Purchasing a Bicycle

[Tom Hedrick]

I would like to purchase an inexpensive bicycle in Leon, Spain. Does anyone have a recommendation of a good bike shop?

 

[evanlow]

Decathlon sport store. All over Europe. Bought a btwin rockrider 5.0 MTB in Italy to do my via Francigena.

http://www.decathlon.es/es/storearea

 

[mspath]

Decathlon sport store. All over Europe. Bought a btwin rockrider 5.0 MTB in Italy to do my via Francigena.

http://www.decathlon.es/es/storearea

Evanlow is is right Decathlon has great sports gear throughout Europe, but there is NO Decathlon shop in Leon!!

However here is a Google listing of bike shops within the city of Leon.

For more Forum info and tips re biking the camino scan this topic

MM

 

[Rob Horsfield]

My partner and I walked from St Jean Pied de Port to Granon where she was told not to walk any more due to Bursitis in here foot, so we took about 5 days rest in Hondaribbia (near San Sebastian) and after these 5 days realised the Doctor was right. We then caught a train to Leon and and bought MTB from Forum Sport. They kitted it out for use with racks to carry our backpacks and we then cycled the 300km to Santiago, keeping to the same 20-25km a day we would have done if we were walking. Not all the way on the tracks as some of them are quite dangerous when riding.

The sales team at Forum Sport were superb and it cost is 200 Euro for the bikes. With everything including helmets it cost about 300 Euros.

We donated the bikes to the Volunteers in Santiago so they could get around more easily. You can see our blog here http://steppingoutat60.blogspot.com/

I hadn't ridden a bike for about 50 years and had never used gears, but even after falling 3 times on the 1st day, twice a day on the subsequent 5 days, it was a great experience.

 

[wayfarer]

Welcome to the forum Rob, that was a very generous thing you did. Good on you.

 

[djq]

While we cycled from Roncesvalles to Santiago, we needed some repairs to our bikes. We visited a bike shop in Leon, which I believe was Bicicletas Carlos (http://www.bicicletascarlos.es/). The folks at the shop were very helpful (including taking us ahead of the other work they had to do) and seemed quite knowledgeable. Their web site is in Spanish, but Google Translate does an adequate job with it. I can't tell you whether they will have inexpensive bikes, but I'd highly recommend them based on our dealings with them, if you are looking for a bike shop and not a discount store like Decathalon. That said, the web site shows Orbea mountain bikes for as little as 400E. Good luck.