That's the question asked over on CommuterPage blog.

So I'm looking at the Bike Oasis web site and I noticed their pricing: $7/hr & $35/day for a comfort bike; $10/hr & $50/day for other bikes. Something seems wrong to me here. About 6-8 times a year I go to Enterprise and rent a car for $17/day over the weekend.

One of the 13 blogs I regularly read is Marginal Revolution (written by two George Mason economists) and this is the kind of question they would answer with a bunch of economics mumbo jumbo. Here's how I see it. The cost of the bike vs. car is only part of the equation. There is some ratio of revenue to cost that must be maintained. Rental cars almost surely have a higher rate of use per day (less time at the rental facility and more being rented) since bikes are rarely rented during the winter or on weekdays - meaning a bike rental facility has to make all it's money on about 80 days a year. This drives revenue way down. While some costs are based on how often the bikes are rented, most are not. In addition, car rental facilities have economies of scale in their favor. So while running a bike rental business for 100 bikes probably costs less than running one for 100 cars, the revenue is way lower too. If there were good, solid, safe, reliable bikes for $100 that would help too.

While some creative pricing could help (lower prices on weekdays and during the winter, frequent renter discounts etc...) there is really only so much demand. Which means that at some point it probably has to be subsidized.

I use to have this money making idea of setting up a deal with downtown hotels. Store a few bikes (2-5) there and rent them (via the front desk or when you check in) to guests for a $5 a day (or whatever the market would bear) with the hotel pitching in some on top of that, but I doubt it would make anyone wealthy.

In the comments someone complained about the lack of car repair style rentals.

i dropped my bike off at the shop for the necessary repairs. when they told me it'd take a few days to fix up again, i asked about renting one of their bikes to keep me mobile till mine was patched up. you could've knocked me over with a feather when they told me i'd end up spending another $150 just to have one of their bikes for a few days.

I've never worked in a bike shop, but I wonder if keeping a few beaters around for this type of situation makes sense. It'd be a loss leader, but it might be worth it.