Dylan B.
Google
I rented 4 e-bikes: 3 Transition Relays and 1 Repeater. I honestly wish I could’ve gotten all four Repeaters. It had a little more power, the screen was nice, and the extra travel was exactly what I was looking for. Don’t get me wrong, both bikes are great.
One thing to know: I wasn’t staying in the gated community where the shop is. I was staying in Tamarindo, so I had to pick the bikes up at 8am and return them by 5pm each day. Not unusual compared to bike park rentals anywhere else, but it’s definitely something to consider if you’re not staying on site.
The first day, I showed up 3 hours late. Not a big deal logistically, but when I got to the shop I genuinely didn’t feel welcomed. There were two guys working on bikes and no one greeted me or my group. I honestly thought I had walked into a service area and not the main rental counter. I had to walk up to the guy behind the counter and say something like, “Hey, I’m the dude who’s super late. Do you have the bikes I reserved?” If you’ve never been to a bike park or rental shop before, I can see how this whole experience could feel intimidating.
Then the employee asked what bikes I reserved (I had no clue, I booked it a month earlier). Anyways, we got everything sorted and started riding.
Trail-wise: it’s very cross-country oriented. If you’re used to steep skidders or jump lines, it’s not that. But the e-bikes made it super easy to access most of the trails in two days. Some of the Bike Project trail maps were out of date and led to dead ends or trails that just didn’t exist, which was annoying. The trails were rooty dry dirt with leaves (dry season). Super fun for me, but I can see how that would feel sketchy for newer riders. That said, the views, sounds, and wildlife are unmatched and unforgettable.
I cannot stress this enough: BRING WATER.
Day one was fine. Day two was not.
We got there right at 8am and the Repeater I had been riding the day before wouldn’t turn on, so I had to ride a Relay (good thing one person in our group opted out on day two since they didn’t have another Transition in my size). We headed toward the radio tower hill and about 3 miles in I noticed the rider behind me wasn’t there. I turned around and found him stopped looking at his wheel.
The rear axle had not been tightened correctly prior to the rental. It fell out, pinning the tire against the frame and marring the rear triangle with the axle. Thankfully it happened on a flat section. The bike was completely seized. I’ve seen this exact thing happen before on a normal non-e-bike frame and you can flex the frame a bit and reset the axle, even with a bent rotor, and limp it out. But this was a thick carbon e-bike frame and a rental, and I couldn’t make it move and didn’t want to cause damage myself.
So the other rider walked the bike out while I ripped back to the shop to tell them what happened. I don’t think the employee understood what I was explaining until the bike was actually back at the shop. I asked if they had an ATV or a bike rack to retrieve a 50 lb bike with a locked-up wheel and he basically said no. Thankfully I had my sister’s car, so we loaded it in and drove it back.
When we got to the shop the guy immediately hits me with “WhAt DiD yOU dO?” and I’m like dude, he was literally riding it on flat terrain. He spent about 30 minutes backing the axle out (eating up the coolest part of the day), then noticed the brake rotor was bent and said I was going to have to pay for it. I immediately got defensive because this was 100% preventable with proper maintenance checks before renting bikes out.
He had to call the owner and explain what happened (I'm thankful I took pictures). In the end they gave us a different bike (a Specialized), which could’ve been done before we watched him wrench on it for a hot minute, but the whole ordeal ate up nearly 2 hours, which was super annoying.
If I hadn’t seen this exact failure before and advocated for us, I would’ve gotten stuck paying for a rotor for something that was entirely their fault.
