Buying or renting a bike

bp5678

I'm going to Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia and will be there for almost all of August. The plan is to travel these countries by bike. I chose to do this for the exercise benefits, you see countries better by bike than looking out of a window and also due to the money I'd save. However......


I've enquired on renting a bike. Bike hire is about 15-20 euros a day. Across the 3 weeks this is going to be about £450 just on the bike. The bike is almost certainly worth less than this.

My bike in England is awful so i wouldn't want to bring this with me. Plus I never paid for hold luggage at the bottom of the aeroplane (only hand luggage) so I imagine there's a heft fee if I want to add this on.

My third option is to buy a bike out there (I'll pre-arrange the booking and then pay my money when I meet the person out there) and then at the end of the 3 weeks I'd sell the bike. However not too sure how realistic and feasible this would be.

I also need to buy all the cycling equipment - panniers, a tent, cycling shorts, cycling sunglasses etc. I think it would be useful if I bought all of these items together for 2 reasons:
1) I can try them on with the bike (eg ensure the panniers fit onto the bike)
2) I may get it cheaper if I spend over a certain amount (buying in bulk)

A bit of help would be much appreciated, thanks.

EveryWhere

When I did it, I cycled to the airport(Gatwick) from my home in London, panniers attached. Arrived at airport, adjusted bike for travel and that was it. Got off the other end and cycled away.
Actually it ended up a bit more involved than that, but that's another story.
The upshot was that it was incredibly easy to just roll up and fly away. I didn't pay anything extra.
Though of course, dependent on the airline, you may need a bike bag.

Ganga

bp5678 wrote: »

I'm going to Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia and will be there for almost all of August. The plan is to travel these countries by bike. I chose to do this for the exercise benefits, you see countries better by bike than looking out of a window and also due to the money I'd save. However......


I've enquired on renting a bike. Bike hire is about 15-20 euros a day. Across the 3 weeks this is going to be about £450 just on the bike. The bike is almost certainly worth less than this.

My bike in England is awful so i wouldn't want to bring this with me. Plus I never paid for hold luggage at the bottom of the aeroplane (only hand luggage) so I imagine there's a heft fee if I want to add this on.

My third option is to buy a bike out there (I'll pre-arrange the booking and then pay my money when I meet the person out there) and then at the end of the 3 weeks I'd sell the bike. However not too sure how realistic and feasible this would be.

I also need to buy all the cycling equipment - panniers, a tent, cycling shorts, cycling sunglasses etc. I think it would be useful if I bought all of these items together for 2 reasons:
1) I can try them on with the bike (eg ensure the panniers fit onto the bike)
2) I may get it cheaper if I spend over a certain amount (buying in bulk)

A bit of help would be much appreciated, thanks.

How can you be sure you will sell it,you may end up giving it away:rotfl:

z1a

May be worth you buying a bike from a shop & asking if he'd buy it back for a fair price in 3 weeks time.

hollydays

It's possibly not practical

cubegame

Decathlon have stores in Croatia. You could get all your gear in one store

bp5678

z1a wrote: »

May be worth you buying a bike from a shop & asking if he'd buy it back for a fair price in 3 weeks time.

Not a bad idea, thank you! If I'm honest I'm fairly new to cycling so not too sure what sort of thing I should be looking for.

I'm cycling on a mixture of roads and off road so do you reckon I should go for a road bike or mountain bike? Any you'd recommend that are well priced but good enough to carry quite a bit of load (bags etc) and durable enough if I end up cycling quite far regularly (eg 60-80km every day on average plus with some big hills).

cubegame

bp5678 wrote: »

Not a bad idea, thank you! If I'm honest I'm fairly new to cycling so not too sure what sort of thing I should be looking for.

I'm cycling on a mixture of roads and off road so do you reckon I should go for a road bike or mountain bike? Any you'd recommend that are well priced but good enough to carry quite a bit of load (bags etc) and durable enough if I end up cycling quite far regularly (eg 60-80km every day on average plus with some big hills).

Your probably want to look at a hybrid.

If my suggestion of Decathlon is convenient then their Riverside range is well rated. You could also go to a Decathlon store in the UK to look at them first.

If you're new to cycling, have you considered the heat?

eamon

Lots of info on the web this for example https://www.total-croatia-news.com/25-things-to-know-about-croatia/23499-25-things-to-know-about-cycling-in-croatia