Need a bike in Tahiti-any ideas are welcome
 

My concerns are getting there and the road conditions in Tahiti
I will be in Tahiti July 1-31. Yes it gets hot. I am 55 , female, good shape and will be with my daughter 14 years old. We are traveling from Bozeman, Montana to Los Angeles. We will be in Los Angeles for a few days but won't need the bike there, just have to cart it around. From LA we fly direct to Tahiti. From airport in Tahiti we take a taxi to a ferry, which takes us to the island of Moorea, and then another taxi to the hotel.

The main road is about a 20 miles around the island, mostly flat a couple hills. It is coral and can get slippery and there can be a lot of rain. The road is 2 lane, narrow, no shoulder, speed limit is about 20 mph which is not always enforced.
Main uses of the bikes would be grocery shopping and going out to eat. There are some dirt roads to the beach. It would be nice to do a couple round trips on the island. I probably will not take the bikes back the US. I have friends there or I could sell them.

Any thoughts/Thanks/Aleksi

What's your budget, and how tall? Do you need bikes for the both of you?

My initial guess would be Downtube Mini.

I was thinking about 2 bikes. I'm 5'6" she's 5'3". I was figuring it would probably cost $500 a bike. I don't know what it will cost to get it all to Tahiti, so obviously less expensive would be better.

The Downtube Minis are the right size for you and are less than $500 each. They are 8 speed bikes. They have quite a good reputation. I also have one - click on my signature link to see my write-up on it.

You buy these directly from the web site at downtube.com. The owner has a good return policy so you could buy one now, have it within a few days, try it out before commiting yourself for another on. Any questions can be answered here by the many happy owners or at the web site.

Did you check with the hotel to see if they offered bike rentals on a weekly or monthly basis? Or just rent bikes as you need them.

I would rent there but there are never enough bikes and the ones they have are the heavy balloon that are always in need of repair. It actually is cheaper to rent a car. They are at least $10 hr or $25-30 a day so after 10 days it adds up. Also I feel sure I could sell them there for the same price. If you think how rare it is to see a folding bike is here in the US you can imagine what a novelty it would be there.

Just have some bikes mailed to your friends. This will be much easier and cheaper than flying with folders in suitcases.

If you think you'll have an easier time selling a folder then you could get one, but I think it'd be better to forget about folders altogether.

Don't get a folder
 

I like that idea of mailing the bikes. I'll look into that too. What's your reason for not getting a folder?

Ask your friends if there is something like a WalMart or Kmart around. Shipping a bike costs so much now that you can buy a new WalMart bike for about the same, then give it away. I bought a Huffy Sante Fe cruiser on Maui for US $99. I knew it wouldn't last, but since it was brand new it worked fine for riding around the island (literally, since we did a circumnavigation tour). I brought a dis-assembleable, luggage sized trailer with me (http://www.jamesframes.com/trailers.html) and took the trailer home again. No airline fees for the trailer. The bike still looked almost new when I gave it to the Salvation Army. I'd recommend against the folder, since I'm betting the roads suck. Tiny wheels and bad roads are a poor combination (I did a similar tour with a Dahon).

I personally have a few folders, but I don't think you need one and since you seem to know nonfolders pretty well it will just be more work/effort for you to learn which folder would be good for you.

This one is $100 more but I think it would be a good bike for your trip and I like the fold. http://www.blackdogbicycles.com/ther...ldingbike.html

Tahiti
 

Thanks for the link on trailers. There isn't anything like a Kmart or Walmart or anywhere to get a cheap bike. It's not like Hawaii at all, even a crummy bike is expensive because everything is expensive there.
I definitely hear what you and others wrote about not getting a folder at all. I think that you and the others have said is good advice.

(maybe I'll get a Razor)