One Week Of Bike Hire?

[Betsy]

In July my neighbours are cycling around France for a week.. they both ride road bikes (nothing super-high end) and their 16yr old son rides MTB.
Last year, they hired him a gravel bike from Alpkit (so he could keep up) but i don't think they have one available this year for their dates.. cost of weekly hire is such that he's considering driving to Stockport and buying him a £450 road bike from eBay just for the week.. i've suggested they look on Fat Llama.

Is there anyone here within a 1hr drive of Sheffield S11 who would be willing to rent one of their road bikes for the week? nothing vintage or special.. he could use mine, free of charge but he's 6' 2" so needs something on the larger side.

He's looking for something reasonably modern/reliable, which isn't going to break down in the middle of rural France.

Payment/deposit can be sorted out with the neighbour.. he's a trustworthy guy, i can vouch for all three of them.

Thx

 

[pigman]

Here you go... Not mine.
Flat bar road bike, large size on gumtree in Sheffield £70

Second-Hand Bikes, Bicycles & Cycles for Sale in Sheffield, South Yorkshire | Gumtree

Find great local deals on second-hand bikes, bicycles & cycles for sale in Sheffield, South Yorkshire ✅ Shop hassle-free with Gumtree, your local buying & selling community.

www.gumtree.com

 

[Betsy]

Thx.. i've sent him the link

 

[Canuk]

Whereabouts in France are they going? My brother in law has a place near Carcassonne and rents out road and mountain bikes to his visitors. Pretty reasonable rates.

 

[Canuk]

He's got a load of road bikes (nearly a dozen when I was there last)

 

[Betsy]

Thanks @Canuk .. they ended up buying one from Gumtree, it's a Giant, i know next to nothing re- modern road bikes but it looks like one helluva bike for the £450 they've spent! it looks almost brand new.. I'll take a photo of it when it's next out of their bike shed.

 

[Betsy]

Here you go, looks pretty sweet!

 

[Woz]

I know it's all sorted, perhaps would have been a ball-ache, but the French equiv of Gumtree leboncoin.fr is loaded to the hilt with bikes for sale.

The price of some week rentals can be utterly daft, and the price and hassle of transporting with pack boxes or bike bag toos. It's a tough one and no where near as easier as it was many years ago if travelling by air or train.

For air, years ago you could actually just whip wheels off and strap them to the frame and make sure the oily chain wasn't dangling about with bungy straps and special baggage ground staff would deal with it by plonking it on top of Samsonite suitcases or Louis Vuitton bags at the last minute.

On arrival, you always got your bike first.

 

[doctor-bond]

Early 90’s, went to Thailand with my Stumpjumper - (Tarom - Romanian airlines). Cycled to Heathrow, let the air out of the tyres, handed it to a baggage guy who wheeled it off into the distance. At the other end, another guy wheeled it back into view near the baggage carousel, unharmed. Didn’t know any better.

 

[Woz]

That's great. Nobody used to give a stuff, and you could happily fiddle with bikes in the departure or arrival hall.

Another technique that can work is ship to the hotel in a box a few days before, and then ship back. Works fine with smaller family run type hotel and B&B places, but I have done this once in an urban Sheraton. I have understood this probably won't work anymore between the UK and anywhere else in the world ( *COUGH* *COUGH*). Intra-EU, it's still a valid option and not far off from paying rip-off extra fees.