Manufacturer, Retailer, Survey and Consumer Feedback - South Maui Bicycles Scam

I recently (7/24/08) rented a Trek 5000 road bike from South Maui bicycles in Kihei, Maui, Hawaii. The cost was $60 for 24 hours, and they made it clear that I had 24 hours. I rode the bike up Heleakala (10,000 ft in 36 miles...it kicked my butt). When I returned the bike and told the guy who was removing my pedals how hard the ride was, he suddenly developed a deep interest in the rear rim. In a very rehearsed manner he asked me to feel the braking surface of a 'good' rim, then feel the braking surface of the rim I rode up the volcano, which was extremely worn...it was concave where the pads met the braking surface. When I informed the guy (with great indignation) that I DIDN'T RIDE THE BIKE DOWN THE MOUNTAIN he kind of blustered and tried to say "...well that rim is real worn". I had to show him my mileage on my Polar HRM that I was wearing. I was ready to have him talk to my wife (who drove me down) on my cell, when he decided that he had 'lost' and let me go.

Had I ridden down that mountain I'd have had to pay whatever he asked even though I weigh 140, have raced for over 20 years, and typically descend our local climbs (like Angeles Crest) without hardly touching the brakes. It really bothers me that this guy has sold that rim to...how many guys? If I weighed 180+ and wasn't real experienced and had ridden the brakes I'd have paid for the rim. I recommend avioding South Maui Bicycles. Their water bottles say 'Maui's Friendliest Shop' and they need to be...so that they can fleece you while you are smiling and feeling how friendly they are.

Ouch! I'm glad you didn't ride it down. Visible wear on a rental means time to replace in my book.

Interesting. I had a bad experience at that shop in 2002. I had a rental for a cheap Trek to ride up Helekala (although the rental price on the bike wasn't much less than my rental car) and because I was in a hurry I didn't inspect the bike before leaving the shop.

I examined the bike the next day and found it to be very dirty with a lot of wear. Worse of all, although I had specified 175mm cranks, I rec'd a bike w/ 170 mm cranks. I decided I couldn't use the bike and did a rental at closer to me West Maui cycles. Their bike was marginally better and I was able to do the ride up (although my wife gave me a ride down).

So on day three I return the 1st rental to S. Maui and tell the owner(?) I was "not happy". Bottom line he said he was going to still charge me for the week's rental, so a 5 minute heated arguement takes place (on my vacation). The money wasn't that much to me but I didn't like his attitude. Finally he says I can have store credit for the full amount of the week's rental, that seemed reasonable to me and I left satisified.

Bottom line though, I think it's probably easier to get a good rental on the Big Island because of the Ironman (newer Ultegra type bike) than in Maui.

First off all touristy places rip people off. Second, it's the bikes rental place responsibility to make sure their gear is safe to ride. They rented the bike based on a set amount of hours, no provision for miles, no provision if you wore out brand new tires, no provision if the rim wore out. As long as you didn't purposely go and do full on tire lock ups and wore brand new tires to the cord that could be considered abuse, but even IF you had done that it wouldn't have worn out the rims! That means the place rented to you worn out rims that could have failed had you taken the trip down then they may have had a liability problem had you been hurt. These people were looking to scare a dopey tourist into giving them more money.