Hiring bikes abroad

homers_double

What's the general consensus about hiring?

Going to Italy in October with the lads for three days of riding, do we stump up the £100 flight handling + hire of a bike bag and a bigger car or pick some up over there (about 50e per day) and suffer the minor niggles of a different bike?

Biggest ride will be around 120 miles so they need to be right, not that mines 100% as I get a bit of back ache on long climbs.

whoof

Do a search online for bike hire in the place you are going and the price and availability may make the decision for you.
i.e Majorca in September you can hire a decent bike for a week for £70 the same price as Easyjet charge to carry one both ways, therefore no extra charge and none of the hassle. In the Alps it can be 200 Euros for a week.

ai_1

I've hired bikes three times in the Canaries. Under £30 per day for decent carbon bikes with Ultegra groupsets. On each occasion I booked the bikes in advance and asked the hire company what models and sizes they had available so i could check the geometry for myself. I've had 3 different bikes and all worked out well. I did bring a set of measurements from my own bike to allow quick and easy tweaking and brought my own saddle just in case I didn't like the one supplied. I had no problems and it was easier and probably cheaper, than bringing my own. If you were going to be there a while the cost might swing back in favour of bringing your own but for just 3 days hiring will be cheaper.
Unless you specifically want to ride your own bike I'd say hire one. It's just less hassle.