Dangerous rental bikes. Rented two full suspension bikes expecting them to be modern and safe. Despite paying for one of the two bikes to be "premium," they were both old, out of date, poorly tuned and one of the two had a frame failure.
Firstly, the basic bike had a 3x10 drivetrain. I haven't seen a mountain triple in several years. The shifting was bad even for three chainrings. The brakes were decent. I was surprised at the time that the basic bike did not have a dropper post. After the frame failed during a ride where the seatpost goes into the frame, it became clear that there has likely been wear observed there and they sought to overtighten the seatpost collar to extend the life of the frame. A dropper post would not have allowed for them to try and have a collar so tight.
I hate to even talk about the so called premium bike after the frame failure on the basic one, but I paid top dollar and got a 2x10 drivetrain and low end brakes that needed a serious bleeding. The shifting was even worse and the chain skipped constantly. It had a dropper,but the seals were going out. The person who dropped the bikes off indicated that they knew both bikes needed servicing, but they were too busy to do so. I guess I should be glad the carbon frame that was the only thing approaching a premium description did not fail.
To summarize, we paid almost $500 for one day with two bikes that were terrible performers and unsafe. I actually am pretty sure that I could've just bought something comparable with the basic bike for not much more than what I spent on rent.
Multiple Mulberry Gap employees told us that they have seen a pattern of the issues we experienced with this shop. One even told us that they have told Blue Mountain not to keep sending at least one unsafe bike out for rent there in the past.
At no point has this shop ever reached out to ask about the circumstances behind the frame failure, which tells me they saw it coming, or if we were okay, which tells me they don't care.
Edit to add that their response confirms they knew at least one of the bikes was about to fail and they believe that I should've gone in to the shop and done the inspection myself. I don't know what we both know, but I know that you're lazy with maintenance and that neither my partner or I have ever broken a frame in over 10 years of riding. You know exactly what the problem was with your frame and I've already called you out on how you tried to hide it. Nice job trying to tap dance now. Not to mention that you said the store delivered, that wasn't our idea.
No apology months later and inaccurate excuses while hiding behind a keyboard. Just pick up a rental from where you are coming from. It will be safer and cheaper. A lot of spots will...
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