A2O Hire Bikes

To make life easy for our customers, all our mountain bikes now a single derailleur gear system so you only have one gear lever on the handlebars to worry about! Lastly, because a large percentage of our female customers usually ride step through hybrid bikes at home, we’ve deliberately selected our range of hire bikes to have the lowest possible top tube height. By adding a dropper seat post (that can be lowered with a lever on the handlebars) we’ve made it as easy as possible for clients to mount and dismount our bikes.

All our tours include bike hire within the tour price. Each bike comes with a bottle cage and water bottle, helmet and puncture repair kit and gel MTB saddle. We don’t provide panniers, so if you don’t want to carry a backpack we provide a small handle bar bag instead (big enough for a camera/phone, jacket and small snack). Alternatively, you can bring your own day pack/rucksack. Remember, the van is never more than 2 hours away so you don’t need to carry much gear. All our bikes are fully serviced by an experienced bike mechanic before each tour and we always carry a spare bike, just in case. We also take the time on the first day to make sure the bike is fitted to you correctly. We’re also able to make many tweaks throughout the week to ensure you are as comfortable as possible, including changing your saddle as we carry a range to suit most bum shapes.

The mountain bikes come with grippy, flat pedals. If you are bringing your own clip in pedals, you MUST be experienced at using them off road on loose surfaces or we will ask you to change back to flats. We get many road cyclists used to riding with clip ins on the road who struggle to use them off road in the gravel. This is not a race so, if in doubt, stick with flats. For health & safety reasons, we do not allow pedal cages. You’re welcome to bring your own saddle.

Ebikes are an option upgrade, the price is dependent on the tour and availability. Our ebikes also come with grippy, flat pedals. You’re welcome to bring your own clip in pedals (as per the caveat above) and/or saddle. You will be given instructions for the ebike’s use and are responsible for looking after your bike key and recharging your own battery each night. As they are so much heavier than a standard mountain bike, in order to look after your Tour Leaders, you will need to remove and be responsible for the battery before the bike is loaded onto the trailer each day. These are pedal assisted bikes, the more you use the motor, the more the battery drains so we advise you start in the eco mode to ensure the battery lasts the day. If an ebike breaks, we will do our best to fix the bike parts but will not be able to fix the motor. We will carry a spare mountain bike, just in case. There are no refunds if an ebike breaks down during a tour.

Our bikes are chosen for their suitability on the wide variety of terrain and gradients you’ll discover on the Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail, as well as their high quality components. We also make sure they are adjusted to fit you and you are able to customise them with your own pedals and saddle. Consequently, there is usually no need to bring your own bike. If you do, we recommend:

Everyone is different so it’s impossible for us to advise you with 100% accuracy without meeting you. The following chart is a good guide to our hire bikes but please note that the exact size may depend on your individual proportions. Compare this chart to your own bike and, if you are between sizes, we normally recommend choosing the larger size as it makes the bike easier to tweak to fit. If in doubt, please ask.