• What You Need
• To Buy or Rent?
• A Word About Helmets
• Maps
• African Biking Shirts
• Blue Marble Bike Jerseys
• Luggage Storage / Shipment Within Europe
• Price List of Items / Services for Rent or Sale

You need some equipment for your cycle trip. What you must procure depends on what you already own. Whether you rent or buy will depend on whether you ever intend to do this again.


What You Need

• A set of rear paniers, or some other “main” piece of luggage to be carried on the back of your bike. These are not indispensible if you are subscribing to our “Daily” Baggage Transfer service (or if you are going on a “Day Excursion from Paris”): you can probably get anything you would need into the handlebar bag, or you could bring a small backpack to bungie to the rear of your cycle.
  
• A front handlebar bag, which can be quickly attached to and removed from the bike, for carrying things to which you need frequent access, and for carrying your valuables. Should have a shoulder strap.
  
• Whatever you decide on for rain gear.
• A genuine, hand-sewn, African Biking Shirt. Well, “need” may be a bit strong here.

Jump to price list.


The following are supplied for free. Even if you own them, you don’t need to bring your own:

• A presta valve cycle pump.
• A combination cable bike lock (don't worry, we have a wonderful trick to get you to remember the combo, involving neither violence nor intimidation).
• A water bottle holder (regular, not oversized).
• A summary tool kit (tire irons, patch kit, allen keys, a couple of basic wrenches).
• A spare inner tube.
  

In addition, if you are on other than a day trip, see our packing list for a discussion of more optional accessories.

We have this stuff available to you in our Paris office, or you can request that it be sent to the start of your trip if you do not pass through Paris. If you are passing through our Paris office, you may tell us what you want when you get there, and pay on the spot. If you are meeting the trip at its start point, you should order in advance (just send us an email). We will add the items to your invoice, but you may still pay locally if you prefer (cash or check only, in that case).

This service is intended as a convenience, not a profit center, so we hasten to point out that stuff you already own will often do. For instance, a soft-sided sack or duffel that droops down on both sides of a bike’s back rack (so to lower your center of gravity) can replace the rear paniers. But if you bring something other than purpose-built cycle luggage, be sure to actually test ride a bike at home, with your planned baggage bungied on.


To Buy or to Rent?
If you are about to start full-time work as a couch potato, or you get your next vacation when you make partner, buying bike luggage may not be high on your list of priorities. This stuff is not really suitable for wall hanging (except maybe for the African biking shirt). In this case, renting is cheaper and easier.

Of course, buying what you need lets you keep it. Also, if you are not signing up for our Baggage Transfer service, buying at least the rear paniers in North America lets you pack directly into them, rather than carry a bag to the start of your trip, repack into the paniers, and ship your bag on to the end of the trip. We usually have sets of our 40-liter rear paniers available in our US office: ask if you are interested. There are many cheaper paniers available, but most designs are spectacularly inferior. Forewarned is forearmed. Conversely, ours (designed for multiple and intensive use) are probably better than you need for a single trip....

Jump to price list.


A Word About Helmets
Bike helmets have definite safety advantages.... We urge you to bring one and use it for more than just wine tasting. We do not have them to rent, however. If you are travelling before or after our trip, and do not wish to carry a helmet around, we can sell you an adequate “disposable,” or a “better one” — see prices below — so that you don’t have to haul the thing all over the place.

There are no adult helmet laws in Europe (though there are some that apply to children). Nor is it legal for a private European company to substitute its judgement for national legislation. You are thus not required to wear a helmet on our trips, although we advise you to do so!

Spain’s mercifully replaced “new Europe” Aznar government (in 2004 we called it “soon-to-be-replaced,” and in 2005 “recently replaced”) passed the strongest anti-cyclist legislation we have ever heard of, and which has not been rolled back as far as we know. A cyclist not wearing a helmet is considered to be solely responsible for any and all effects of any accident in which he or she is involved, regardless of the behavior of any other vehicle or driver involved in an accident. So, for instance, a drunk driver travelling at 165 mph on a country road runs you down, then runs into a tree: you (or your estate) take care of his family for the rest of your days, unless you were wearing your helmet. Or something like that.... Fortunately, this has never happened on any of our trips.


Maps
You should only buy these if you want to mark them up, or keep them as souvenirs.

We supply maps for navigation during the course of the trip. They are to a scale of 1:150000 or 1:200,000 (1:400,000 in Galicia, various in Denmark, Norway; and on our Northern Europe route). They cost between 10 and 15 €uros each, depending on their manufacturer (Denmark’s and Norway’s are more costly). To have complete map coverage of your route, using our maps, you would need the following:

• 1 for Southern Burgundy, Provence, Alsace, Ile-de-France, Tuscany, Switzerland, Galicia, Umbria or the Italian Lakes.
• 2 for Northern Burgundy, Champagne, the Loire, the Cévennes, the Basque Country, the Dordogne Valley, Denmark or Portugal.
• 3 for Norway; Austria, or Northern Europe.
• For Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal and the Basque Country, 1:400.000 “overview” maps can be bought as alternate souvenirs.

African Biking Shirts
One current of Blue Marble thought espouses anti-bike-gear bike gear. Those of us in this club exercise our sartorial freedom in every aspect of equipment (shoes, socks, headgear...), but the one that gets the most notice is our choice of biking shirts. In lieu of lycra, we wear button-down, all-cotton shirts, hand-sewn in Togo from cloth bought on the Lomé market.

Vibrantly-colored African cloth achieves approximately the visibility of the garbage-collector vests currently in vogue, and shows up better on flash photos. Button-down cotton provides the ventilation of lycra and then some, and dries as quickly. And you cut your panier contents by half: you wear a clean shirt to dinner, and then ride in the same shirt the next day.

We keep a few of these shirts in stock for our riders, frankly more as a smile (and a way to buy something in a not-very-well-off country where friends are going through a hard time) than as a profit center.

While supplies last, there are two sizes (L and XL — these things should be worn large), and you may select between three basic color themes (blue-greens, at left, modeled by Michel; vibrant, center, modeled by Carlos; and earth tones, at right, modeled by Nicolas). Note that every shirt is unique, no two cut from the same cloth, so you will almost certainly not wind up with precisely the shirt pictured.

Jump to price list.


And Pro Bike Gear Bike Gear: Blue Marble Bike Jerseys.

Can you believe it? Despite the total lack of interest on the part of our anti-bike-gear bike geer enthusiasts (who have a lifetime supply of African biking shirts -- see above), we are offering full-zip, short-sleeved, 3-color, Nalini jerseys, made in Italy. Our in-house bike geek Jeff Kralik assures us that they are up to hardcore biking standards. But the logo includes a wine bottle, so no one will confuse you with the folk on the Tour de France. Unless Georges DuBoeuf has started sponsoring a team....

When ordering, please be sure to indicate quantity and size. Sizes are XXL, XL, L, and M.

And, depending on the response, we may even do biking socks (not available in African version).

Jump to price list.


Luggage Storage / Shipment Within Europe
If you are passing through Paris before and after your trip, you may store luggage in our Paris office. Storage cost while you are travelling on our cycle trip (including a couple of days on each side to reach and / or leave your trip) is minor (see chart, below), and is free with panier rental. If you store luggage at other times during a year in which you travel with us, you receive a 50% discount on our regular (public) storage rates.

Luggage is stored in a baggage room. You, our guests, often go to your bags on your own to put things in or take them out, so people are in and out without supervision. We are not responsible in the event of a theft of any sort, of your luggage or its contents, unless you have insured the piece, and the entire piece is stolen. In this case we are responsible up to the amount insured. It is probably worth mentioning that we have never had a theft of any sort. Frankly, you aren’t the type. But since you, personally, will probably be the first victim, we suggest you not leave objects of value in your luggage....

If you want luggage forwarded to the end of your trip, we offer a “One Way Baggage Shipment” service. Details are described on the page linked.