I recently received a very interesting proposal, when I was contacted by Rutland Cycling, who wanted to know if I would be willing to trial, and to review their “Test ride an E-bike for the weekend” demonstration offer, and also to give feedback about the service. Not being one to turn down the chance of getting to experience and play with an eMTB, I wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass me by.
The idea of being able to try before you buy, at your own home, on your own local terrain, and at your own leisure, is certainly a very appealing one, and I suspect that the innovative idea by Rutland Cycling is going to prove to be very popular.
The home demo scheme, which operates in conjunction to the already existing and popular ‘free 30 minute’ shop operated scheme, allows a potential customer 48hrs of use of their chosen bike, for the sum of £49.99 Should you then decide to purchase a bike from Rutland Cycling, this figure is discounted from the purchase cost.
After contacting the shop and going through the required card deposit, and photo id procedure, it is then just a simple matter of arranging a suitable weekend for the home trial to take place. The bike is delivered on a Friday and collected on a Monday, and all that you have to do, is unbox the bike, straighten the bars, adjust the saddle height, and away you go. The keys and battery charger are also included, as is a pedal spanner, multi tool, and even a shock pump.
When you have finished having a weekend of E-bike riding fun, it is simply a case of ensuring that the bike is cleaned, left in the same condition that it arrived, and put back into the box that it arrived in.
Full details can be found here. http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/demo-an-e-bike-anywhere-in-the-country.30343/
Obviously, the box is of considerable size, so this must be taken into account in respect of interim storage. Please also note that you will require some form of parcel tape for re-sealing the box , when the time comes to pack it away again.
Previous experience with Rutland Cycling, has shown me that they are nothing but efficient, in the way that they operate, and this demo weekend proved to be no different.
From the choice of bikes available, I opted to ride and try a Giant Full-E 1.5 SX Pro and whilst this very brief review is specifically about the home demo service on offer, I figured that it couldn’t do any harm to at least try a bike that firstly I have never ridden, and also that looked on paper, to be a lot of fun.
A short review of the bike in question, can be found here. http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/2018-giant-e-1-sx-pro-courtesy-of-rutland-cycles.30500/#post-424045
A conformation text message and email arrived on the evening before delivery, and further correspondence on the morning of. The bike was delivered at 08.30hrs and quickly taken out of it’s box shortly after. That was when the first pleasant struck me. I was expecting the pain of having to remove a countless amount of packaging and protection, but this wasn’t the case. The bike simply had a purpose-built wrap over transport cover, and it was just a case of detaching the Velcro straps that secured it and that was it, the unpacking was complete.
To end this brief review and to summarize my thoughts., I consider that Rutland Cycling are certainly very enterprising by offering this service, and if a potential end user has a clear idea of what they want and are serious about buying a bike, then there is no reason not to use this service. Like it or not, internet sales are a rapidly increasing market, and Rutland Cycling are seemingly not holding back in their approach and quality of service.
.
The idea of being able to try before you buy, at your own home, on your own local terrain, and at your own leisure, is certainly a very appealing one, and I suspect that the innovative idea by Rutland Cycling is going to prove to be very popular.
The home demo scheme, which operates in conjunction to the already existing and popular ‘free 30 minute’ shop operated scheme, allows a potential customer 48hrs of use of their chosen bike, for the sum of £49.99 Should you then decide to purchase a bike from Rutland Cycling, this figure is discounted from the purchase cost.
After contacting the shop and going through the required card deposit, and photo id procedure, it is then just a simple matter of arranging a suitable weekend for the home trial to take place. The bike is delivered on a Friday and collected on a Monday, and all that you have to do, is unbox the bike, straighten the bars, adjust the saddle height, and away you go. The keys and battery charger are also included, as is a pedal spanner, multi tool, and even a shock pump.
When you have finished having a weekend of E-bike riding fun, it is simply a case of ensuring that the bike is cleaned, left in the same condition that it arrived, and put back into the box that it arrived in.
Full details can be found here. http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/demo-an-e-bike-anywhere-in-the-country.30343/
Obviously, the box is of considerable size, so this must be taken into account in respect of interim storage. Please also note that you will require some form of parcel tape for re-sealing the box , when the time comes to pack it away again.
Previous experience with Rutland Cycling, has shown me that they are nothing but efficient, in the way that they operate, and this demo weekend proved to be no different.
From the choice of bikes available, I opted to ride and try a Giant Full-E 1.5 SX Pro and whilst this very brief review is specifically about the home demo service on offer, I figured that it couldn’t do any harm to at least try a bike that firstly I have never ridden, and also that looked on paper, to be a lot of fun.
A short review of the bike in question, can be found here. http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/2018-giant-e-1-sx-pro-courtesy-of-rutland-cycles.30500/#post-424045
A conformation text message and email arrived on the evening before delivery, and further correspondence on the morning of. The bike was delivered at 08.30hrs and quickly taken out of it’s box shortly after. That was when the first pleasant struck me. I was expecting the pain of having to remove a countless amount of packaging and protection, but this wasn’t the case. The bike simply had a purpose-built wrap over transport cover, and it was just a case of detaching the Velcro straps that secured it and that was it, the unpacking was complete.
To end this brief review and to summarize my thoughts., I consider that Rutland Cycling are certainly very enterprising by offering this service, and if a potential end user has a clear idea of what they want and are serious about buying a bike, then there is no reason not to use this service. Like it or not, internet sales are a rapidly increasing market, and Rutland Cycling are seemingly not holding back in their approach and quality of service.
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