Shameless Research, your help appreciated

Off-topic
1

Guys and gals,

I am developing up some business plans at the moment and would like to gauge from the community if a ‘Bike Hotel’ (visualise a Lok’n’Stor type facility) based in EC1 or City outskirts would be viable.

Obviously this is a straw poll of one community forum to feed into additional research I’ve undertaken. But interested in whether there would be sufficient interest to make such a venture viable.

I envisage a 100 bay secure indoor warehouse facility with individual bike and gear lockers and changing facilities, ride in ride out, both for workers riding into the city for work on a daily basis and for those of us Londoners who rarely have access to rented or attached garaging to our homes and flats. Security controlled access to site with guard/porter and 24 hour bike availability.

Is there a price point at which the obvious convenience and security benefits are outweighed by the expenditure?

All input appreciated

2

you left out the option of City of London carparks…these are free covered and secured.

So obviously would effect where you were located

3

i ride daily into London and although i like the concept the price is too high. If you think that carparks (that arent free) charge around £4 a day then paying 50% more is abit too much.

then again i would be looking long term but £1.000?

a more realistic option for commuters would be long term - but working hours for say £300?

4

It is too expensive as said above.

Have you thought about 1/2 day and evening sessions for people popping in for interviews, theatre etc?

5

At £7.50 pd thats £37.50 pw that is a lot to most people on a hourly rate.

to some its a days wage, insurance wont drop that much.

bike bays with ground anchors would be a cheaper option if there was some.

6

Honestly, if he’s aiming at the City or EC1 he ISN’T aiming at the market that earns £40.00 for a days work really. I’d say a Fiver for a day and you have it about right. Car Pars are free for bikers cos they can’t sort out the mobile phone payment systems, bike bays are free, you can fit 4 (ish) bikes into a car space, and a car would be between 20 and 30 for a day. £5.00

7

I haven’t voted as it’s difficult to say with the information given.

I am self employed, but I can park my bike in what must be the most secure place in London (brownie points to who can guess where).
However, if I was to work for a different client, I would definitly consider paying for secure parking, probably on a week or month basis. The cost, however, would depend on how far it’s from work and if it would come with insurance (e.g. what happens if the bike gets lifted anyway).
If there were a few facilities across London, that you can use with your “pass”, then I think £7/day or £30/week would be reasonable I think.

If you do this, it may also be worth considering getting a deal with a bike valetting company or even a bike shop/tyre place, so that you can leave the bike there in the morning and pick it up services/washed or with new rubber.

8

Throw in a weekly bike clean including chain clean and lube.

Opps, see Driesie has already suggested this… Nothing to add here, please look away.

9

Thanks for the input and ideas. To clarify a little more the USP’s of this versus costs as I see it.

  1. This would be aimed more at those with disposable income rather than the journeyman biker. We all see (and possibly are) people riding new sports bikes worth £5k plus around the city and super secure parking and storage would be viable for these pride and joys. Plus 2nd bikes/trackbikes and gear if you are an inner city inhabitant (zones 1 & 2). You have the ability to change in and out of work gear and store your bike kit with the bike instead of lugging it around.

  2. Bikes would be parked at own risk with owners coverage only. That said if you drive through a manned gate into a closed warehouse with CCTV and individual bike locker/garages and only you have access code or key to the locker, the risk of theft becomes minimal. Likewise damage etc from shared bays. Hell you don’t even need a chain.

  3. Value add services on site would be available (bike valeting, gear, cafe). Advertising opps for bike companies and sponsorship.

I realise that the outlay is steep and would preclude those with ‘beaters’ or workaday commuting bikes, couriers etc but the demographic it is aimed at is the city worker, central London inhabitant. Young professionals if you will. The space and facilities have to be paid for and a workable ROI acheived hence the cost hike over public parking facilities - what little there are!!!

Imagine if you will, riding into a facility in say Old Street/Shoreditch/Farringdon, signing in, putting your bike into a locker and changing in comfort, grabbing a coffee, maybe an MCN for the latest spurious reporting and rumours :wink: then strolling to your office.

Or it is a nice sunny sunday, you live in Angel, decide to go for a ride so hop on a bus or tube for a couple of stops, get your bike and gear on, maybe see some like minded people and head off N/S/E/W for a blast, then return home or go out on the town.

Sheffield and Leeds have collaborated with a company called Motosafe to provide bike lockers outside in public bays carparks on a trial basis http://www.motosafe.co.uk/ which is a step in the right direction (I have no involvement with them by the way, just came across it whilst conducting some feasibility research). I’m talking of a private venture with say 100 such units initially in a central London location then rolled out to other cities/regions.

According to gov figures in 2000, 36812 PTW’s where stolen 56% of these where scooters/mopeds which are more prone and the rest larger capacity. The facility I envisage would stop all thefts from users. See the following for more detail (albeit a little out of date) http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/r193.pdf

The idea came about as I live central, only have underground parking for my car, no place but the street or a carpark for my 2009 Superduke. No way jose as we know from all the posts on here alone about the toerag factor with visible bikes. So my bikes get stored 40 miles away in a family members garage. Hardly convenient for a spur of the moment blat!!! How many are in a similar position I wonder. Rented garages are not reallythe answer depending on area they are like hens teeth and hardly secure.

Anyway, as I said, input and discussion welcomed. It is one of a few ideas I’m working up at the moment to run alongside my other business so if it’s not a goer then nothing lost :smiley:

10

I think for me , access would be the main point and location.

Kind of pointless riding to work , then parking up and having to get a bus back to my office.

Its not going to easy for you fella , lots of things to iron out !!

Good luck anyways and I for one will keep an eye on this post.

11

I would have a big problem with that. A warehouse like that is an organised gang’s dream. Guaranteed many good quality, desirable bikes, and only 1 point to “manage”, i.e. the security guard.

I have seen “guarded” business parks where tons of metal disappeared and I’ve been in 2 office that had loads of expensive kit stolen while the security guard had “fallen asleep” and as it happened, the CCTV recording wasn’t working that night.
It’s very obvious what happened, but it was clearly a slick operation and nothing to proove.

If you’re sure it’s 100% secure you must be able to offer insurance to cover that, otherwise, I personally wouldn’t trust it.

12

I think a problem you need to consider is this. Those people that get paid enough to pay for the service you wish to provide, are as you say, the professionals who will work for large firms in the city earning big money.

The problem is, those large firms usually have some parking, and since bikes are so small, they tend to let bikes park, even when you not executive material.

Yeah we all see those superbikes riding around London, but I don’t see many parked on the street. The bays are full of bikes, but they are the workaday riders, commuters with GS500s, scooters and a plethora of 125s. You don’t see many L01 GSXRs or Ducati Multistrada’s parked up in random bays.

As some know I am studying Law and every single Chambers and Solicitors firm I have visited in London, Linklaters, Freshfields, Grays Inn, Inner Temple…etc…they all had parking for bikes.

Now I don’t know what it is like at other large buildings in the City, but from the law perspective there seems to be ample parking.

13

For some reason I read that as whorehouse at first! :w00t:
Good point about the insruance though, in a ‘money where your mouth is’ kind of way.

Simon (IIRC) was thinking of doing something similar to this - http://londonbikers.com/forums/Topic562509-58-1.aspx?Highlight=desmoman

14

Driesie - I think you misunderstand the concept. It would not be a warehouse with bike sitting around unlocked, it would be motosafe style metal lockers inside a warehouse and guarded entry to the whole site (sign in/sign out) with CCTV. Like the home storage places. If ‘a gang of thieves’ rocked up with enough vans to lift 100 or so bikes in one hit, overpower the security guard and alarms, then open the warehouse and spend the time breaking open 100 steel lockers individually to get at the bikes before any kind of response turned up in Central London, then good luck to them but I though they’d be better off trying a Securicor job with that kind of expertise and luck!!!

Kaos - The facility would not be aimed just at daily commuters, but at the long term garaging market for those with funky apartments not offering parking (Docklands seems to be the only area that the new builds can offer this, the rest of London it’s street or nothing.

That said I take on board your point about big firms, lawyers and many banks do seem to have it covered.

Seeing only about 17 votes on all the views of this with the majority not in favour, isn’t encouraging. Neither are the numbers I’ve been working up because you need an economy of scale with this type of enterprise and it seems I would be targeting a niche (bikers with disposable income) within a niche (motorcycling is a niche market albeit quite a large one). Even if you included say classic car storage alongside the bikes it is still limited.

I think this one may go back on the back burner for now as I don’t fancy the longer term and less lucrative public sector partnership approach of placing bike locker units in public parking areas across the City. Especially with the budget cutbacks on the way…

Cheers for all your inputs though.

15

I certainly understand where you’re coming from, but my point was more about trust. Why would somebody trust you (not you personally off course) not to be friendly with the thieving gang, make the security guard fall asleep and loose the keys to the lockers and inform which lockers have the 5 most desirable bikes in?
My point was more, if somebody sold me something as “top secure”, I would expect something against that, i.e. insurance. Similarly to Almax saying they will pay your insurance excess if your chain gets cropped, but on a different scale. Security is only as good as its weakest point, in this case, the humans (probably badly paid) guarding the premisses.

I’m just thinking out loudly, but I wonder if you would be better off looking a the really high end of things and offer some sort of valet service where rich guys can call you up to deliver their (or one of their) collectible bikes to their address, and pick it up again when they’re done, ready to be polished and stored away safely. In that scenario, you can probably charge a lot more and keep cheaper premisses (no fancy changing rooms etc) in relatively cheaper areas.

16

On the plus: you’re missing a trick. This should be aimed at the mobile contracting workforce. People who ride in from outside london, working a skilled contract for a few months here and there, and then change jobs - but all in the city and mainly without secure parking. Key point: they will expense their travel costs. I’d punt that you could get away with upto £20 a day for this reason. Ensure they can keep the suit all prof looking and you’ve got yourself a market.On the big low: capacity management. You’ll probably have to oversubscribe to afford anywhere near the City. I wouldn’t tolerate anything more than a 15 minute walk to the office & I don’t come in on public transport for a reason (inc tube/dlr). And i’d be pissed off to get there at 9am and find it all full.edit: fyi I pay £80 a month for my own secure space elsewhere in the city, which sounds a lot but I don’t need to pay £100+ a month on an oyster.

17

Have you considered opening the idea to the wider market of bikes in general and lowering the price and service offered.For instance, it now costs £1 a day to park in London, pretty much anywhere, and your bike is entirely unsecured and you have to lug about all your gear or risk leaving it in a topbox unsecured.

A carpark for bikes at a cost of say £3 a day that gives security and a locker space could be far more beneficial to a lot of bikers riding in every day. You would be talking £15 for a working week, which is a fraction of the cost of a daily commute.

You could even make the system fully automated so that you needn’t bother with staff or advance payment methods or any of that crap. Thus reducing your overheads.

Have a place where bikes roll up (I would suggest a circular system around a central pillar) have a place where people put in a Debit/Credit Card (like petrol Pumps) and are then able to access a chain which provides them with a key for the chain and a numbered locker just big enough for a crash helmet, boots and leathers. (I wouldn’t let people use Cash to pay, cash is just annoying and costs far too much to deal with)

You could triple the number of bikes you store, by not requiring so much space, so continue to make the £750 a day you were hoping to make in the first place with just 100 bikes, and yet your market would be far larger.

Just a thought.

For the record, I would pay £3 to park my bike somewhere with a locker as long as it was central to where I wanted to be and was relatively secure.