Cycling UK Forum

I'm looking to do a trip along the River Main, from Frankfurt to Bamberg, travelling first to Frankfurt by train. We would then hire bikes, attach the trailer to mine [Carry Freedom city - easy to use as a suitcase on wheels!] then pootle along to Bamberg. From there we'd take the bikes back to Frankfurt by train.

Any tips on this, especially bike hire, would be appreciated. My German is non-existent so have been unable to find anything useful on internet. Don't want to take our own bikes as the cycling should be so easy that any bike will do - and to take them on high speed trains would mean boxing them.

No specific help but Google has a translate widget: http://translate.google.co.uk/?hl=en&tab=nT#

Bike = rad tour= wandern way= weg..... thus radweg= bike route.

Maybe the train operater (Deutsches Bundesbahn) rents from stations.

Miltenberg is a nice little town on the Main .It has a pub in the centre which claims to be Germany's oldest pub. It's a few years since I was there but the food was superb.

My wife and I have done over a dozen tours in Germany, mainly following rivers/valleys downhill, always on hired bikes. The "Bikeline" books (some of which are in English) give excellent maps and also cycle hire places. Bamberg is tuly amazing. The Main cycle paths put anything in this country to shame. To see photos and get ideas for routes, look at www.Velotours.de. We have used them on several occasions, but they are also a good source of inspiration (click on the Union Jack for the English translation).

We wrote about bike hire companies in Frankfurt and in other German cities at the start of 2009 on our blog: http://europeancycling.blogspot.com/200 ... -main.html. We found three bike hire companies in Frankfurt:

Die Radprofis. Kai Hundertmarck und Theo Intra
Westerbachstraße 273
65936 Frankfurt am Main
Tel.: +49 (0) 69 / 34 27 80
http://www.intra-radsport.de

Hex Hex Fahrradladen
Owner: Berthold Gentzler
Gutleutstraße 156
60327 Frankfurt am Main
Tel.: +49 (0) 69 / 23 34 44
Fax: +49 (0) 69 / 23 34 94
http://www.hexhex-fahrraeder.de

Die Fahrradscheune
Alt Harheim 27
60437 Frankfurt am Main
Tel.: +49 (0) 6101 / 489 58
http://www.fahrradscheune.de
In our experience the tourist authorities in Frankfurt do not know much touring bike hire. You could also try contacting the ADFC in Frankfurt (http://www.adfc-frankfurt.de/).
Happy Cycling

Neil

Excellent stuff - thanks all. Looks as though it's a doable plan!

My friend and I have toured in Germany three times, and loved it. No better place, in my book. We looked into hiring bikes, and never found anything as cheap as taking our own. If you're not afraid of the hassle factor, I'd recommend packing your bikes ( do it the minimal hassle plastic bag way - we did that last time and it was so much easier than breaking the bikes down for proper bike bags) and taking them on a plane. Of course, it's more hassle, but at least you'll have bikes you're comfortable with.