How Much Does It Cost to Start a Bike Rental Business?

01What actually makes up the cost

Eight cost groups make up almost every bike rental startup budget, plus a cash buffer. The bikes are the biggest line, but the cost that surprises people is the part that does not shrink when the fleet is small.

The prices in this guide are in UK pounds. Goods bought from shops include VAT, because a small new business below the VAT threshold cannot reclaim it; government fees carry none, and software and card prices are as the provider lists them. UK rules and prices are the easiest to check, so the guide starts there. Where a source is in dollars we say so and convert at $1 = £0.75. The cost groups are the same in the EU and the US, but the prices, insurance rules and permissions are not; this guide gives UK figures, with a few US figures noted where we found them.

The last column matters more than it looks. A 10-bike business pays almost the same for company set-up and a website as a 50-bike one, which weighs more on a small fleet. In our examples that is offset by the van and charging cabinets a bigger fleet needs, so the cost per bike ends up close to flat.

02The fleet: your biggest cost

The bikes are the largest line by far, more than half of the money you spend before the first customer. We found no trade or hire-fleet price list for any bike, so every price below is the printed retail price on a UK shop page, read on 21 October 2026, including VAT. A real fleet buyer may get a dealer discount, and a VAT-registered business can reclaim the 20%, so treat these as the upper end of a sensible budget.

Two notes on the table. The low prices for hybrids and hardtails are the cheapest hire-suitable new bikes we found, not the cheapest on the page; cheaper ones exist, but we found no evidence they last in hire. The e-bike prices and the kids bike prices come from retailer pages we did not link individually. For e-bikes, the £1,000 low is an entry-level model with no evidence it survives hire, and the £2,499 typical is a mid-range bike with a Bosch-class motor and a 600Wh battery, similar to the Bosch-powered bikes one established UK hire fleet runs. The high totals in this guide price every e-bike at the e-mountain bike high of £2,999. Cheaper imports sold through online marketplaces start at about £355, but we left them out because there is no evidence they last in hire.

**The three fleets.** To keep the maths honest, each worked example uses the same mix: mostly hybrids, then hardtail mountain bikes, then a minority of e-bikes. The 10-bike fleet is five adult hybrids, one kids bike, two hardtails and two e-bikes. The 25-bike fleet is 12 adult hybrids, 3 kids, 6 hardtails and 4 e-bikes. The 50-bike fleet is 25 adult hybrids, 5 kids, 12 hardtails and 8 e-bikes. Half the e-bikes are e-hybrids and half are e-mountain bikes.

E-bikes are only 20% of a 10-bike fleet but more than half the bike spend, which is why the number of e-bikes moves your budget more than the total number of bikes does.

Buy used, lease or buy new? Used ex-hire bikes are the obvious saving, though the published evidence is thin and old. One national park’s bike sales page offers ex-hire bikes at up to 54% off the new price, and older retailer and forum listings from 2011 to 2018 show discounts of 25% to 42%. Leasing is a thin market. One non-electric adult bike scheme was advertised from £24 a month ex VAT in 2023, aimed at hospitality businesses that hire bikes to guests, and we found no UK lender with a product built for a rental start-up. What you can count on is the other direction: after a season, a typical hire bike is worth roughly 46% to 75% of its new price, going by those discounts. We use 60% as our estimate, not a current price.

03Kit and safety gear per bike

A bike you can hire out is more than a frame and two wheels. Each one needs a helmet, a lock, lights, a pump and a bell, plus a way to carry a phone or a bag. These are cheap one by one and add up across a fleet. Prices are retail, including VAT, from Decathlon and other UK pages, as of October 2026. We found no trade prices for kit.

The three totals are the sum of each column, rounded. Two points on the table. A child’s helmet costs about the same as an adult one at the low end (£7.99) and less at the typical (£12.99), so the adult figures are a fair guide. And the high column is a premium choice for every item at once, which few operators would make.

Extras for families. Child seats are £38 for a simple front seat, about £85 for a good rear seat and up to £197 for a premium one. A two-seat child trailer is about £500, and the better ones are £949 to £1,149. These are optional, but families will look for them, and you should check each seat’s age and weight limits and fitting instructions before you hire one out. Our totals assume one seat at 10 bikes, two seats and a trailer at 25, and four seats and two trailers at 50. The low column has seats only, with no trailer.

Smaller extras. Phone mounts are about £19, baskets about £61 (plus a rack at £54 to £65 if the bike does not have one), and a paper map about £13. We left these out of the totals; add them if you plan to include them in the price.

04Workshop, tools and maintenance

Hire bikes get ridden by people who do not know your gears, so they need checking after every hire and a proper service on a schedule. You can do this yourself with a basic workshop or pay a shop to service the fleet. Most operators who already work on bikes do it in-house, and the figures below assume that.

The low tool kit and the typical one are our judgement: we found no cheaper published UK price than a full 90-tool set at £790. A portable stand will do for ten bikes. For 25 and 50, buy a sturdier stand; a lift stand made for heavy e-bikes costs more (the £1,180 in the table). Our 50-bike total uses the full 90-tool set at £790 instead of the £400 typical, plus the £360 stand and two floor pumps.

Spares. Plan on replacing tubes, brake pads, tyres and chains through the season. Published unit prices are £2 to £6 for a tube, £10 to £25 for a tyre, £5 to £10 for a pair of disc pads and £7.50 to £17 for a chain. How many you use is our assumption: about £20 a bike in a gentle first season, £60 typical and £130 in a hard one.

Paying someone else to service. If you outsource, retail prices run from about £35 for a basic service to £70 to £80 for a regular one and up to £110 for a full e-bike service. Those are 2022 to 2024 consumer prices, not fleet rates, so a volume deal should beat them. Once a year per bike at £70 would be £700, £1,750 and £3,500 for 10, 25 and 50 bikes.

05Premises, storage, charging and transport

You need somewhere to keep the bikes safe overnight, somewhere to hand them over and somewhere to charge batteries. For 10 bikes that can be a garage, a farm building or a corner of an existing shop. At 50 it becomes a proper unit or a dedicated yard.

Rent. We found one UK figure: a long-established 186-bike hire business on a trail was listed for sale with rent of £6,400 a year and full business rates relief. That is a cheap site with a long history, so it is a floor, not a typical. Our season estimates are £1,500 for 10 bikes, £3,000 for 25 and £4,500 for 50, all guesses; if you already own or borrow space, the cost is zero.

Racks. A 10-bike floor rack is about £360, or £342 each if you buy two or more. We budget one at 10 bikes, three at 25 and five at 50. We could not confirm whether those prices include VAT.

Charging e-bikes safely. This is where cost and rules meet. Battery fires are a concern insurers raise with e-bike hire. One large insurer’s workplace standard recommends charging about 10 metres from buildings or behind a 60-minute fire barrier, and says internal charging is not recommended. A fire-rated charging cabinet is the practical answer: about £1,560 for a small one, which by our reading holds about two batteries, and about £3,100 for a medium one rated for 60 minutes (comparable models we saw were £3,150 to £3,260, with only the maker’s own rating). No source we found says a cabinet is legally required, but your insurer may want something equivalent. For a very small number of bikes some operators charge in a separate, ventilated place instead, which you should agree with your insurer first. The government’s electric bike rules cover the bikes themselves: motor up to 250 W, assistance cutting out at 15.5 mph, and riders at least 14.

Getting bikes to where people ride. If you run a shop, you may need none of this. If you deliver, collect or run tours, you need a carrier: a three-bike tow-bar carrier is about £339 to £1,049 for the models we looked at (VAT status not stated; the page lists some up to £1,177, and the cheapest was out of stock). For more bikes, a used bike trailer carrying three was advertised at about £1,185 plus VAT (about £1,420 with VAT), and one UK listing for a used 2019 crew van was £12,495.

06Insurance in the UK

Insurance is the one line in this guide where no one publishes a reliable price for a hire fleet. Insurers quote each business individually, based on the number of bikes, where you trade and your turnover. Anything printed for hire insurance is therefore an estimate, including the ranges below.

Public liability covers injury to a customer or damage to their property that you are legally responsible for. Insurers offer £1m, £2m and £5m limits. One large broker says 85% of its customers choose £1m and 15% choose £2m; some public-sector contracts ask for £5m or more. The nearest published prices are for bike shops, not hire: example quotes of £124 to £278 a year for £2m cover, bundled with employers’ liability and legal expenses cover for sole traders with no employees, and one specialist cycle hire policy from £20.99 a month (about £252 a year). The one published hire price (about £252 a year) is what we used for 10 bikes; larger fleets will cost more, and you need quotes.

Employers’ liability is a legal requirement the moment you employ anyone, even part-time or seasonal. The minimum cover is £5m, and the fine for having none is £2,500 for every day you are uninsured. If you work alone, you do not need it. The exemption for close family does not apply if the business is a limited company, so check the HSE guidance before you rely on it.

Theft and damage to the fleet is a separate cover, and the one that grows with the number of bikes. Specialist fleet policies exist, and some let the cover start and stop with the season, but none publish a price per bike. Expect to be asked for make, model, frame number and value for each bike, and how you lock and store them.

E-bike batteries deserve their own conversation with the insurer. One large insurer’s loss-prevention standard, updated in July 2026, recommends storing and charging batteries about 10 metres from buildings or behind a 60-minute fire barrier, and says internal charging is not recommended. It is a general workplace standard, not a hire-business one and not the law, but it shows what insurers worry about, so ask yours what it will want.

07Legal and admin costs in the UK

The paperwork is cheap compared with the bikes, and it barely changes between 10 bikes and 50. Most of it is a one-off set-up, plus a few small yearly fees.

Sole trader or limited company? A sole trader is the cheaper start, but has unlimited personal liability for anything that goes wrong. A company limits that, at the price of the fees above and yearly accounts. For a business that lends bikes to the public, many owners take the company route, but this is a question for an accountant, not a blog.

VAT. You must register once your taxable turnover passes £90,000 in 12 months. Most 10-bike businesses will be under that in the first year. A 50-bike business in a good location could pass it, so plan for the day it happens: your prices either absorb the 20% or rise.

Staff. From April 2026 the National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour for ages 21 and over, £10.85 for 18 to 20, and £8.00 for under 18s and for apprentices. Employers pay National Insurance of 15% above £5,000 a year per employee, though the £10,500 Employment Allowance usually wipes that out for a small business.

Permissions are local. We found no national licence for hiring out bikes. What you can do is set by the place: a council for street or pavement trading, a landowner for a trail or park, and the planning authority for your premises. Fees vary widely. As one example, one council’s fixed-location street trading consent costs £1,189 a year. Forestry England charges a £84 application fee and a share of income for commercial use on its land. Ask each landowner before you sign a lease for a site.

Waivers and terms. Under the Consumer Rights Act, you cannot use a contract term or notice to exclude liability for death or injury caused by your negligence. A waiver is still useful for confirming that the rider has been told about the risks, but it will not protect you from your own mistakes. Have a solicitor read your hire terms once.

Business rates (England). If your premises are the only property your business uses and have a rateable value of £12,000 or less, small business rate relief can cut the bill to nothing. It tapers to zero relief at £15,000.

The rules for the EU and US are different. In the EU, check the local rules in each country; in the US, a state and city business licence and sales tax registration are the usual starting points, and general liability cover for a rental shop is quoted at roughly $400 to $1,100 a year for $1m.

08Booking software, website and card payments

This is the line that surprises people in a good way: the tools you need are cheap to start, but they are priced in more than one way, so the cheapest sticker price is not always the cheapest bill.

Compare booking tools on what you would pay in a year at your own expected bookings, not on the headline price. Published flat monthly plans for bike rental software in October 2026 run from about $30 to $150 (roughly £22 to £110), and some tools charge a share of each online booking instead of, or as well as, a monthly fee. Check what is and is not included: online payments, waivers, text reminders, a website widget and extra staff logins are where the prices tend to differ.

A website can be a builder for $19 to $99 a month (roughly £14 to £74), or just the booking page from your software. A .co.uk domain can start under £1 for the first year, then renew at a normal price, which we estimate at £10 to £15 a year ex VAT.

Card payments are charged as a percentage of each sale, so they scale with how busy you are, not how big your fleet is. In person, expect around 1.7% a transaction and about £25 to £135 for a reader. Online, UK cards cost 1.5% plus 20p. At typical takings, that is roughly £205 a year for a 10-bike fleet and £970 for a 50-bike one.

If you are comparing bike rental software for rentals, tours and holidays, RideLoop is one you can look at, in the UK, EU and America. Whichever you choose, run the numbers on your own bookings first.

09Marketing and launch

Marketing is the line you control most, and the one you can start small on. A rental business is found by people who are already nearby or already planning a trip, so the best early spend is on being easy to find, not on advertising to everyone.

The free basics come first. A Google Business Profile with photos, opening hours and a booking link costs nothing and is how most walk-up and same-week customers will find you. After that, spend where a customer is deciding: signage at the pick-up point, photographs of real bikes on a real route, and a clear price and booking page. Paid search is an option once the basics are in place. UK advertisers in the travel and hospitality category pay an average of about £1.60 a click, with a range of £0.80 to £3.50. At that rate, £1,000 buys roughly 625 clicks. Leaflets still matter on trails and in campsites.

Partnerships can cut your advertising spend. Hotels, campsites and hostels often take a share when they send you guests. We found no published figure for bike hire, so agree the terms yourself and cost them into your day rate.

10Staff and your cash buffer

Many owners start by doing everything themselves, and that is a legitimate way to keep the first season cheap. The trouble is that the hours add up quickly once the bikes are out. Somebody has to open, hand over, check bikes in, clean them, and answer the phone, on the days when everyone else is on holiday.

Pay is set by law. From April 2026 the National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour for ages 21 and over. Seasonal hire roles we found advertised in 2026 paid around £12.25 to £13.69 an hour, usually for weekends, bank holidays and school holidays. The lowest is below the adult minimum, so check the rate for the age of the person you hire (£10.85 an hour for 18 to 20). Holiday pay is on top (about 12% more), and the table below leaves it out.

The 10-bike case assumes the owner covers most days and pays for weekend help only. The 25-bike case is about one part-time seasonal employee, and the 50-bike case is two. Employer National Insurance is 15% above £5,000 per employee, but most small employers can claim the £10,500 Employment Allowance against it.

The cash buffer. Hire is seasonal, so you spend first and earn later. A buffer pays for the quiet weeks, a repair that cannot wait and the day a supplier wants paying before the sun comes out. As a rule of thumb, set aside enough to cover about sixteen weeks of your fixed costs (insurance, software, premises and wages) before the first booking. On our worked examples we set aside £1,500 for 10 bikes, £4,000 for 25 and £8,000 for 50, which is somewhat under sixteen weeks of those costs, so round up if you can.

11Worked example: a 10-bike business

This is the smallest sensible start: five adult hybrids, one kids bike, two hardtail mountain bikes and two e-bikes (one e-hybrid, one e-mountain bike). The owner covers most days, with about 200 paid hours of weekend help. The two e-bikes are assumed to charge one at a time in a separate, ventilated place, so no cabinet is budgeted; your insurer may ask for one (a small one is about £1,560). Each line is explained in the sections above. The “low” and “high” columns vary some lines, including several that are our own estimates, and hold insurance, staff and the other fixed lines at typical.

What it takes in. At typical day rates (£25 for a hybrid or hardtail, £15 for a kids bike, £45 for an e-hybrid and £85 for an e-mountain bike, the top of the £70 to £85 we found in three shops), the whole fleet earns about £320 on a day when every bike is out. At 40 hire days per bike over the season, which is our estimate and sits above the one UK data point we found, that is about £12,800. At a poor 20 days it is £6,400, and at an excellent 70 days it is £22,400.

What is left. Typical takings of £12,800 less typical running costs of £6,407 leaves about £6,390 before the owner is paid and before tax. Spread against the £14,273 spent before opening, that pays the start-up back in a little over two years. Two things soften it: the bikes are still worth about 60% of their price after a season (roughly £5,400 on this fleet), and the £1,500 of premises rent drops to zero if you use your own space. Two things sharpen it: later seasons need more spares as the bikes age, and a bad summer is a bad summer.

12Worked example: a 25-bike business

This is the size of a bike shop adding a serious hire side, or a new seasonal operator with one site: 12 adult hybrids, 3 kids bikes, 6 hardtail mountain bikes and 4 e-bikes (two e-hybrids, two e-mountain bikes). It assumes about 600 paid hours of staff, which is roughly one part-time seasonal employee. The same rules as before apply: goods include VAT, and low and high vary some lines, including several that are our own estimates.

What it takes in. With the same day rates as the 10-bike example, a full fleet earns about £755 on a day when every bike is out. At 40 hire days per bike that is about £30,200. At 20 days it is £15,100 and at 70 days £52,850.

What is left. Typical takings of £30,200 less typical running costs of £14,267 leaves about £15,900 before the owner is paid and before tax. Against £35,225 spent before opening, the start-up pays back in a little over two years. After a season the bikes are worth about 60% of their price, roughly £12,300 on this fleet.

What changes at 25. Three things step up here: the e-bike charging cabinet (£3,100), a trailer and carrier for moving bikes, and staff hours (about 600, against 200 at 10 bikes). Insurance also rises with the fleet, mostly the theft and damage cover.

13Worked example: a 50-bike business

At 50 bikes you are running a proper operation: 25 adult hybrids, 5 kids bikes, 12 hardtail mountain bikes and 8 e-bikes (four e-hybrids, four e-mountain bikes). It assumes about 1,400 paid hours, roughly two seasonal staff, and a support van. It is also close enough to the £90,000 VAT threshold that you should plan for it: at typical takings of about £60,800 you are under, but a strong summer with high day rates could take you over. The same rules as before apply.

What it takes in. The same day rates give about £1,520 on a day when every bike is out. At 40 hire days per bike that is about £60,800; at 20 days £30,400; at 70 days £106,400. The 70-day case would pass the VAT threshold.

What is left. Typical takings of £60,800 less typical running costs of £28,528 leaves about £32,300 before the owner is paid and before tax. Against £76,901 spent before opening, the start-up pays back in about two and a half years. The bikes keep about 60% of their price after a season, roughly £24,700 on this fleet.

Why the van changes the total. The low column swaps the van for a carrier and a used trailer, which is why the low transport figure is so much smaller. At 50 bikes you can also reduce premises rent to zero by using an existing yard, so the “low” column is possible, but not for everyone.

14Starting an e-bike rental business

An e-bike fleet changes the maths more than anything else in this guide. The bikes cost four to five times as much as a hybrid, the day rate is about two and a half times as much, and you take on battery safety, which affects where you can trade and what your insurer asks. The reason many operators choose it anyway is that e-bikes widen your market: riders who would not attempt a hilly route on a hybrid will pay for one with a motor.

The rules for the bike. In the UK, an electrically assisted pedal cycle is treated as an ordinary bicycle if the motor is rated at no more than 250 W, the assistance cuts out at 15.5 mph, and the rider has to pedal. Riders must be at least 14, and there is no licence, registration, tax or insurance requirement for the rider. A bike that goes faster than that on motor alone is classed as a moped or motorcycle. Check the government’s electric bike rules before you buy any e-bike, and check the specification with the seller whatever the brand.

The cost. A typical hire-grade e-bike with a Bosch-class motor and a 600Wh battery was about £2,499 in October 2026, with entry-level models at about £1,000 and premium ones at £2,799 to £2,999. For a fleet made entirely of e-bikes, half e-hybrids and half e-mountain bikes, the bike line alone looks like this:

The cabinet row is the line that needs care. We found no source that says a cabinet is legally required, and one small model holds only about two 500Wh batteries, so one cabinet for every four bikes, rounded up (the same rule as the worked examples), is our assumption to be tested with your insurer. A very small fleet might charge in a separate, ventilated place away from buildings instead, which is cheaper but is exactly what your insurer will want to discuss.

What it earns. At typical e-bike day rates (£45 for an e-hybrid, £85 for an e-mountain bike, an average of £65) and 40 hire days per bike, takings would be about £26,000, £65,000 and £130,000 for 10, 25 and 50 bikes. That is about £1.04 of takings for every £1 spent on the bikes, against £1.41 to £1.47 for the mixed fleets in the worked examples. In other words, a fleet of only e-bikes earns more in total but, on these assumptions, takes longer to pay back its purchase price, unless you can fill the bikes for more days than a mixed fleet would.

Insurance and storage. Ask your insurer about batteries before you buy anything. One large insurer’s loss prevention standard, updated in July 2026, says internal charging is not recommended. Fire service advice, as quoted by a trade body, is not to charge in bedrooms or escape routes, not to charge while you are asleep or unattended, and not to cover chargers.

15Starting a cycling tour business

A tour business starts like a hire business and adds three things: a guide, a route you know well, and a set of rules about selling trips. If you already have a fleet, the extra cost is smaller than people expect — for a full walkthrough of the hiring, routes and rules side, see our guide to starting a cycling tour business in the UK. The hard parts are the rules and the people, not the bikes.

What guests pay. Published day tours in the UK range from about £43 a person with your own bike, up to £68 on a hired e-bike, for a 2.5 to 3 hour city ride to £110 a person for a six-hour electric bike tour in the Cotswolds, with private tours from £500 for up to four. Multi-day trips sit much higher: a self-guided 4 to 5 night trip is £770 to £835 a person sharing, with bike hire an extra £160, and fully guided holidays run from £1,655 for seven days or more.

The guide. Training is the first cost. A British Cycling ride leadership course is £310 per person over two days, and a 16-hour outdoor first aid course is about £194. Group size matters too: volunteer club leaders work to a ratio of one leader to six beginners or eight advanced riders, a reasonable reference point for paid groups; check what your insurer requires. We found no published figure for guide day rates, so we have not guessed one.

Insurance. Two generic tour operator example quotes: £96 a year with no staff and £737 a year with two employees (including employers’ liability). These are not for cycling specifically, so expect a higher figure once the insurer hears you are leading groups on bikes.

Selling trips the legal way. This is the part that catches new operators out. Under the Package Travel Regulations 2018, a trip that combines two or more travel services, such as accommodation and a guided ride sold at one price, is likely to count as a package. A package brings duties, including protection for customers’ money if you fail. For trips without flights that can be a bond, an insurance policy or a trust account, and the minimum bond is set by a formula (regulation 20). A single day ride with no overnight stay is normally outside the rules. We found no published cost for the protection itself, so ask a specialist and a solicitor before you sell a multi-day trip. These rules are also being amended, with some changes from April 2027, so check the current position.

A support van. Long routes need luggage and rescue. One UK business-for-sale listing includes a sign-written used van valued at about £15,000 in its stock, and we found no figure for van hire.

16How much do bike rental businesses make?

The honest answer is that it depends on one number, the days each bike is hired in a year, and there is almost no published UK data on it. Here is the evidence we found and what our own model says.

One real UK case. A hire business on the Tarka Trail in Devon was advertised for sale in 2026 (the page now reads “Sale Agreed STC”) with 186 bikes (10 of them electric), 35 trailers and seven-day opening from March to October. The seller’s agent reported 2025 turnover of £115,000, net profit of about £58,000 and rent of £6,400. These are the agent’s figures, not checked accounts, and the business has traded since the early 1990s, so it is not a typical new start. They imply about £618 of takings per bike and a 50% margin. At £20 to £25 a hire, that works out at roughly 25 to 31 hire days per bike, which is our arithmetic, not the seller’s. The asking price was £84,950 plus stock of about £51,000 (which includes an optional £15,000 van); on those figures the purchase pays back in about 2.3 years.

What US vendors say. Software and fleet vendors publish more optimistic figures, with fleets earning far more hire days a bike than the UK listing implies and break-even in 8 to 14 months. They are marketing material, mostly in dollars and without a source, so we have not used them.

Our model. The table below takes the three worked examples, holds costs at typical, and varies only the hire days. “Left over” is takings less first-year running costs, before the owner is paid and before tax.

Read the table this way. At 40 days the business pays back what it cost to open in about two to two and a half years. At the 25 days the Tarka figures suggest, it pays back in roughly eight years (about four years at 31 days, the other end of that range), and at 20 days it barely covers its running costs. The Tarka business itself reports a 50% margin and a payback of about 2.3 years at similar hire days, far better than our model. We cannot fully explain the gap from the listing, which gives no cost breakdown — our 25-day row uses about £30 to £32 a bike-day across the fleet (including e-bikes), against the £20 to £25 a hire in the advert, and our first-year costs include set-up, marketing and wages that an established business with a low rent may not carry in the same way.

Two more caveats. A rainy summer cuts the days sharply, and the only weather evidence we found is a Glasgow bike-share study showing more hires with warmth and fewer in rain. The table also ignores your own pay, income tax and Corporation Tax, holiday pay, the cost of replacing bikes after a few seasons, and the parts bill rising as bikes age. At 70 days the 50-bike figure is before the VAT you would owe once takings pass £90,000, and before higher card fees.

17Ten ways to start for less

Most of the savings below come from three decisions: how many e-bikes, how much space you pay for, and how you move bikes about. The figures are from the worked examples in this guide.

1. 1Start with fewer bikes and grow. The low column of the 10-bike example needs about £8,900 on day one. Add bikes once the first season has told you how many days they are hired.
2. 2Hold back on e-bikes. Two e-bikes are 20% of a 10-bike fleet but more than half its bike spend. Swapping them for a hybrid and a hardtail saves about £3,900. Add e-bikes in year two when the money is coming in.
3. 3Use space you already have. A garage, a farm building or a corner of a shop takes the premises line to zero. In our estimates that is £1,500, £3,000 and £4,500 a season for 10, 25 and 50 bikes.
4. 4Buy ex-hire bikes. Published ex-hire discounts ran from 25% to 54% off the new price, though most of the data is old. As an illustration only, 30% off the £20,490 typical 25-bike fleet would save about £6,100.
5. 5Skip the van. A carrier and a used trailer cost about £2,100, against about £12,500 for a used van. That is a saving of roughly £10,400 at 50 bikes, if your routes do not need a van.
6. 6Do the servicing yourself. If you can service bikes, your cost is parts and time. Outsourcing at retail prices would add £700, £1,750 and £3,500 a year.
7. 7Compare software on the yearly total. Add the monthly fee, any per-booking charge and the add-ons you would actually use, at your own expected bookings.
8. 8Use free marketing first. A Google Business Profile costs nothing. Spend on signage and photographs before you spend on ads.
9. 9Borrow from partners. Hotels, campsites and hostels can send you guests, usually in return for a share of the booking. That can reduce the launch marketing budget.
10. 10Do not skimp on insurance or the cash buffer. These two lines look like savings and are not. Cutting them gets cheaper starts and expensive first summers.

18Frequently asked questions