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The Bikes
Topics addressed on this page include...
Choosing Between Our Bike and Your Own for use during our cycle trip
The use of a bicycle is included in the North American ($US and $C) prices of our organized “long” (more than 3 night) cycle trips. Also included its shipment to, from, and within your trip, as necessary.
€uro trip prices do not include the cycles, as it is easier for European guests to bring their own, and so more choose to do so. But our cycles are naturally available, at additional cost. The trip-by-trip cost of cycle rental is shown on our detailed €uro price chart.
Exception: cycle rental is included in our “Day Out from Paris” excursions.
If you prefer to bring your own cycle, and have signed up for your trip in $, you receive a credit for the bike rental and shipping costs associated with our bike. The amount of the credit, trip by trip, can be found here. But the credit is often more than used up by the costs of shipping your own cycle!
If you are considering this option, you may wish to visit these pages.
If you are using one of our bikes, on one of our organized trips, skip to the Information About Our Bikes section, below.
Renting a Bike for Independent Travel
If you are not travelling on one of our trips, but would like to rent a cycle (or other cycle-related services) from us, information on how to do so can be found on our Individual Travel Assistance page. Below are some direct links to specific topics on that page.
 Information About Our Bikes
We have a stable of bikes, most of which live in a 12th century tunnel beneath our Paris office. They are equipped with back rack, 21 or more speeds, water bottle holder, tire pump, a combination cable lock, a patch kit, a spare tube, and at least two wheels. (If you further require cycle luggage, it can be rented through us, as can some other accessories.)
They are composite machines, assembled from carefully selected components by our star chef d’atelier, Michel Corvelyn (at right), a former pro racer (Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and yes, even the Tour) and expert mechanic.
They are not the “disposables” common in rental fleets: they are purpose-built road touring bikes, designed for distance, comfort, luggage carriage.... Frames and parts are regularly tested and replaced based on fatigue cycles, and mechanical failures are rare. In fact, statistically, they are far rarer on our bicycles than they are on the bikes our guests bring, though this is scant comfort, since the one we give you will inevitably break down (that is a joke, we hope). But our coordinators have the mechanical knowledge to keep them running, and most of our guests, even those with “better” bikes at home, find them well-suited to the type of travel we arrange.
Further discussion of our cycles is available here, if it is a topic of particular interest.
We offer three styles of bike to choose from (click on the names for photos and a brief description):
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In addition, we can rent recumbant or tandem bikes for your use on any of trips except our Day Trips from Paris.
Though these are not our cycles, we tune them ourselves before you arrive. There is an additional cost to these options, however, as the bikes must be specially shipped. In general the cost is higher the farther from Paris the trip is running. For example, it is 75 €uros for most of our French trips (or for “Northern Star” or “Swiss Cycling”) for a recumbant, 250€ for a tandem.
Which Style to Choose
There is no “right” answer to this question: the right bike for one person may not be the right bike for another, and the nature of the trip (hilly or flat) can also have an influence. Most importantly, this is a vacation, not the Tour de France. You are here to enjoy the ride, not to get maximum performance from a bicycle. So, regardless of any objective “better,” you should take what you want / enjoy.
All of our bikes, whatever their style, are road tourers: they have in common gearing that is appropriate to distance riding on variable terrain, and a light weight relative to their road-worthness (solidity, rigidity, attached touring equipment).
With that in mind, and since it is a question we get frequently, here are our rather personal thoughts.
If your trip is a week or less, we suggest that you take whatever you are used to riding at home, if you ride regularly at home. The learning curve in using anything else will cover 3 or 4 days. If you have a 3/4ths of your trip left once you get comfortable, you will think that that was a worthwhile investment. If you have 2 days left, you may not see it that way.
For longer trips, and especially for particulary hilly ones, we suggest what we call “Men’s Racing” bikes.
By “men’s racing,” we mean road touring bikes, equipped with triangular frames and “drop” handlebars.
Here is why:
Handlebars
The advantages of “drop,” or “ram’s horn” handlebars, such as those that equip our “Racing” style bikes, are often poorly understood by those who haven’t used them much.
First, they allow for three different positions on the bars (top, over the brakes, and on the bottom of the curved bar), which in turn allows for three different back positions.
While all three are more awkward, at least initially, than the more vertical position of upright bars, they all take pressure off of your spinal column on rough sections of road. Moreover, the variety avoids the physical stress that comes from spending long parts of the day sitting in one position. This is especially important if you are new to distance riding: a “crick” can easily be gotten rid of if you can simply sit in a different position.
Second, their use makes the bike + rider more aerodynamic.
This reduces effort at equivalent speed, but especially has safety implications. The rider’s center of gravity is lowered, and weight distributed across the bike, improving the bike’s adhesion through curves, and on uneven roads. This is especially important at speed, for instance going downhill. Most people “feel safer” going downhill on a drop bar bike, at least after they get used to the bike.
Third, they make the bike narrower.
Our “drop bar” headsets are 44 cm wide, compared with 64 cm on average for upright headsets. This means that, on a “drop bar” bike, the rider’s shoulders are typically wider than the handlebar, and not the reverse. Research has shown that auto drivers will subconsciously measure the width of a bike by its rider. So, a driver who is driving unacceptably close to a cyclist may “catch” the handlebar if it sticks out beyond the width of the human on the bike, with a result that you can probably picture, but would rather not. Beyond the safety angle, though linked to it: navigating in town traffic is easier on a narrower bike: you are less likely to clip the mirrors of the cars you pass, and have an instinctive feel for your width, as it is that of your body, and not that of a wider bicycle.
Fourth, they make climbing easier.
You can pull up on the bars, thus keeping your torso relatively rigid, and avoiding the dispersion of the energy furnished in pedalling.
Frame
Men’s frames, with a top bar forming a triangle, are more rigid than women’s frames (see photo), which tend to wobble a bit.
This is especially (only?) important if you are travelling “self-contained,” and so riding with a panier (the handlebar issue is of more concern to riders whose bikes are relatively unladen). Even with a light panier, however, the frame type will influence your comfort level when going downhill, when bumps in the road will be amplified by the lack of rigidity in a woman’s frame.
Outfitting the Bike
You can further customize our bike by bringing your own pedals and/or seat. Simply fill out your trip application accordingly.
If you prefer to bring your own clip-in pedals, and / or your own saddle, we will supply your bike without pedals or saddle, as appropriate, and help you fit yours when you reach the trip (our trip coordinator will have the necessary tools). In the case of any standard, “two rail” saddle, you need only bring the saddle itself. No seat post, bolts or other attachment fixtures are needed.
We will also help you fit your own pedals or saddle without advance warning. However, in this case you will generally be required to carry our pedals or saddle through your trip, in order that we be able to re-assemble a rideable bike when you leave us.
Cycle Insurance
Cycle rental is included in the $ prices of our trips, and offered as an extra to other riders. We use road touring bikes built or re-built to our specifications, valued at 700 €uros each. You are responsible for damage to your rental cycle (beyond normal wear and tear) from any cause. Causes include (but are not limited to), traffic or other accidents, use on inappropriate terrain (hotel stairs, cornfields...), tomfoolery, parking the cycle in a location where some bozo backs over it in his SUV.... You are also responsible for the cycle in case of theft.
We offer cycle insurance at a cost of $36 US or C / 26 € per trip week, covering damage to the cycle from any cause other than reckless use, and covering theft of a locked cycle. This policy, only available for our bikes, provides free repair of the damaged cycle (replacement if stolen or if repair cannot be made within 48 hours), and travel via alternate means (selected by us) if the trip advances during the period of repair / replacement. It does not cover your own equipment (notably pedals or saddle) that you may have attached to the cycle. Note that a homeowner’s insurance policy, if you have one, may provide some of these same benefits.
For our “Day out from Paris” trips, insurance is available at 5 € / day. However, this policy does not offer a replacement cycle, as getting one to you in time to be of any use is a practical impossibility.
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