Hi,

Im off to Gran Caneria beginning of July and wonder if anyone has any bike hire company recommendations, ive found one called Freemotion that looks good which is in porto morgan, im staying just along the road in Puerto Rico but cant seem to find any there.
Also any gpx routes and general advice would be great 70-80 mile ish would be spot on.

Cheers

Freemotion are very good, I’ve rented bikes from them before and they were a reasonable price and fairly good p, new Cannondales. The only downside is that the brakes are back to front!

For GPX routes there are a few on the Freemotion website that you can download.

thanks…really worried about the heat so hopefully can find some routes with a quicker way back.although lookng at the map that appears unlikley

July = Hot, especially in the south, you will need to avoid lunchtime when going up the hill. My wife is from GC so I’ve been loads, but only biked there a couple of times. The first time I hired a bike from Freemotion, the second I took my own. My wife is from Las Palmas in the North so when I took my own I rode from there, when I hired from Freemotion it was from their Maspolomas branch (their main shop) and I rode in the south, in August – I had to stop to buy a bottle of ice cold water to pour on my head as it was so hot.

The road riding is great, the island is basically round with a big (2000m) mountain in the middle, rides are therefore generally uphill for the first half and then down again. It is really beautiful in the mountains, bits of the north look like the Alps.

Good sources of routes:

Bike Map

GC info

I think you’ll have to get an early start, routes from the south basically go up the mountain and back again, once you get up high its obviously cooler and coming back down again is not an issue so you just need to make sure you do the climbing when its cool. You are going to be starting your rides by riding the old coastal road to Mogan or Maspolomas and then heading up.

There are several eastablished routes form the South so GPX etc. are easy to find, it was harder to find routes for the north so I found segments on strava and then looked at the leader board and found the rides of the leaders.

cheers lucas thats a great help..ive ridden a good few times in mallorca but gran caneria seems a bit more serious in terms of climbing and the heat so will aim to be out very early..ta

cheers lucas thats a great help..ive ridden a good few times in mallorca but gran caneria seems a bit more serious in terms of climbing and the heat so will aim to be out very early..ta

I came back this weekend. Hired from Freemotion – really good company. The bikes have to come back the morning after your last day of hire, so you get to ride it the full day.
I hired a cannondale, and the 25mm tyres were ideal for the less than smooth roads on some of the higher roads; the top of Soria and descent down from the GC-150 to Cruz de Tejeda especially.

I was setting off after 9am most days (breakfast with wife first) and the temp was never below 75 at Puerto Mogan as I left, and it gets hotter the further you venture into the mountains …
The classic ride seems to be either Valley of The Tears, which is 60 miles from Puerto Mogan. Another is Soria … which is a 40 mile round trip from Puerto Mogan.
I did an 80 mile ride which went from Puerto Mogan, straight up to Pico de la Nieves (28 mile climb to highest part of island) and descended into Cruz de Tejeda, and past Artenera (highest town on island), over to Aldea and back over to Puerto Mogan.
It had the most beautiful breathtaking views … but rarely dropped below 100degrees once into mountains, and actually went as high as 107degrees on last climb out of Aldea.

If you ride – best set off very early. Because the weather is getting even hotter out there.

This is the road leading to Artenera

This is the view down towards mogan

And this is just before you start the VoTT

fantastic cheers..dont suppose you gave the gpx files…?

i have two which i think should be around there…

https://www.bikemap.net/en/route/15869-maspalomas-ayacata-arguineguin-maspalomas/

https://www.bikemap.net/en/route/2448206-1-giorno-calcolato/

I am on strava if you want to copy routes that way? Same name as on here.
But to be fair – it would be very difficult to get lost.

If I plan to ride Gran Canaria again it will be no later than April; as said, temp last week was over 100 once into hills, which made riding very very difficult.

Looking at the routes you have posted, they appear to be more towards Masapalamos. If your nearer Puert Mogan, then your doing a lot of boring coastal route. I would def take in the GC-210

Ooooh pulls up chair…

Mrs has booked Gran Caneria for later in the year, where’s good to rent a bike from then?

Get the flip in!

We’re staying at Puerto de mogan and free motion have a branch there, now I just need to negotiate myself a day out riding…

Cheers all.

Freemotion have a 3day min rental. So you best break the bad news to your wife.

Cookea – you must try Zone Verde grill restaurant. Its just up from the port area. Looks a bit shabby from the outside – but the food there is very good.

The wife and I went on a couple of trekking trips with Freemotion about 15 years ago, we both enjoyed them.
There were 4 of us staying in Puerto Rico about 9 years ago, 3 of us went on 2 road rides and an mtb ride with Freemotion, renting their bikes. They picked us up and dropped us off, in their minibus, for a small charge.
We asked for the mtb brake levers swapping, didn’t ask for the roadies doing, I would now, though. I came down the 22k (I think) descent using just the back brake, didn’t trust myself not to grab a handful of the left, I just hung on with that hand! 😯

The wife & I went Jan 15 & Jan 16.
Jan 16, stayed in Puerto Rico & hired bikes from Freemotion at Porto Morgan – just got a taxi to pick-up bikes & taxi back a week later after dropping off.
Jan 16, stayed at Maspalomas & used Freemotion again for a weeks hire.

Their route map is all you need, loads of route options & easy to follow, & differing lengths.

Temp up to 30 deg by mid afternoon, & never below 20.

3day min rental. So you best break the bad news to your wife.

I just checked the website:

Minimum rental period is 3 consecutive days. Rental requests for 1 or 2 days as well as reservation requests for the following day must be made in person at one of our bike centers.

Looks like I can’t pre-book for less than 3 days, but I could stroll in, in person and book one for the following day when I am there, I think I will just pack shoes, helmet, Jersey and bibs and wing it a bit…

If when I get there the only available bikes happen to be a Tarmac comp DI2 or a supersix evo hi mod DA, I’ll just have to deal with it… 8)

The only 3 other bikes they had in the Puerto Mogan shop when I was there – was a big looking mtb and two commuter style bikes.

But if you know best …