Hi Dan,
On my first camino in 2012, after walking from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Leon, I needed a change of pace and out of curiosity and googling, I found
Bikenbabia which rented me
a bike to be dropped off in Santiago. They delivered it to my hotel - I had splurged for my birthday and stayed the night at the fabulous
Hostal San Marcos.
What I found useful was the inclusion of saddlebags which allowed me to pack them with my stuff and send my backpack (and useless stuff) through a Correos office in Leon for pickup in Compostela for a few Euros. The national Spanish Post Office has
hugely improved its services to pilgrims in recent years with its
Camino-Oriented web site.
I made sure I got the
right size bike. AFAIK bikenbabia is not located in Leon, staff lives in a mountain suburb - they arrive with a truckful of stuff and alternative bikes and tools - a mobile shop, sort of.
They rent most basic models now for about 200€ for a week from Leon, 250€ from Burgos and so on. I noted they even have e-bikes (yikes!) for something like 325€. For a week, that is
mucho. An alternative is
buying a used bike (hundreds for sale all over Spain on kijiji-like web sites (Segundomano, MilAnuncios), ideally with a rack, buying second-hand panniers and pedaling off into the sunrise.
I did that in Zafra on the Via de la Plata, finding a private seller from a website, buying a clunker an hour later for 50€ (with 50€ more for a checkup and accessories at a bikeshop) and in the end
giving the bike to the Camino Office in Santiago who handed it over to the needy - they are accostumed to this type of donation.
That said, going from two feet to two wheels changes everything, the
plus is the freedom to
explore surroundings of towns (
Las Medulas from Ponferrada 100km west of Leon is a must), detours and adventure which you don't really feel like doing when entering a town after walking 25 k's for 6 hours with 8 kilos on your back. You do the math.
The
minus for some is that switching to a bike in the middle of a camino, you quit "the group", supposing you are a "groupie", your co-pilgrims who mostly have the same pace and whom you are glad (or not) to meet day after day. You become, showing up as a biker in a new group of walking pilgrims,
an outsider — because you seem "in a hurry", aloof and seemingly unconcerned with their pace and intimacy.
But then, are we doing the Camino to meet people, be
part of a group or to meet with
our Inner Self ? That's a whole 'nother story.