Renting a touring bike in Belgium

Craig8701

Can anyone give me advice of where you can rent a touring bike in belgium for a period of about 3 weeks?

My friend is planning on doing a Paris to Rome cycle with me but her bike is not up to it so she was planning to rent one for the trip. It needs to be up to doing the 1000 miles but not cost silly money to rent. She is not in Belgium just now so thats why a bit of local knowledge would come in handy of which shops rent bikes.

Thanks

Craig

Craig8701

Meant to say that she needs to rent the bike in leuven or brussels.

fietslogies

Some information, but unfortunately no specific details about rental of touring bikes in Brussels and Leuven.

Leuven
'Fietspunt Leuven Station' works in collaboration with VELO and rents citybikes, mountainbikes, tandems, child bicycles and electrical bicycles for 1 or more days, weeks or months. I do not see information about touring bikes.
http://www.kuleuven.be/velo/fietspunt.html is a page showing more details in dutch (the english version clickable at the left is not a translation but gives other information!)

Fietspunt Leuven Railway Station
Prof. Roger Van Overstraetenplein 1/001
3000 Leuven
Tel: 016 21 26 01
Fax: 016 21 26 03
Mail: fietspuntleuven@velo.be

Another department of VELO seems to rent only second hand bikes and is more intended for the local student market. So, that one we can skip.
http://www.kuleuven.be/velo/_eng/index.htm

VELO
Hollestraat 1
3001 Heverlee
Tel: 016 29 87 40

Furthermore none of the bicycle shops in leuven seems to offer rental services, at least according to their web pages.

South of Brussels, in the charming village of Hoeilaart, Filip Sport rents bicycles. http://www.fietswinkel-info.be/bdr34492-Filip-Sport.html

Filip Sport
Kasteelstraat 45-47
1560 Hoeilaart
Tel: 02 657 37 33

http://www.fietswinkel-info.be/bdr34492-Filip-Sport.html

Brussels

ProVelo offers in Brussels bicycles for rent: http://www.provelo.org/spip.php?article2086 (English, French, Dutch). Their main rental point is the Cyclist's House in the Londenstraat/Rue de Londres 15, 1050 Elsene/Ixelles: http://www.provelo.org/spip.php?article1878 (English, French, Dutch)

Furthermore presents ProVelo a list with 40 bicycle shops in Brussels Capital Region. I'm sure some of them are also into renting bikes, but you will have to check their sites yourself: http://www.provelo.org/IMG/pdf/Velocistes_Fietshandelaars_Bruxxel.pdf (English, French, Dutch). There's a symbol for bicycle rental next to a few shops.
A quick look learns me that the shops below do rent bicycles:
Vélocité in Schaarbeek/Schaerbeek http://home.scarlet.be/velocite/velocite.html (French)
Km10 Bicycle Store in Watermaal-Bosvoorde/Watermael-Boitsfort http://www.km10.be (French)
Vélopipette in Watermaal-Bosvoorde/Watermael-Boitsfort http://velopipette.be/ (French)
Eddysport in Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe/Woluwé-Saint-Lambert http://www.eddysport.be/ (French) and maybe also
Van den Mooter in Jette http://www.mooter.be/ (French, Dutch).

Two more associations with rental facilities in the heart of Brussels:

Fietspunt / Point vélo / Bike Point NoORD, nearby the railway station of Brussel-Noord/Bruxelles-Nord:
http://www.recyclo.org/cyclo/en/bikepoint-north.html (English, French and Dutch).

Fietspunt / Point vélo / Bike Point CENTRaAL, nearby the railway station of Brussel-Centraal/Bruxelles-Central: http://www.recyclo.org/cyclo/en/bikepoint-central.html (English, French and Dutch).

Craig8701

Thats a great help. I will check out the websites.

Cheers

lbacon

Hi Craig (or anyone else),

Were you able to find a good place that rents touring bikes in Belgium (and, ideally, Brussels)? I am planning a trip there next week and haven't found a place yet. I emailed several of the shops that that Fietslogies posted but many didn't have touring bikes. Please let me know what you found!!

Thanks so much,
Laura

fietslogies

You've seen this earlier post? About bicycle rental in OUDENAARDE:
http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=17214207

Oudenaarde and the Flemish Ardennes are a real cyling destination, so therefore local bicycle shops do rent decent touring bikes. 'Jowan Fietsen' in KLUISBERGEN has 7 Eddy Merckx Racing Bikes:
http://www.jowan.be/nl-2verhuur.html

In nearby DEINZE (Astene), 'Het Verzet' has also a wide range of quality bicycles: http://www.hetverzet.be

When you're more into normal bicycles, no one beats (the prices of) Max Mobiel in GHENT. Bicycles are more basic, a bit more heavy but of undoubtable quality: http://www.max-mobiel.be/default.aspx?PageId=36
With one of the minicards, available in Ghent hotels and in the shop of Uitbureau, Veldstraat 82b, you even get another 10% discount on their bargain prices (25 euro/week, 30 euro/month): http://www.minicards.com/pxf/sen12-main-html.pxf?a01=shli&a02=outl&a03=none&a04=000042&a05=none&seperator=1&q01=Belgium&q04=Gent&q99=dummy