Renting a bike in Oakland/Berkeley

Triathlon Forum
1

Does anyone know of a place to rent a road or tri bike in the Oakland area? I will be visiting for a week in early August with my family and prefer not to pack/transport/unpack mine. I called the FIST tri shop near Oakland and a bike shop (Cycle Sport? Cycle Science?) near the center of Oakland but no luck.

Thanks!

Jerry Pignolet (LT lurker, first-time poster)

2

I rented a new trek 2300 a few years ago from this shop in Palo Alto. http://www.paloaltobicycles.com/bikestation.html Its a bit of a haul from Oakland but they may be able to point you to a place that is close.

3

Jerry,

I had a business trip to that area a couple of months ago, and posted the same question, with no luck except a couple of offers from some posters in that area! What I did discover is that there are some shops in San Francisco itself that rent road bikes (I forget their names, but google may help). I had considered taking the BART over to SF, then renting and riding to Mt Tam in Marin County and back, but never had that much free time. I did find time to run along the water in Emeryville (where I was staying) and found that to be a nice and enjoyable run.

cholla

4

Yep, Berkeley native here, I’ve looked into this a couple of times for friends coming into town with no luck. If you can find a shop in SF, BART is an easy commute (with bike, but not during peak commute times) to the East Bay.

The shop in Oakland you refer to is “Cycle Sports” and they are my LBS. Great shop for things other than bike rentals.

Leigh

5

Not Oakland specific, but here’s the list I have.
clm

Not sure who rents bikes, but here are some places to try.

  • Big Swinging Bikes on Lombard Street, SF

  • Bikes and Boards on 4th st and harrison, sf

  • Mike’s Bikes in Palo Alto (though that’s an hour drive from SF)

  • Palo Alto Bikestation (At the Caltrain in PA) rents Trek 2300’s with Ultegra.

  • Adventure Bicycle Company

http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=sanfrancisco&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adventurebike.com%2F

968 Columbus Avenue in North Beach, 771-8735

  • American Cyclery

http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=sanfrancisco&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.americancyclery.com%2F

510 Frederick St., 664-4545

and 858 Stanyan St., 876-4545

  • Avenue Cyclery

http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=sanfrancisco&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.avenuecyclery.com%2F

756 Stanyan St., 387-3155

  • Bay Bicycle:

Cannery Courtyard at the Jefferson Street entrance.

923-6434

  • Bike and Roll

http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=sanfrancisco&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bicyclerental.com%2F

734 Lombard St. at Columbus

Also Fisherman’s Wharf at Jefferson and Jones

  • Blazing Saddles

http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=sanfrancisco&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bikeroute.com%2FBlazingSaddle.htm

1095 Columbus at Francisco St. 202-8888

Also at Pier 41 and Pier 43 1/2

6

Thanks ECE. Looks like a good shop. I have to be Palo Alto twice during the trip so this could work.

7

Digging a little deeper, it seems Karim Cycle (teamkarim.com) and The Missing Link Coop in Berkeley might rent bikes. Have to call to find out.

I’ll be staying in the Trestle Glen area of Oakland, not far from Cycle Sport. Their website has another question: where to ride.

The next one is: where is good place to swim?

8

An impressive list Cathy. Are you doing the Alcatraz Triathlon on the eighth? If I had made plans earlier, I might have fit it in. But I will be waking up in a “dispersed” campground (no facilities) in the Stanislaus Forest with my family and my cousin and his wife that morning.

9

Thanks.

No EnviroSports events for me. On August 8th I will get up and run 60 minutes, eat breakfast, then ride 60 minutes and later in the day swim 60 minutes. At least that’s what my schedule says. Happy camping!

Where to swim? Hree are some possible options:

https://www.teamunify.com/Home.jsp?team=manatee

http://www.temescalmasters.org/

http://www.strawberry.org/scam/index.html

10

There are about ten good pools in the East Bay, those that Cathy listed, plus 4 pools at Cal (all open to the public, the one at RSF called Spieker is the best), and all the Berkeley municpal pools (all outside).

Closest pool to where you are staying is probably Temescal. If you want a great (but not tri specific) masters workout, SCAM (Strawberry Canyon Aquatic Masters) has 6 per day to choose from. Strawberry Canyon is up behind the stadium in Berkeley, about 3 miles from where you are staying. If you go to Cycle Sports, Chris is the guy to talk to. Among other things he’s my bike stylist.

Any other questions about Berkeley and Oakland feel free to pm me.

Leigh