We are planning a lightly loaded tour of the San Juan Islands this summer. We'll ship my bike but will need to rent a rig for my wife. Thus I'm looking for a shop in Vancouver that will accept a bike shipment (Raleigh Tamland 2) as well as rent a small frame touring bike and panniers for my wife.

We'll have ground transportation once we arrive in Vancouver. Friends will pick us up at the airport, drive to the shop to pick up bikes, and then drive to the Tsawwessen ferry.

I'd be grateful for any recommendations for shops that might suit our needs.

Thanks.

I live south of seattle and toured the san juans last summer with some friends. One thought might be to just ship your bike to one of the islands, walk on the ferry and rent out there, unless you were planning to ride some when in Vancouver? The San Juans are hugely bike friendly and any/every shop will be touring savvy out there I think.

I don't know anything about this shop, other than the fact they hooked my friend up when he finally realized he needed some padded shorts midway through our trip:

Bicycle Rentals | Wildlife Cycles

Its in east sound on Orcas. Great ride there to the top of Mt. Constitution.

Anyway, like I said, this might not be an option if you want to ride while in Vancouver, but if you are looking for one just in the islands, it might work. I would bet if you were committing to pay to rent a bike for your wife for a week or whatever, they'd gladly accept your bike shipped in as part of the package. Just a thought.

2 shops you can try asking would be The Bike Doctor (thebikedr.com) or JVBike (jvbike.com) if they're willing to take your bikes. It can be tricky receiving bikes especially from another country due to customs issues and stores sometimes don't want to deal with them. Why not ship your Raleigh Tamland 2 to your friend's place and then drive to these 2 places and have them assemble it? The Bike Doctor has both road and hybrid bike rentals and they are a somewhat touring centric store than JVbike. In fact, why not just rent 2 bikes and have them configured with low gears. San Juan island, except Lopez, is not exactly flat as pancake. The other stores in Vancouver are more road performance oriented or mountain bike oriented. And just across the street from The Bike Doctor is the infamous MEC store!

Both of these stores can easily be accessible via dedicated bike paths and the Canada Line train and the train starts from the Airport. Very convenient. The same train takes you to Bridgeport exchange hub where you can take the Tsawwassen Express line (Bus #620 ) which has 2 bike racks upfront. From Bridgeport to the ferry terminal would only take about 33 minutes or so. I assume both of you will be taking the Sidney BC ferry to Friday harbour? That's an afternoon ferry so you have plenty of time and essentially don't need a car to go to the ferry and pay for parking fees. I've done this trip a few times already this format.