During a ride yesterday the subject of high end race wheels came up, like most equipment in cycling I’m already dreaming of getting a "race" PowerTap wheel but until then I’ll just have to dream…OR I could rent! Take this example, a PowerTap disc which would set you back about $3500 to buy or $200+ to rent. I stumbled upon two companies that do just that, rent high quality wheels.
I haven’t tried them yet but will be soon and would be interested to hear if anyone else has?
I agree especially with the disc wheels, of course I’m one of the few running Campy but most wheels allow for the freehub to be swapped out.
I considered buying and renting out wheels like this, but I thought that if I was successful, there would be peak demand on TT days on race days only. Also it would be difficult to maintain a constant income stream as this is a very small market. It would be better for shop to do this since they would get the wheels at cost, guaranteed professional maintenance, and could keep up with changes faster. I was having trouble determining how you could really make money at this.
On the other hand, having the club own a couple of disk wheels that are rented out to just cover costs makes a lot of sense.