Am off to the northern end of Mallorca with the family next month and looking to hire a bike. Anyone any experience of the area to offer advice on routes, guides, bike-hire, maps etc?

I was there over Easter based on the east coast in Cala Millor. I took my own bike with me but even in Cala Millor most of the bike hire shops seemed to have some pretty decent hire bikes. If you are in Alcudia or there abouts it’s a cycling mecca and there seemed to be only top end bikes there. A lot of riders were on bikes from this guy which were all Cube bikes with Ultegra stuff for the road and XT stuff for the MTB. Not sure if you can only hire bikes from them or have to book the whole holiday.

As for routes just look at the map of the island and you can work out yourself where the best roads are or follow the masses of cyclists into the mountains (that’s what I did).

I rented from here in Puerto Pollenca

http://www.procyclehire.com/pch/bikes.htm

The Massi MTBs were OK. The forks were rubbish but everything else was fine. They will be able to advise at the shop on a few routes. I think the owners were English.

Land access is a bit hit and miss at that end of Mallorca. Big chunks of Land are owned privately and tracks on the map can come to end with big padlocked gates. There are maps available in Pollenca old town at the tourist information that have walking routes which had a lot of MTBers on them when I was there. If I went again I would probably rent a road bike as some of the road climbs were spectacular with miles of switch backs.

I found Pro Cycle Hire very friendly and helpful too, although we opted for crap bikes as it was just pootling along with road with my daughter.

Only ever roadbiked there and for that it’s an excellent location, fab big climbs and lovely views coming home up the west hilly (read mountainous!) coast road.

I concur with Eggbox that MTBing is a bit hit and miss there. I assumed you wanted to go road riding anyway.

I stayed in Puerto Pollensa, found the mtbing a bit dull, lots of dead ends and closed of trails. The road riding was great though, hired a decent bike from a place in Puerto Pollensa, was part of a back street Peugeot garage.

Sounds like a guide would be very useful then if MTB’ing. Have found one place that rents Cannondale Rizes and has guiding available.
Also sounds like it may be better to rent a road bike for the period rather than an MTB for general riding.

The only real route I know is the GR221 that finishes in Pollensa. The route down the Pilgrim Steps towards biniaraix from cuber reservoir looks brill having walked down it only a few weeks ago – paved but lots of switchbacks/rivers and steps down. Onwards from that the route goes through woods and hills past Lluc and that also looks great. Not mmuch else that’s any good as much as I can find out – and I’ve asked all the time. One other that looked quite good – mega steep and loose to start is the Tossals de Verde Route from the Cuber reservoir – by far the best route – take some lights though as the route goes through a few tunnels. It’s all a bit hit and miss.

might be worth popping in to Cycles Gomilla in Binnisalem (just off the motorway about half way between Palma and Pollenca). Decent size shop that sells mtbs and may have group rides. I missed out last time I went as the rep for James villas was a mtber who new all the trails on the island, sadly i,d taken my road bike. :o(

There used to be a German language walking guide available from the tourist board that I used quite successfully to navigate around off road. Would echo the comments about fenced off stuff, although it’s fun just to pootle around and explore.

Always take MTB over road bike, you can do both on a MTB, can’t on a road bike… 🙂

An update – just got back from Mallorca where we stayed in Pollenca. Hired a road bike from Pro Bikes in Porta Pollenca and the (English) guys were great, as was the road riding.

I also did a cracking MTB ride out of Port de Soller with Tramontana Tours – highly recommended and cracking technical rocky riding. Brutal climbing in the 35 deg C heat though!

Tramuntana Tours are superb – I’ve hired Andy’s full susser before and done that Biniaraix route from Cuber reservoir that ozzo mentioned – just an awesome ride – 12km road climb to start from Fornalutx, then some great back country stuff at a relatively high (higher than Snowdon, I think!) altitude with that disc brake sizzling descent to finish. Bit shaky in parts with some very, very steep drops on a narrow path, but probably the most memorable MTB ride I’ve ever done. Just found out this afternoon that my neighbour’s offer there for 3 weeks road riding. Hrmph!

Yep – Andy was guiding us, and hired pretty decent ‘Dale full-sussers. All round great ride.

Not in the slightest bit envious of you! Can’t wait to get back out there, but don’t think it’ll be this year sadly. Saw Andy in March in Soller and really glad that they’re doing ok with the second shop in the Port. Talk about ‘living the dream’…

i’m going to alcudia in september, might just pack some gear!!

how do you go on with pedals on the road bike though, i’ve got shimano on mine.

Take your own pedals and shoes (as well as normal cycling kit, obviously!) and the shop will swap the pedals over for you. Sorted! Alcudia’s nice as it’s close enough to the top part of the mountains as well as the flatter east coast – you lucky sod! 🙂

Wors – I took my XTR spd’s and carbon Shimano mtb shoes – its not too bulky on the road bike and obviously does ok on the mtb too.
We drove thru Alcudia and there appeared a couple of high-end hire shops there so you should have no problem hiring a decent road bike – dunno about mtb though.
I did two great road rides there – from Pollenca to Lluc monastry where I had lunch with the wife and kids then back – 46km and 650m climbing, and then from Pollenca out toward the lighthouse on Cap Formentura – again big climbs but rewarded with awesome decents. It’s a long time since I’ve had so much fun on a road bike.

Resurrect. So best to take spd shoes/camelbak and hire a roadbike out there?

Do both, although think you'd get most out of the mountain biking by going with a local. Rode some trails around Soller which were very good indeed.
As noted above, shimano mtb spds can do both off and on road pretty easily.

Resurrect again – I'm heading out in a weeks time with the family… was thinking hire an MTB but perhaps a little roady-ing might be a fine diversion.

Funnily enough I posted again recently as am off again end of May. The road riding is very good and much more accessible than the offroad, but the offroad is very good when you find it.
We're in Soller this time so I'm going to hire a road bike for the two weeks and then do the odd offroad with Andy at Tramontana Tours.

A very recent edition of What mountain bike magazine had a feature on off road riding over there. The route went North from Soller to Polenca IIRC

I am off out there in a few weeks and will probably just get a road bike with a compact for a couple of days.