The collective hive mind

[JohnClimber]

Please don't think of this post as an advert, it's an ask for the Bear Bones collective help to give 2 young lads a bit of a helping hand and Bear Bones people are the best to ask about UK bike packing.

As you may know I am helping Mikey and Matthew at Custom Merit Gear over in Amsterdam.

https://www.custommeritgear.com/en/home

I really liked their customer service and attention to detail on how they built my first frame bag for my Fat Bike.

Since then we've chatted often causing me to spend even more money with them on another custom frame bag, 3 Popcorn Bags and now they are making some Top tube bags for match my colour scheme and they are working on a new frame bag to work around my 2 bottle on my gravel bike.

They've cost me a small fortune

But as I have gear as most of you do too, they have asked me for ideas for their rental service over here in the UK and I thought I'd ask you lot for your help if you don't mind.

Please take a look here
https://www.custommeritgear.com/en/rental

Unfortunately the cost of shipping to and from the UK is too expensive to make this viable from over the water.

I've offered my Postage and packing service FOC to them here in the UK, so that they can charge UK postage charges to UK customers.

Our question is, do you think think there there is a market for these sort of thing for those new to bike packing to try it out?
Please feel free to message me if you don't want to post up on this thread.



Thanks again for all of your help
John, Mickey and Matthew

[ScotRoutes]

There is a market. Andy at backcountry.scot will rent out bags - both for his courses and led trips but also just as a service. I don't know how popular it is though.

When I was doing bike hire, we had optional panniers and bags that customers could hire for a small extra fee. I know my old boss has now invested in some soft luggage too but I suspect that will be for bike rental customers only.

[Mickey Wong]

Thank you for mentioning my work! Very curious to see if a rental service could be a solution to some Bikepackers out there.

[BigdummySteve]

Please don't think of this post as an advert

Trying VERY hard

[Bearbonesnorm]

I'm not convinced that there's a market large enough to warrant. Given how cheaply you can buy luggage from the likes of PX and the amount of disposable income available to many folk.

I'd also be considering the potential grief involved with 'it's in the post', 'It was fine when I sent it back' and 'the dog chewed it' type situations.

As Colin says, i could see it working as part of a larger package but not stand alone.

[Cheeky Monkey]

I'm sceptical there's much market for it but am probably at the wrong end of the gear-continuum to be even vaguely representative of the type of folks that might want to use such a service.

I agree with Stu too about the damage / maintenance etc. As a side thought - pricing and deposits? E.g. for the odd scrote that sees it as a cheap way of "acquiring" a set of bags just for the hire price.

Golly, aren't I full of the joys

[thenorthwind]

In an ideal world, this should work - I would recommend it to people who wanted to give bikepacking a try if they asked me for bag recommendations. But sadly, I was thinking the same as Stu - people will just buy cheap bags and chuck them away if and when they buy better ones

I can see the odd person trying it on, but with a robust deposit system in place, I doubt it would be a problem for the majority. You'd basically be buying a bag/set of bags and then getting most of the cost back if you return them unscathed... would encourage people to be careful with them. Might even be a good way to get more sales from people who don't want to commit but having tried them for a weekend want to keep them.

[Dave Barter]

I’d fork the idea a bit to try-buy.

So you can rent and if you like it pay the balance. If not send back.That is the only instance where I think I would use it

[Bearbonesnorm]

Now we're on to summat I reckon - a try before you buy system, could work nicely.

[rudedog]

sounds like a fairly niche thing - it might work as part of a larger ‘outdoor gear hire’ business model but I’m struggling to see how it could stand up on its own (or as part of a small bag making business). Either way you’d definitely want a seat pack to be included which doesn’t seem to be the case at present?

[Lazarus]

are bgs the only thing stopping folk trying bikepacking?I know you can do it with anything but there is a fair amount of lightweight kit also required other than bags
Most folk i know- even cyclists- some bike backing bags are not going to be enough for them to be able to give it a go even if they wanted to

[boxelder]

As Colin says, i could see it working as part of a larger package but not stand alone.

This. Folk like Pannier.cc who run trips rent out gear.

[thenorthwind]

I’d fork the idea a bit to try-buy.

So you can rent and if you like it pay the balance. If not send back.That is the only instance where I think I would use it

Yeah I think that might work. To be fair, I don't think most of us on here are the target market, since we already own bags I guess.

are bgs the only thing stopping folk trying bikepacking?I know you can do it with anything but there is a fair amount of lightweight kit also required other than bags
Most folk i know- even cyclists- some bike backing bags are not going to be enough for them to be able to give it a go even if they wanted to

Yes and no. Someone who's really keen will just chuck some stuff in whatever rucksack/pannier combo they have, but I see a lot of people (e.g. on my club Facebook group) talking about needing to get bags so they can go bikepacking, or they're ready for bikepacking now because they've got some bags

[fatbikephil]

Don't the Adventure Pedlars do a similar thing with suggested routes and full guiding an option?
I get the impression that in the UK, the general trend seems to be buy before you try and then sell it on if you don't like it.... I also think that custom bags appeal to the likes of us but a lot of people adopt the 'I want it now' approach and would rather buy a standard thing off the shelf.

[Mickey Wong]

Hi guys, thank you all for your insights. Currently, I don't have a lot of concrete plans or anything.
At this moment, I'm just testing out the waters to see if there is any demand for such a service. Inititially, I was planning to offer rentals only locally. But John offered to manage it all from his place which made me think of this idea.