Bike rental companies

[DACamino]

Will cycle from St jean to Santiago. Looking to rent a bike. Are there suggestions for bike rental companies?

 

[mjal]

Will cycle from St jean to Santiago. Looking to rent a bike. Are there suggestions for bike rental companies?

We have used both Tournride and Bikeiberia.

If any member of your party is (say) 160 cm in height or shorter, you should check which frame sizes are on offer and not simply rely on entering the person's height on the order form. The bike supplied to us last year for my wife (160 cm) by Tournride was really too large (crossbar too high) to handle comfortably. Bikeiberia this year were able to supply a 14" frame which was very much better.

Apart from the above, both companies gave good service. There is the advantage with Tournride that you simply drop-off the bike(s) at their shop in central SdC. Bikeiberia uses a carrier to pick up the bikes ; you do not have to pack them but they do ask you to (if possible) wrap the saddle, handlebars etc in plastic which we were not aware of until we began our tour.

I might mention a further point re the Tournride Full Assistance : this is valuable and will convey you to the end of your stage (by taxi) if you have a breakdown BUT after about 1300 on a Saturday you are not going to find an open bike repair facility until Monday am...which presents a problem if you have pre-booked accommodation.

 

[DACamino]

We have used both Tournride and Bikeiberia.

If any member of your party is (say) 160 cm in height or shorter, you should check which frame sizes are on offer and not simply rely on entering the person's height on the order form. The bike supplied to us last year for my wife (160 cm) by Tournride was really too large (crossbar too high) to handle comfortably. Bikeiberia this year were able to supply a 14" frame which was very much better.

Apart from the above, both companies gave good service. There is the advantage with Tournride that you simply drop-off the bike(s) at their shop in central SdC. Bikeiberia uses a carrier to pick up the bikes ; you do not have to pack them but they do ask you to (if possible) wrap the saddle, handlebars etc in plastic which we were not aware of until we began our tour.

I might mention a further point re the Tournride Full Assistance : this is valuable and will convey you to the end of your stage (by taxi) if you have a breakdown BUT after about 1300 on a Saturday you are not going to find an open bike repair facility until Monday am...which presents a problem if you have pre-booked accommodation.

Good info. About how many miles did you travel in a day on average?

 

[mjal]

Good info. About how many miles did you travel in a day on average?

Distances : this is not simple to answer because there are different estimates of any given stage of the CF.

Brierley : on the walkers' path naturally ; "flat" mileage and "corrected for height gained". Not usually a big difference but can be 3-5 kms on some stages and it all adds up.

Bikeline guide : excellent maps ; text in German. This route is often on the road, not the path so more kms, perhaps as many as 7-10 more than Brierley. Logrono to SdC is about 100 kms more than "official" (Compostela) distance.

And we were using a hybrid of walking and cycling routes...

Our daily distance (average) was as little as 54 kms (Brierley) but 64 in Bikeline. Concealed within these was the occasional horror of 90 kms in order to make a night stop in Burgos. If we were to cycle the CF again, we would be inclined to enforce a maximum daily distance of 60 km if the path were being used to any extent. If you intend to cycle the path exclusively then 45-50 would be enough in my opinion.

PS : Bikeline Jakobs-Radweg guide available from Amazon UK ; useful both for planning and on the Way.

 

[Tucsontrekker]

I want to walk the really hard bits but ride the flat bits. I have a heart condition that makes riding in hilly terrain more uncomfortable. On the flat I can probably ride 64km easily a day. If I want to. Is this possible?