London: Rental shop

[AngryScientist]

probably going to be in London for a week or so late spring.

any intel on a shop that might rent a nice bike for a week?

probably looking for some advice on longer routes as the trip gets closer too.

[verticaldoug]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

probably going to be in London for a week or so late spring.

any intel on a shop that might rent a nice bike for a week?

probably looking for some advice on longer routes as the trip gets closer too.

For the price of renting a nice bike for a week, it will be cheaper to bring your own in a box and pay the airline.

I have a lot of routes I can share.

[AngryScientist]

Originally Posted by verticaldoug

For the price of renting a nice bike for a week, it will be cheaper to bring your own in a box and pay the airline.

I have a lot of routes I can share.

i'm thinking about that too, i do have an S&S bike and status, so flying it would be free, other than the hassle.

[verticaldoug]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

i'm thinking about that too, i do have an S&S bike and status, so flying it would be free, other than the hassle.

You need to be a member of RCC and then you can rent a bike for 3 days stretch. And don't forget you need to go from you hotel to the shop, pick the bike up etc. . That takes more than 30 minutes. You can have your S&S bike ready to go in that amount of time. Seems hassle free to me

I have a buddy moving out from NYC later this month, so will be riding some of the normal London routes with him if you care to join.

Also, I am always up for just OUTS (ride out of London and train it back). You can get pretty far doing this and see some great sites.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27889388

You can do the castle tour. 6 Castle Ruins + Beachy Head and Seven Sisters
all in one go. It's semi-epic

My routes on ridewithgps are all public. So just scroll through. Unfortunately, there is a mix of NY, Japan and UK.

[AngryScientist]

thanks doug!

this visit will be part of a business trip, so my intention will be to commute in the city during the week with some after work jaunts, then extend to through the weekend for further flung riding. castle tour looks promising!

i'm starting to lean towards just bringing my bike.

[pasadena]

https://www.onyourbike.com/

They are under London Bridge. A bit tricky to find but basically across the street from Evans Cycles.

You can rent a good road bike and they have good rates, very reasonable.
I rented a Trek ALR w 105 for a long weekend, and it was great.

Just bring your pedals, saddle bag and helmet.

Places to ride in London are Hyde and Regents Park. It's worth it to ride to Richmond Park, all the cyclists in the area ride Richmond.

RCC is there, however, they have limited bikes and didn't have any road bikes available when I was there.
They did have gravel bikes to rent.

Have fun, careful on the roundabouts and remember, look the OTHER way!

[cgolvin]

Nick,

Probably known but since others have mentioned the RCC option I wanted to point out a couple of things.

1. Yes membership is down to $100/yr, but rental prices went up at the same time (don't know the price in GBP, think it's $35 here). Good news is that now includes damage waiver.
2. Not all the clubhouses have the same stock, but the updated fleet is a mix of Canyons, Di2 and disc (don't recall the models).
3. The more advance planning the greater the likelihood they'll have something in your size; IME a month yields decently high probability.
4. The chapters maintain a collection of routes, publicly accessible. If you're keen I can retrieve the link for you.

Be fun. Have safe.

[Llewellyn]

Just remember to ride on the opposite side of the road. Entering roundabouts might be a bit confusing at first, especially as you're from the US (you don't have them there IIRC).