Southern California - Bike rental near Santa Monica that isn't junk?

Hi,

I'm visiting the LA area next week and have most of the day Sunday free after my plane gets in. Years ago I lived on the Westside, and rode the beach bike paths many times on my "easy" days...and wanted to take my son riding on the beach bike path...starting, say, in Santa Monica and then headed through Venice and down around Marina Del Rey and points further south.

Are there any bike rental places near the beach that rent something other than beach cruiser junk? Like a nice hybrid or mountain bike? We're not looking for high end bikes, just something to tool around on for a couple of hours that isn't beaten to death.

I don't have any strong memories of the bike rental places there (since I was living there and didn't need to rent), but what I remember wasn't good.

Thanks, in advance, for any help (if the places are better down in Manhattan Beach or Redondo Beach we'd be up for starting down there as well).

BB

If it's still there, there's a bike rental place right on the pier (not the ones under it or beside it, ON it) next to the pier police station I think. They have decent mountainbikes. I once rented a pretty nice tandem from them, mid-low grade (Alivio?) Shimano components, looked and ran great and they took the time to adjust the saddle and check for a halfway decent fit. Try them.

Most people love Tony (http://local.yahoo.com/details;_ylt=Ajj2hJ_9z4_yIiupLh6CUY.HNcIF?id=20516291&lsrc=results&p=rent+a+bicycle&csz=Santa+Monica%2C+CA&lcscb=6hRF0B3e8MK)...



Call first and make sure he still rents.

Thanks for the suggestions. I used to do rides in the Santa Monica mountains on Saturdays and then hit the beach bike path early Sunday mornings before the path got crowded with tourists riding beach cruisers.

Now that I'm going to be a tourist, I'll try not to get in anyone's way Sunday morning. Feel free to yell at me if I'm going too slow.

I won't yell

I ring my bell...;)

Hey, thanks for the suggestions....we ended up renting from the place on the Santa Monica pier mentioned above. Very convenient. Bikes were not great (in fact, kinda grim) but we had a great little ride down past the Marina and back.

The beach bike path was just as crazy-crowded as I remember -- but, as a "tourist", I noticed that the only people *not* having fun were the roadies trying to get through the Sunday crowds (I used to resemble that remark). It was actually fun to notice people of every shape/size/age having a good time on (usually) not-very-good bikes just tooling along, most with a smile on their faces.

It's been a long time since I just took a ride in jeans and tennis shoes on an ill-fitting, heavy-as-lead bike -- and still it was one of the best rides I've had in awhile.

Sorry to hear the bikes aren't still up to par. I'm always looking for a decent place to rent a tandem from. I might actually have to take one of the local members up on their offer and borrow their tandem some day.

Sorry to hear the bikes aren't still up to par. I'm always looking for a decent place to rent a tandem from. I might actually have to take one of the local members up on their offer and borrow their tandem some day.

We had some Friends come over from Sydney just before Christmas, we took them to Venice one Saturday and we stayed at the Cadillac Hotel, right on the Boardwalk...

The next Day we rented a couple of Tandems and rode up the Beach Path through Santa Monica, it was a lot of fun...

The Tandems were Beach Cruiser style, the Gears didn't work properly but we didn't care, it was all part of the fun...the Bikes were pretty beaten up...the Guy dishing out the Bikes was a miserable Tw@ but we didn't care....

That was our first, and so far last, time riding a Tandem...we had a blast!

We left the Ozzies in the dust :D