On-playa bike rental coming to an end?

[spolsky]

I used to recommend to people in my camp (who mostly come by plane from far away) to rent from PBR; it seemed simple and not too wasteful. This year I heard that the org wasn't allowing on-playa bike repair services starting in 2020. (Also everyone was exhausted from walking from 4:15 and E to 9:30 and Z and then waiting in a long line just to pick up and return bikes).

As our camp gets more established, we have a trailer for year-round storage in Empire. So what I'm thinking is getting a "recommended" model of bike that people could buy once in Reno and store in our trailer in Empire. We could then keep a stock of spare parts for that particular model on hand and do our own bike repair as needed.

What do you think? Are you changing your plans in light of the cultural shift?

[motskyroonmatick]

There still will be numerous camps that provide access to tools to do your own repairs if you don't have the right tools and assistance in doing so. It may be that many of the camps known for renting bikes will still continue to operate under the same name but not offer bike rentals.... Only help with repairs and the other offerings they have. They may also call it quits on bikes and offer a different interactivity.

It's great for camps to develop a self sufficiency plan.

As the mayor of a repair camp my only change would be to bulk up on common supplies if I heard some of the higher volume repair camps were not returning.