Ghent/Oudenaarde bike hire

[Peregrine Roscorla]

I'm staying in Ghent for a weekend in August and was wondering if anyone had any experience/recommendations for bike hire either in Ghent or Oudenaarde if easier (just for the Saturday to do some of the RVV route).

I have found a few so far but would always prefer a recommendation from someone who has done it before!

Thanks

[samcrossley]

Can't help with the bike hire (sportfietsvehuur if you hadn't already got that) but I have a couple of routes for the cobbles that start from Gent - one down to Berchem and another to Geraardsbergen depending on which climbs you want to do.

[Peregrine Roscorla]

Thanks Sam, only there for one day so want the one with the most famous bits in it really, probably not more than 150k at most

[Esther Drabkin-Reiter]

I did this a couple of years ago when I was staying in Brussels. Got the train to Oudenaarde (trains are so cheap and easy in Belgium!) and rented a bike from Asfra. I had arranged it all with the owner beforehand over the phone (was concerned there might not be a bike small enough for me) but it ended up being a bit stressful in the morning as he had been rushed to hospital the night before and his mum opened the shop instead (who didn't know that much about bikes). But managed to get the bike sorted out myself and had a good ride on it - was a pretty decent carbon frame. I think I paid something like 25-30 euros for the day.

I did this route www.strava.com/activities/385688960 but the bit through Deinze up to Oude Kwaremont wasn't particularly interesting, and you could skip that out - the main nice thing about it is that you're on lovely traffic free cycle paths a lot of the time. Cobble climbs-wise I did Oude Kwaremont, Paterberg (cycled past the summit of the Molenberg which you could add in too), Koppenberg, Muur van Geraardsbergen (very nice cafe at the top) and a bonus unexpected one at the end - Eikenberg - a much gentler gradient. In Oudenaarde I was going to pop into the tour of flanders museum before catching the train back but in the end I only had time to visit the shop (which has some good cycling souvenirs).

Plum Bikes is the famous bike shop in Ghent and worth checking out - they might be able to advise on bike hire in Ghent.

Hope that helps!

[Esther Drabkin-Reiter]

Just noticed my profile picture here is one that a friendly elderly dutch couple took of me at the top of the Koppenberg