The o2o service budget: bicycle maintenance for your leased bike!
Who thinks bicycle leasing, immediately thinks about his or her dream bike. And rightfully so, because without bicycle no bicycle leasing of course. But a leased bike is much more that that: think of insurance, breakdown assistance and the service budget needed for maintaining the bike; each of them very important things worth thinking about. When drawing up a lease contract, o2o offers the possibility to each user to choose for an annual service budget. This budget can vary between 50 and 400 euro per year. The amount you finally decide upon is taken into account for calculating the total lease price.
And that is good news, because this means that the fiscal advantage of a bicycle leasing is also valid for the o2o service budget.
The o2o service budget can be called upon for three important things:
- the obligatory annual maintenance intervention;
- all other maintenance and repair interventions for your leased bike;
- the cost of spare parts, when necessary.
The o2o’s service budget allows you to anticipate all possible costs related to riding a bike during the lease period. Via the o2o app you can consult your budget situation at all times, which is always handy, e.g. for informing your bicycle dealer previous to a service or repair intervention. In this way, unpleasant surprises can be avoided should unforeseeable costs exceed your service budget available. The myo2o app also gives you an overview of all past interventions. So you are kept up-to-date at all times.
What should my servicebudget be like?
When drawing up your lease contract you can choose a service budget between 50 and 400 euro per year. How much you really need is hard to say. Someone who rides his bike to go to work and rides tens of kilometres every day, no matter what weather circumstances, will need a larger budget than the occasional commuter. Moreover, someone who is a handyman and able to do some basic maintenance himself, will need a smaller budget than someone who is afraid of making his hands dirty by putting his chain back on himself. Taking all these different situations into account, o2o recommends the following when making your decision:
- service budget for a bike without electric support: 50 to 100 euro per year;
- service budget for a classis electric bike: 150 euro per year;
- service budget for a speed pedelec: 200 euro per year.
Tip: Get the best out of your bicycle leasing and avoid too low a budget. It is always better to overestimate a little than having to add money afterwards from your net salary.
The annual bicycle overhaul: when do you take in your leased bike at your bike dealer?
Everyone leasing a bicycle via o2o takes his bike to his dealer for the obligatory annual maintenance at least once a year. Maintenance costs largely depend on the type of bicycle and the state it is in. Concrete or exact figures are difficult to give, but the average cost of a basic maintenance intervention is somewhere between 50 and 100 euro. If you feel uncertain, simply ask your bicycle dealer for advice when choosing your service budget.
There are many more reasons to call upon your bicycle dealer than only the annual overhaul. When you cycle a lot, there is a good chance that your bike will suffer from wear and tear: used tires, brake pads that no longer do what the are expected to be doing, or a wheel that does no longer turn as it should be turning. No matter what the problem is, your dealer always knows how to solve it. He is your most reliable source of information too when it comes to estimating what repairs are to be expected in the future.
You don’t find the time to take your bike in? The call upon o2o’s mobile repair service. You can make an announcement here or turn to the FAQ-page in the myo2o app. The mobile repair service will then contact you directly for planning an appointment. It’s easy, practical and effective.
For every new bicycle: your first maintenance intervention
When you go and pick-up your new bicycle, you can be sure that your bicycle dealer has done the utmost to deliver a technically safe bike. Still, it is not unwise to go and see him again within the first 3 to 5 months. During this first maintenance session for your leased bike, your dealer will be given the possibility to track possible irregularities and to assess how your bike is doing after its first kilometres on the road. Most of the time certain parts need fastening or re-adjusting or a swift controll for safety purposes. So it is not such a bad idea at all to take your new bike to your dealer that soon.
Bike maintenance: what can I do myself?
You are a bike mechanic yourself, or you like doing some small interventions yourself, then there are a lot of things you can do. Here are some tips to increase the quality of your bicycle’s life cycle:
- Check your brakes regularly. What is the cables’ tension like? Are the pads still thick enough? Such are small repairs you can easily take care of yourself.
- Is your tire pressure all right? Tires having the right pressure not only increase riding comfort, they will also last longer. A clear win win.
- Protect your bike against harsh weather conditions. Put your bike in a shed or a dry area. Bad weather conditions will shorten your bike’s and all its parts’ lifecycle.
- Mud and bicycles, for some this combination means “Fun”, but for the bike itself this is not ideal at all. So give your bike a good wash on a regular basis. You needn’t buy expensive stuff for that. A simple bucket and a soapy sponge will do the job without any doubt.
- Take good care of your chain. A well-oiled chain makes a ride all the more pleasant. But mud and dust will stick to the chain and the protection cover. So regularly check your chain’s condition, remove all the dirt and the used oil. Put some new, and off you go again.
You want to read more about bicycle leasing? Then turn to the o2o newspage.
