Rent to ride?

Traveling cross-country to race this year? A company in New Jersey, Tri-Cycle Rental, is offering rentals of Orbea bikes, delivered to the race venue. The idea is that the triathlete would save on transportation costs, but the math just doesn’t make much sense to me.

They base the financial benefit on an airline fee of $300-$450 for round-trip transportation of your bike, plus the reduced hassle of dis-assembly/re-assembly. I’m not sure how comfortable I would feel, after training for hundreds of hours on my bike, to get to an Iron-distance race and saddle up on a rental. If you’ve already invested big $ to enter the race, train, and travel, what’s a little more to transport your bike?

Here’s the story that made the PR rounds:

Rent to ride enters the triathlon race-day market

By TOM HELD

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A start-up company in New Jersey has an idea to eliminate the bike transportation hassles for triathletes.

Tri-Cycle Rentals offers a race-day ready fleet of Orbea bikes for rent that athletes pick up at the race venue. Riders reserve the bike online, show up at the event to check out the bike, get fitted on it, then return the bike afterward at the race expo or transition area.

The story in the Bicycle Retailer and Industry News puts the price at $399, or $475 with Zipp 404 wheels.

According to Tri-Cycle Rentals, traveling via commercial airlines will cost you between $300 and $450 round-trip, depending on the carrier. Shipping your bike via a triathlon-specific service or FedEx/UPS will cost between $300-$400.

With all of the above options, racers have to take their bike apart and put it back together (or pay a bike shop to do it). They also have to own or rent a bike travel case ($50 to rent and $300-$400 to buy). They will also be without their bikes for 7-10 days prior to the race - critical training days leading up to the race.