I'm staying in Puerto del Carmen for a week in December. Anyone know of any good shops with decent bike hire and knowledge of good trails? Whenever I've tried to hire an MTB from a decent looking bike shop in the Canaries, I've always been let down by not being able to find the good trails.

I used this outfit in Costa Teguise for a mid range Specialized Hardrock which served me well on the local trails. They also provide some photocopies of routes out in the hills if you don't want to buy a proper map. There may be something a bit nearer your destination though.

http://www.mylanzarote.com/

PS. watch out for nasty dogs out on the trails. I ended up with a hospital visit after my last ride of the holiday and the bike rental chap seemed to think that dog bites were not an uncommon holiday souvenir amongst his clients.

I was out there for a surf trip a couple of years back and really wanted to get out riding on one of the flat days but struggled to find anywhere renting decent bikes. A shame as the landscape is absolutely awesome once you get away from the main resort area- particularly along the west coast around Famara and the Timanfaya national park. Don't miss the view from Mirador Del Rio in the far north.

The surf there is unreal too if that's your thing. Great waves and was wearing boardshorts and a rash vest in January! Bliss.

there isn't a lot of mtb near PDC, if you want mtb then you will end up putting it in the car to get to trails

I hired an OK road bike from a place in PdTeguise and road biked out of PDC, you can string together a few nice loops to keep you going for a week

take your own shoes and pedals, make sure you get the tools and tubes etc as well as the bike

the rental guy was helpful as some local roads were shut

Went to lanzascrotty last year, stayed at a place called Club La Santa – it's a kind of sports hotel thing. I don't know if they hire to non-patrons but they've got a very good bike workshop and pretty knowledgeable staff. We were road riding admittedly, but they sorted us out with some nice Cannondale SuperSix's, and i'm sure they've got a good selection of MTB's too. Try googling them and see what their website says. It is a fair way from PdC though, if i remember correctly…

My old barbour (sp?) from Larne has moved out to work at Club La Santa – Paul 'Aggy' Agnew. Sound bloke, but I don't know much more than that other than swimming friends used to go out there for training camps.

That's not very useful is it?!