What about bicycle leasing?
 

How else am I going to afford a Koga Kimera?
Bike store windows should be plastered with signs saying $0 down and $99 a month (and they'll buy you out of that klunker you're riding).
Works for cars; it's time for bikes. Wouldn't you like to be ridin' & racin' that shiny new (fill in favorite make & model) with Super Record 11 for just $99 a month?

Financing toys....... bad.

thats actually a pretty good idea. then the market for used bikes would go up too.

an economic analysis would need to be done with some assumptions, but off the top of my head i think that if you can lease a 30,000 dollar car for a few hundred a month you should be able to lease a 10,000 dollar bicycle. i would suspect resale values would be similar (percentage wise).

...

Leasing usually requires carrying full insurance coverage.

I don't think this is available for bikes.

I thought I liked you only because you were a scientist. We need to get this economy moving!

Brilliant!! You've just identified a great opportunity that goes along with the bike leasing market. Another way for bike shops to take care of their customers and move the carbon.

you can rent a bike, leasing should be similar. you can also lease computers, televisions, copiers, and other stuff priced similarly to bikes. hell, i think one of the xerox copiers in our office is over 10K new, and we definitely least those. i honestly think bike shops (at least in fairly affluent areas) could make a killing on a program like this. they could sell service contracts with the bikes. its a marketing dream.

pinnarello can be the next mercedes, "my neighbor has one - i better get one to keep up". its brilliant. it works for cars, boats, houses, flat screen tv's, designer handbags, etc...

would crashing and destroying these things be considered "normal wear and tear"?

As NIKE says or said "Just Do It!

As long as it's your credit and not mine I say go for it. And if you do crash it just quit making the payments and let them send a repo man. Swap out the high end components for some cheapos first.

+1

no, neither for a bicycle, i dont think crash and destroy describe a "normal" use for a bicycle. i agree that there would need to be some insurance to cover the occasional and probably crashes, and i agree that some serious economic analysis would be necessary to determine a programs viability, but i definitely think it COULD work, at least in theory.

the fact that a program like this doesnt exist when ones do exist for other sports equipment (like skis and snowboards), leads me to believe that the economics are a little too risky, but again, it could work...

pretty good idea conceptually, bad idea in reality.....

Leasing is just a financing method.

Leasing cars is a bit different because cars are used for business purposes and therefore have an income tax effect. Bikes may have an income tax effect, but only for those who use the bike for a business purpose. Commuting is not the business purpose, neither for cars nor for bikes.

Not far from me is Fletcher Jones Mercedes. Its got to be one of the highest grossing MBZ dealers in the U.S. Partly because its in Newport Beach, CA. A high percentage of their sales is by way of leasing. Its the business deduction that makes this possible.

When leasing companies determine how much they will finance on a car, they need to calculate the residual value at the end of the term. For example a high end Lexus, or Mercedes, may have a high residual value, maybe as high as 50%. Therefore, the leasing company is willing to structure the monthly payment based on this information. With bikes, its way too difficult to calculate residual values. Back a few years ago, Fletcher Jones in consort with MBZ offered an 80% lease on certain models. Nowadays, its gone by the wayside.

As I see it, these are the two hurdles: after-tax business deductions, and residual value.

Yes, this is the first problem I see with it. And how many small bike shops are going to want to put up with the hassle?

I think it's quite possible, conceptually.

Many shops are offering financing already, via 3rd parties.

It just needs one of the major mfg's to partner with a financing company and offer deals that beat what you'd pay monthly to your credit card bank.

I wish I could recall Bill Murray's speech from Stripes right now.
Riiiiiiiiiiuuuuusk Soldiers is what the other guys are afraid of.
We are lean mean loaning machines.
Did the Cannibal stay in the pack when someone attacked?
Did Andy Hampsten stop to warmup on Gavia Pass?
Etc, etc.

The correct financial view is that financing is the worst way to pay for a depreciating item. Like a bike or car.

Of course, this never stopped a huge # of Americans to rush out to lease their car even when they say they're very interested in saving thousands of their own dollars.

Fortunately, bikes are a much smaller purchase, but still, it's much more disciplined and cheaper to pay for it in cash and avoid the interest charges.

Leasing makes little sense from an economic standpoint. If you doubt this, why do you think leased and financed vehicles are so highly pushed by car dealers? It ain't because it's saving you any money - it's because you're paying a lot of extra dollars that go to the dealer. If leasing were really a financially efficient means of buying a car, you'd never hear about it, and it would be never be advertised, because it would be minimizing dealer profits. When's the last time you saw an ad about how great it was to pay for your car in cash up front? (Versus the endless 0% down in the first year blah blah blah...)

Bottom line: If you can't afford saving your own bucks to pay for the actual value of the item down the road, how can you possibly justify paying for it with interest down the road? (Which is what you do with a lease.) The only exception to this rule is if your income will go up in the near future, and you really have to have the item now (like a car, or gasp-bike.)

I must have missed something. Since when were voices of reason engaged in BF? We're talking about bikes, emotions and thousands of dollars. living the dream.

Oops my bad. I thought I was in BeginnerTriathlete, not Bikeforums.

The correct advice:
- Lease it!
- Spend it!
- You'll be just like Lance!
- And $2000 race wheels are ABSOLUTELY necessary!

tHANKs for the reminder!

you missed the boat here big time buddy. this is america. america the beautiful.

you can save that no-credit, layaway, savings account attitude for the 50's. no one's arguing that financing anything is better than buying it outright. if i want something shiney and new every year, who are you to begrudge me of that? i deserve it.

Lease, finance, 0 down with no payment.......

Bikes are already all available to finance...... It's called VISA

Pretty much the same thing........
You need decent credit to finance... Just add another Visa card and pay it that way.....


Bad Idea though.....

I must be getting the hang of BF. I knew it was a (high level) err parody thread.

It was, right?

Hello?

:)

I'm a big fan of actually owning my possessions.

a parody of which thread?