Switchback-Bicycle Rental

Ride a mountain bike without owning one. Switchback is a mountain bike hire club. Nine rigs live in the rack — trail hardtails, a fat bike, a folder — and every one of them is stripped, checked and rebuilt in the workshop between hires. SIZE YOURSELF FIRST Give the fit finder your height, inside leg and weight and it names the frame size, the saddle height in millimetres and the stem the bike wants. Save it once and the desk sets the rig up for you before you arrive. SEE EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE HIRING Every rig carries a hire code, a full specification and the workshop's own record: chain wear, brake pad life, last service, and the distance on the clock. No adjectives — measurements. HOW A HIRE RUNS Send your booking and the desk takes it from there. They check the dates against the rack, confirm the sizes and set the rigs aside. The workshop preps them and issues a job card: pressures set, chain measured, every bolt torqued and marked. You watch each step move. At the counter you run the seven-point pre-ride check with the mechanic, and then start the hire yourself. Anything that is not right goes on the defect log, and the desk swaps the rig or puts it right before you set off. THE RIDE BOARD While a rig is out, the ride board holds the time, the line you named from the Route Atlas, and the legs you mark as you go — junctions, water stops, summits, mechanicals — each one stamped with the time you marked it. THE ROUTE ATLAS Eight lines with the distance, the climb, the surface, the hazards, the water, and the rigs the mechanic would put on them. THE BENCH Tyre pressures worked out from your weight, the rig's weight, the tyre width and the ground you are on. A gearing chart that shows every combination on the bike in gear inches, and tells you what to be in for a climb, for rolling ground and for a descent.