Oceanside E-bikes

"My wife and I had a blast on their bikes. We rented helmets, too. The owners were very friendly and provided hands-on training."

"Summary: Undertrained staff, no safe location for newbie riders, negligent operational information given, and unethical billing. Stay away from this business! My wife and I visited, and had never used ebikes before. (I have lots of experiences with old school road bikes.) My wife was not familiar with riding bikes in the US. When we rented, we were given an extremely brief introduction -- consisting solely of where the power switch for the battery was, and how to change the assist level. My wife asked about how to use the brakes, as she had no experience with hand brakes. At no time was any information about how to walk safely with the bike given, nor any other operational information beyond what I've given. I asked about safe places to ride -- I was looking for a bike trail, as I knew my wife would be uncomfortable with traffic in Oceanside. The attendant told us we could ride on sidewalks (illegal in Ca!), streets, wherever. He had no idea where good safe trails would be, and it turns that no bike trails are close to this location, even though advertisements suggest otherwise. You'll have to navigate through Oceanside traffic, which is not something to be done for a first experience. The attendant claimed to be unfamiliar with the area. Literally clueless. After 20 minutes of terror in Oceanside, we decided to return the bikes -- minimum 2 hour rental btw -- because my wife couldn't take the stress of trying to ride safely in this location. So walking the bike across a crosswalk, my wife bumped the pedal. Since she hadn't received instruction (and I didn't know either) she was holding the handlebars and *not* the brakes. So the bike decided to bolt off, throwing both my wife and the bike to the ground. An already bad experience went to terrible, with my wife in tears and vowing never to touch another e-bike again. This could have been avoided with an extra 30 seconds of instruction about how to walk safely with the bike. The attendant knew we had no ebike experience, but either lacked training himself, or just couldn't be bothered to care. My wife had bruises, scratches, and swollen wrist. She wasn't even riding the bike when it occurred. I had to ride both bikes back to the rental location. On top of it all, instead of apologizing, and probably offering a refund (which is what I would have done had I been the business owner), the owners instead decided to apply another bill for $125 of damages to the bike. When I called, they claimed that there were scratches to the paint (possible) and the derailer needed to be realigned (also possible). Realignment was supposedly going to cost them $50, but it takes their tech about 15 minutes. This was clearly done in anger, as a response to my request that they do a better job of training their staff. (I never asked for a refund or anything like that, simply that they train their employees better to prevent others from having the terrible experience that we had.) This location should be strongly avoided by anyone looking for a first bike rental experience, and given the experience I had with them unethtically trying to bill for additional damages, I would extend that to say that it should be avoided by *everyone*. I've since learned that there is a trail that follows the San Luis Rey river. Rent from a shop closer to that, or at least one that knows where it is, and I suspect you'll have a much better experience. What should have been a wonderful experience was turned into a nightmare, and it could have been trivially avoided if this business cared. Don't let the same thing happen to you."

"We would highly recommend renting from this company. Very helpful and friendly. Bikes were like new and worked great! Conveniently located to all the shops and restaurants."

"Great experience! We rented 3 electric bikes and rode all around Oceanside and up the river. One was a stretch bike with a seat on the back that was very comfortable for our 4 year old. We have rented e bikes before and this was by far the best experience. Really nice staff and very nice equipment. Would rent again in a heartbeat on our next trip to Oceanside!"

"My wife and I rented two bikes while staying at the Mission Pacific Hotel which is where these guys are located. They were great to work with and the bikes were so much fun! We had such a great time we came back and rented them a second day! Amazing bikes, great guys to work with and one of the absolute highlights of our week in Oceanside! Thanks guys!"