Looking at spending a day (or maybe two) in Napa/Sonoma/Russian River area in late September as a tourist cyclist (my wife and I are late '50s and do two rides totalling 40-75k per week casual biking in the summer so should be in reasonable shape by that time) and am looking into guided bike/winery tours.

We would need to rent a complete kit (comfort/hybrid bikes, helmets) as part of the deal. There seem to be a ton of these on the web so I am wondering if anybody can offer some suggestions to narrow our search - best locations, best rental company or ...

Any suggestions welcome.

I've used Napa Valley Bike Tours (http://www.napavalleybiketours.com/) before, and enjoyed it. My wife and I did their Ride, Wine, & Dine tour. You can bring your own pedals & shoes if you want.

You might look at the Santa Rosa Club web site, www.srcc.com lots of good rides listed. And for rental try Rincon Cyclery in Santa Rosa also, their web site www.rinconcyclery.com :o

Brian, some general info to consider -- If you want to combine a ride and wine tasting in Napa Valley, the two main winery/cycling roads are Highway 29 and Silverado Trail, which run parallel to each other. Highway 29 has more wineries, but Silverado Trail is a much better road to cycle on. Traffic on each goes fairly fast, but Silverado Trail has wide shoulders pretty much all the way from Napa to Calistoga, whereas Highway 29 is pretty variable; sometimes the shoulders are good, sometimes they're non-existent. And there's some generally more traffic on 29 than Silverado Trail.

Calistoga Bike Shop offers a package (http://calistogabikeshop.com/page.cfm?pageID=147) for a self-guided tour that sounds like a decent deal.

And St. Helena Cyclery has a deal (http://sthelenacyclery.com/page.cfm?pageID=42) where you can get a 2-for-1 rental (but it's just a rental, no other services provided).

Both Calistoga and St. Helena would be great places to start/end your ride.

Hello Brian,

The riding in Northern Sonoma County is wonderful with lightly traveled country roads and lots of options for all level of riders. Russian River Wine Road (www.wineroad.com) is a great resource for winery and appellation information.

Mary