Bicycles for holiday

freeman3030

Hi all, this may well be posted in the wrong area, but I'm not sure what category to list it under. We're going on holiday to France for 2 weeks in August and we need to buy 2 bicycles.
We're not massive bike riders, but plan to bike around the local area and have a look. So id imagine we will mainly be on Tarmac type surfaces, what would you recommend? There is a place near home called bewl water and it's a mix of Tarmac and muddy track type route, can you get a bike that is suitable for both surfaces?
Many thanks

Keep_pedalling

Why not hire a couple of bikes when you get there?

elverson

A 'hybrid' bike is what you're after. A hybrid typically has front and rear gears and wider tyres than a road bike. You could use a mountain bike but it would be overkill for something like Bewl Water and would slow you down on the roads.

Here are some examples: http://www.wiggle.co.uk/hybrid-city-bikes/

As above I'd look into hiring when you get there, are you staying in a town or at a campsite?

freeman3030

Yeah we're staying at a campsite, we could hire but when we went to the new forest from memory we paid about £15 for a days hire for 2 bikes (I know it's France and not the uk so might be cheaper) but I think over a 2 week period it would be quite expensive and may as well buy our own. Atleast we've then got them for another holiday
I'll look into a hybrid bike! Thanks for the info.

elverson

Decathlon do good hybrids - you might even find they are cheaper in a French Decathlon store depending on exchange rates.

Dan83

Chain reaction cycles is also a good online bike retailer. I notice a lot of people use gold away bikes these days, if you don't use the often, would you not consider 1? As mentioned above, decathlon sell them.

Ms_Chocaholic

Have you thought about buying second hand bikes off Ebay, you may be able to pick up a couple of foldable ones if you think they may be suitable (I've no idea about bikes either, sorry but thinking they might be easier to transport).

Dan83

Word of caution about buying 2nd hand bikes from anywhere, I bought 2 last summer from eBay, go and look/ride it before bidding.

The 1st bike I bought was for me, a GT Aggressor, £100 delivered, the add had loads of pics. When it got here I noticed it needed new grips, tyres, the gears needed adjusting and the brakes wasn't the best either. £100+ later the bike rides perfect, but for not much more I could of bought a new bike.

2nd bike was s trek sky for my partner, £90, went to see a few bikes before we came across this, good bike, well looked after, good tyres and brakes/gears work perfect.

My advice would be to go and see the bike befor you bid.

AndyBSG

What sort of budget are you looking at?

As mentioned, you'll want a hybrid. Avoid suspension as it's not needed unless you are doing some serious off roading so just adds weight, bleeds energy/speed and is something else that needs maintenance.

Depending on budget, all of the following are worth looking at

Halfords Carerra Subway
Halfords Boardman Hybrid
Giant Escape
Claud Butler El Camino
Claud Butler Urban
Dawes Discovery
Cannondale Quick

Should be something in that list that will satisfy most budgets without being too much of a nasty, cheaply made, bicycle shaped object.

Also make sure you include room in your budget for the accessories that you will need if you're going on a cycling holiday.

Lights

Puncture Kit

Pump(Try to get a collapsible track pump rather than a hand pump like the truflo mini track pump)

Spare inner tubes(much easier to put a spare tube on and fix the puncture later than have to repair a puncture mid ride)

Bike Locks

Water Bottle and Cage

Saddle Bag

You may also want to consider some cycling gloves and a decent pair of padded shorts(they do padded cargo shorts if lycra's not your thing).

Finally, most of those bikes will come with cheap, knobbly mountain bike style tyres so i'd seriously think of swapping them out for some good puncture proof semi slicks like Schwalbe Marathons

To buy cheap accessories/clothing Decathlon are quite good and online there's obviously Amazon but also Tredz and Wiggle

vikingaero

Good advice from Andy.

I can also recommend Decathlon. They have Hybrid bikes but even the basic Mountain Bikes are pretty good for the price - £160 for the Rockrider 340.

Just buy a couple of spare tubes, a pack of stick on patches, a decent lock, most of the LED marker lights from Decathlon are OK if you don't intend to ride at night, a pump, and a mini bike multitool. All of this can fit in a rucksack.

I have 2 folding bikes from Decathlon and again they are brilliant. So adjustable that even the midget Vikingettes can use them.

Even in summer the southern part of Bewl Water can be very muddy.