BIKE HIRE
We use GIPPO bikes. They offer excellent carbon road bikes, including E-bikes, and will deliver and collect the bikes. Once we know how many people wish to hire bikes we will contact you for details and make the arrangements for you.
The advantage of bike hire is a hassle free journey and a place in a transfer car if required - if you prefer to bring your own bike then you will have to hire a car to transport it to the house. You can get 2 x bike boxes, 2 x small luggage and 2 passengers in an estate and the driving is pretty straightforward.
A note about E-bikes: Although an easier option you will still be working on an E-bike. You still have to cycle as normal and you can set the E-bike to be on 'assist' or right up to 'turbo assist'. But once you hit 15miles/hour then you are doing ALL the work as the assist switches off at this speed. This means although the bike helps you uphill, you will be riding a heavy bike on the flat when above 25km/hr.
The advantage of an E-bike is that you put in almost the same amount of effort on the hills as normal, but instead of ascending at 7mph you can go uphill at up to 15mph so you simply get there quicker. It is much more manageable and with the terrain being so bumpy it makes a longer ride, and consecutive riding days, more achievable without feeling exhausted.
I have been using an Ebike recently to train with Stefan (who is completely out of my league otherwise!) which gives me huge aerobic gains at a base level.
Simply put, an Ebike is not a motorbike - don't be fooled, you still have to work.....
