change the stem. It's not a big deal to do this once, but three times, including the overall rental hassle would be just enough to make the math of "worthwhile" sway towards either not doing it at all, or paying for a whole week. So that's the way I tend to think of it: if I'm vacationing for a week and plan to ride more than once, I kind of figure a whole week rental cost into the decision.

My wife and I did the same to avoid having to transport the bikes back and forth. We have transported them several times and will in the future I'm sure. But when it comes to our travel trailer which we keep in a different state a long airplane flight from home and use a couple of times per year for 4-10 weeks at a time, we decided to buy modest/inexpensive but very serviceable, versatile "gravel" bikes to leave with the trailer. There's no $ formula which justifies this - after all, the airline we fly with does not charge extra for a bike case (just treated as normal luggage). Packing and unpacking is something I'm reasonably efficient with. But we just got tired of handling the large cases, finding transportation to and from the airport that would handle two large cases plus our carry-on size luggage, storing the cases when not in use, etc. Things you pay money for just for convenience without a firm financial justification happens more for me the older I get!

$50/day doesn't sound bad. I'd go for that.

If it's a road bike you're looking for, be aware Walmart often/usually doesn't have any in stock. At least at the ones around where I live. Hybrids, mountain bikes and lots and lots of kid's bikes, yes. You might have to order online and buy sight-unseen.

Can you bring your own bike from home and ride that instead?

Couple years ago I went to visit a close friend on the west coast who's also an avid cyclist. Rather than transporting one of my "good bikes" across country and dealing with the hassles, I was able to rent a Fuji SL 2.1 for five days for $200. They even delivered the bike to my friend's house. I brought my saddle and my pedals. Best move I could have made in terms of time, expense and hassle.

I would just rent a bike because Walmart bikes are notoriously unreliable POS's and if there's anything wrong with it then its your problem. The rental would be maintained and repaired by the shop so any problems they would be able to set you right more easily. Rentals aren't great and you're not going to "feel your carbon" and every accessory you ever bought for your fancy rig(s) at home but they tend to be a cut or two above Walmart bikes especially in terms of durability/reliability.

If you don't travel much don't bother but if you do travel a lot and find yourself asking this question often why not get a bike suitcase?

I've only rented a bike once for a day only. I don't know what I paid. The experience went well. The bike was a current model Trek so I got to check out what a modern (non-C&V like my collection) bike. Everything worked perfectly, no issues. The only thing that I missed from my personal bikes was fenders. It rained. If I was there longer, I might have explored other options, but for one day, the easiest thing to do was to rent.

For a longer term use, I would consider getting a Walmart bike if a one speed cruiser is acceptable. If you need gears, I don't know if these bikes are ok. Seth at Burm Peak had good luck with a Kent mountain bike, but this was a more expensive bike that is not available at all locations.

Would a folding bike solve this problem, or would that still be too bulky for your situation?

If I can brike a bike there, there I can bring it back.

The OP should see this:

https://www.bikeforums.net/general-c...hes-wheel.html

Buying a bike from Walmart, then spending time tinkering with it to get it set up properly and then having to ride that garbage does not sound like a fun use of vacation time to me. I am also highly skeptical that one can just walk into a random Walmart and find $200 bikes in a workable size available for purchase in-store. A quick scan of their website shows most/all of the cheap road bikes to be online only with 3+ day shipping.

$50 a day seems like a pretty good deal to rent a road bike from a shop. I think I paid $80/day last summer to rent a carbon Roubaix with Ultegra from a shop in Colorado. That cost seemed more than fair to me.