Everyone always asks about the bikes on our bicycle tours, and it’s pretty simple to understand why, you’ll be riding them all over the most beautiful countries in the world. So we felt it would help to answer some of the most common questions we get. If you’re question isn’t covered here just let us know we’ll be happy to help!
Our Bikes – We take great pride in our bike fleet. For our bicycle tours in Europe, our bikes are based at our operations headquarters in Italy on our family farm, where we house hundreds of bicycles and our staff of mechanics. Your bike will be equipped with a gender specific saddle, a rear rack and pack, pump, patch kit, spare tube, cable lock, toe cages (optional), cyclometer, a water bottle cage and a water bottle that is yours to keep. For more information have a gander at our post, Bikes That Make Riding Easier.
BYOB – Bring Your Own Bike? We find that if you are very tall, very short, or just very attached to your bicycle, it may make sense for you to bring your bike. But 99% of our customers find that the bikes we provide are perfectly adequate. If you’re considering bringing your own bike we suggest you give us a call to discuss the pros and the cons.
Bike Fitting – Our fit algorithm is very successful at providing a good match, if you give us accurate measurements we’ll prepare the frame with those measurements to make sure your bike fitting session goes smoothly fits properly.
Pedals – Lots of people have questions about cycling footwear for their tour and what kind of pedals one needs to match their footwear. If you have ‘clipless’ pedals of your own, bring them, just don’t forget your shoes! For more info check out our post, Stepping Into Cycling Footwear.
Helmets – Helmets are required on tour. Please bring your own helmet to ensure proper fit and that you’re comfortable wearing it at all times.
Rear Pack – On every ExperiencePlus! trip we provide a rear rack pack to carry the items you’ll need during your ride. As with any kind of packing, there is a delicate balance between bringing what you may need and over packing. Read more in our post, What’s In My Rear Rack Pack.
Bike Accessories – We provide bells and back red lights that attach to the rear rack but we don’t provide other bike accessories such as gloves and mirrors. We generally recommend you bring your own helmet as well due to better fit and hygiene. We do carry extra helmets so let us know if you would like us to provide one.
*The whatchamacallit goes into the whositswhat?? Want to be hip with all the current bike jive? Check out our post, A Brief Introduction to Cycling Lingo!