Hard bike box or rent, France

burnthesheep

I appear to have a work trip for a week coming up sometime in April thru June to the region between Luxembourg, Germany, and Switzerland. I'll stick around that area if there's something worth climbing around there. If not, I'm willing to go somewhere to suffer some climbing. I'm a-ok with about 10k feet in a day.

I'll definitely figure out a way to ride the bike, but want to get opinions.

Looks like $150, perhaps per day, to rent a decent roadie. That's close to the same as airline fees. I'm not including the box because I may get one anyway.

It also seems it would eliminate the pain of having to lug the bike box around trains and such. Then again, the convenience of the entire time I'm there I could ride around the town I'm in if I take my own rig. They don't work late over there and that'd mean at least a couple hours each afternoon of local riding.

Be happy to hear from someone that's done either. I'd assume if I did the rental it would be a one and done one day rental with a loop route in the town I rent from probably at the base of some climb somewhere.

FWIW, from the US, not from the UK.

Dorset_Boy

Although a bit of a PITA lugging a bike box around, I'd take that option as it means you can get a lot more riding in, rather than just one or two days. Bike hire on mainland Europe seems to be very expensive, certainly in comparison with somewhere like Mallorca where you could hire a decent bike for a week for the same cost.

sungod

are you staying at one place, or moving around? if you'll have a fixed base for the duration leave the box there and take just a light bike bag to ease using trains that require one

for train travel, some have carriages where you can just take your bike in and stay near it, others you have to put it in the freight carriage and/or book and/or use a bike bag

it depends on the train type as well as the country, the long distance/high speed trains with a fixed booking are the ones likely to need bike booking and a bag, whereas the travel-anytime local services can be free or just need an extra 'bike ticket'

this might help with route ideas http://cyclingup.eu/english/Vosges.php

mamil314

Alan BikeBox just about fits into Eurostar regular luggage racks, just saying ^ ^

kingstongraham

Where/what are you hiring that is 120 euros a day? I would expect to pay less than half that unless you are looking to get a top spec Pinarello or something, which probably isn't worth it in a one day rental.

sungod

mamil314 wrote:

Alan BikeBox just about fits into Eurostar regular luggage racks, just saying ^ ^

then you need to take the bike apart, i've got a bba, it's a great case, but with protection comes bulk

better to use the hard case on flights and leave it at base, on trains in europe you can either take the bike as-is, or at worst loosen the steerer-stem clamp and use a lightweight bag, much easier than using a hard case