Buscando tres bicis (en ingles)

[Hykue]

Hello to everyone.  I have read the other posts about this topic, but I thought I would post my story and see if anyone could give a bit more information.

The short question is this:  Where in Seville could we get used mountain bicycles for under 100 euros?  Is Seville a good place to do this, or are there more (or cheaper) bicycles elsewhere in Andalusia?  In general, what are the Spanish names of the kinds of places to look for used bicycles?  (In Canada, I would tell people to look at pawn shops, second-hand stores, etc).  Where is a good place to donate our bicycles to when we finish our trip?

The story is as follows:  Myself and two friends are going to England to work for a little while, then going to cycle in Andalusia.  We'll be arriving in February.  One of us will be there for one month, two of us will be there for two months.  We would have to spend a lot in luggage fees to get our bikes to Spain, as it would be two flights each way, or one flight and one train trip each way.  It seems like it will be more economical to get bikes there instead.  If we were in Canada, we would look at pawn shops and find bikes that worked for $50, or even go to the dump and find bikes that we could fix for $50.  If we couldn't do that, we would go to Wal-mart and get cheap bikes, and hope that they would last the trip.

I think I read another post about the best brand at "superficies" (I think that was the word) and you all said not to get one, but if we had to do that, about what would it cost?  I assume these are comparable to Wal-mart here.  Low quality, low price, but probably we could expect them to last for a month or two.  I know a lot of the recommendations were to look on ebay or sites like that, but I'm not sure how we would do that with no Spanish address.

I can think of a couple of other options, but they have problems.  If anyone had an old MTB that they didn't use much and wanted to rent it to us, that might work.  The problems here are that no-one wants to risk their bike and that we want to go from Seville to Granada (or Granada to Seville), not make a loop.  The only other thing I could think of would be to buy a new bike that someone there wants, then give them a little off of the price for the use of it.  I know, that's a long shot.

Finally, sorry about writing in English.  It seemed likely that your English is better than my Spanish.  If something is not clear, please ask.  Feel free to answer in Spanish.  Please use simple words, as if you were speaking to a child.

[kamikaze]

Para empezar, Feliz Año Nuevo, my friend.
Mi inglés no es bueno, pero algo he entendido.
Lo único que te puedo ofrecer es un sitio donde guardar tus MTB cuando no estés en España. Dispongo de un garage grande y 3 bicicletas no molestan.
Si te interesa yo vivo en La Linea de la Concepción, te viene bien porque supongo que viajan desde Gibraltar.
Un abrazo

[Fran Cortes]

Hi "Hykue"

First of all, let us know some aspects of your trip:

- How much time you'll rest at the TA
- What section of the TA you'll ride
- Arriving airport
- Are you interested in a guided trip too?

I hope you'll enjoy Transandalus

[Hykue]

Gracias, y Feliz Año Nuevo a ustedes tambien.  Estoy un poco mas valiente ahora, y trato de escribir en español.

Por el primero, los cortas preguntas en español.
1.  ¿En Seville, que es un buen lugar para comprando bicicletas de montaña usadas por menos de 100 euros?
2.  ¿Es Seville un buen lugar para buscando bicis economicas, o hay un otro lugar en Andalusia con mas (o mas economicas) bicicletas?
3.  ¿En general, como se llama los tiendas donde puede comprar bicicletas usadas?  En Canada, son "pawn shops" o " second-hand stores".  ¿Como se llama esta tipo de tienda en España?
4.  ¿Que es un buen lugar para regalar los bicicletas cuando volveremos a Canada?

Ahora, mas de la historia.  En los dos lenguajes, si tengo suficiente energia.

Nuestro plan es ya un poco rudo.  Vamos de Canada a Inglaterra por el fin de enero.  En Inglaterra, vamos a plantar árboles como trabajo.  Esta es como podemos pagar para la viaje.  Al empeza de febrero, volamos a Andalusia.  Los vuelos mas baratos ir a Seville o a Granada, y por esto queiramos volar a uno de los dos ciudades.  Hay vuelos baratos a Córdoba tambien, pero esta ciudad ya tiene mas frío en febrero.  Un otro motivo para empezando en Seville es porque mi amigo quien tiene solo un mes para viajando quiere ir a Morocco, y Seville es la ciudad mas cerca.  (Hay, escribiendo español es tan difícil, solo espero que pueden entenderlo.)  Quieremos adquirir bicicletas en la misma ciudad donde llega el vuelo.  Sí es Seville, vamos de Seville a las rutas de transandalus de vuestro pagina de web, al sur.  Vamos por Cádiz, visitamos Morocco por un poco de tiempo (tal vez menos de una semana), y luego continuamos en las rutas transandalus al norte por Malaga y Granada.  Cuando llegamos a la ciudad de Granada, regalamos (espero que esta es una palabra) los bicicletas a algunos personas quien pueden usarlos, o regalamos a una organización benéfica.  Volver volando a Inglaterra y de allí a Canada (es mucho mas barato que volando de España a Canada).  Uno de nosotros tiene un mes en Andalusia, y yo y mi esposo tenemos dos meses.

Pasado dos años, yo y mi esposo viajamos por el estado de California y casi todo de Mexico en una bicicleta para dos personas (tandem).  Solo viajamos en las carreteras, y estamos listos para un cambio.  No tenemos el dinero para una viaje guiado.  Está el mismo motivo para no traer nuestro bicicleta de aquí, es demasiado cara.

Gracias, kamikaze, por su ofrecimiento, está muy amable, pero no lo ayudarnos.  Entiendo la dificultad de entendiendo la primera mensaje todo en ingles.  Por esto, voy a copiar todo de esto mensaje a ingles tambien, por la esperanza que puedo aclarar todos los errores.

Our plan is a little rough.  We're going from Canada to England at the end of January.  In England we're going to work, planting trees.  That is how we'll pay for our trip.  At the start of February, we'll fly to Andalusia.  The cheapest flights are to Seville or Granada, so we would like to fly to one of these cities.  There are cheap flights to Cordoba too, but that city is colder still in February.  Another reason to fly to Seville is that my friend who has only a month to travel wants to go to Morocco too, and Seville is the closest city with cheap flights.  We want to get bicycles in the same city where the flight arrives.  If that is Sevile, we will go south on the transandalus route from this website into Cadiz.  We will go south to the coast, visit Morocco for a short while (maybe less than a week), and then come back to Andalusia and continue on the transandalus route to the north through Malaga and into Granada.  When we get to Granada city, we will give away our bikes to people who can use them or to a charity.  We will fly back to England, and from there to Canada (it's much cheaper than flying from Spain to Canada).  My friend has one month in Andalusia, and my husband and I have two months.

Two years ago, my husband and I rode the whole state of California and most of Mexico on a tandem bicycle.  We only rode on the roads, and we are ready for a change.  We don't have the money for a guided trip.  That's the same reason we don't bring our bicycle from home: it would be too expensive.

Thank you, and I hope my Spanish is good enough that you can understand.
Gracias, y espero que escribo español suficientemente bueno que pueden entenderlo.

Julie

[Franarboleas24]

Hi there!

Your idea is a really, really good one, so I hope you'll finally sort this problems out.

I'm gonna try answer your questions:
1 and 2. Seville is a really good place to find used bikes under 100 euros. Check some pages, like milanuncios.com, mundoanuncio.com or segundamano.com. There you can find some really good ones for that price (even cheaper than that). Also, you can try at some of Seville's Cashconverters (shops where you can buy and sell second hand stuff).

3. You can say "Tienda de segunda mano". Is the usual thing 'cos they don't have a widespread name.

4. You can try at the local Red Cross or some of the local NGO.

Anyway, I never trusted those cheaps bikes from the supermarkets 'cos they are awfully made and soooo weak... But, I believe they'll last one month... I hope so...
Also, I want to tell you that, in February, riding in Granada you'll feel like riding during the Ice Age, so bring A LOT of warm clothes!!

Good luck!

[Hykue]

Esta vez, tendré traductor de google para hacer el trabajo para mí. Ustedes me pueden decir si es mejor o peor.

Hace un momento me di cuenta que yo no he dicho lo más importante  Gracias mil veces por toda la infomación aquí sobre el transandalus.  Sin esto, probablemente han viajado sólo en las carreteras, así que no puedo agradecer a todos lo suficiente.

Ahora tengo unas preguntas más.

Para kamikaze, creo que no he entendido bien su oferta. -Usted decía que podamos mantener nuestras bicicletas en el garaje, mientras que estamos en Marruecos, ¿verdad? Lo siento por los malentendidos. Eso podría ser una buena idea. Incluso si no lo hacen, es una oferta muy amable. Gracias de nuevo por eso.

Para Fran Cortés, cuando se le preguntó si queríamos un viaje guiado, eso significa que usted tiene una empresa que hace los viajes? Si es así, ¿alquila bicicletas? Si el precio del alquiler no es demasiado alta, estaremos encantados de apoyar a empresas locales para el cicloturismo. Todos los precios que vimos costaría demasiado, pero tal vez en la temporada baja que podría obtener un descuento. Parece que sería más fácil que tratar de comprar bicicletas usadas.

Por último, para Franarboleas, gracias por responder a mis preguntas específicas. Eso ayuda a aliviar mis preocupaciones. Sería muy embarazoso para llegar a España para un viaje en bicicleta y luego ser incapaz de obtener bicicletas. Aparte de eso, estamos bastante seguros de que nuestro plan es una buena idea. Nuestro amigo es un poco triste de que haya sólo un mes para hacer todo lo que quiere. Estoy muy contento de que mi esposo y yo tenemos dos meses. Dependiendo de qué tan rápido vamos, podríamos ser capaces de hacer mucho más de la TransAndalus. En cuanto al frío en Granada, acamparemos aquí en la primavera, cuando los charcos congelar todas las noches. Esperemos que esto significa que será preparada.

Voy a llevar un diario en nuestro viaje y tomar fotos, que voy a publicar aquí, si ustedes quieren ver. Tal vez que me impulsan a ordenarlos en realidad, a diferencia de nuestras fotos de México.

Como nota al margen, el traductor de Google hace esto mucho más fácil. Sospecho que también es más claro que mi escritura, que tiene muy poco de gramática. Parece haber llegado la mayoría de lo que escribí correcto. Excelente.

Gracias de nuevo!

[europeancyclist]

Hi Hykue,

I am sure that if you look around Seville you can find bikes in your price range. Check out Cambalache.es - It's a weekly magazine for used stuff, but they also have an online version. You can filter your search by type of product (bike), province (Seville) and price range. This can give you some ideas of what might be available in the area.

I also have another suggestion, since you never know what your getting when you buy used. There is a sports store chain here in Europe called Decathlon. There is a store right on the TA in El Puerto de Santa Maria. I suspect there might be others in Seville, but I am not sure. They sell a basic mountain bike for around 129€, I believe. If you get the store card, they give you a discount, and the bikes come to 99€. The card has no fees or obligations, as far as I know. I have four children and several of these "cheapo" bikes, and though very basic - they are incredibly reliable (compared to most department store bikes). I used to work in a bike shop in college, so I believe I have some basis to make the previous statement. Anyway, just some ideas. (You could easily take the train from Seville to the store in El Puerto de Santa Maria - there is new train station right in front of it.)

Feel free to ask if you have anymore questions, I live right on the TA just a few miles down from the store (and no I am not affiliated with them in any way.)

[Fran Cortes]

There is another Decathlon store just in Seville

[europeancyclist]

I checked out the Decathlon website. As far as I can see there are two stores near Seville, on the outskirts. Alcalá de Guadaira is to the east closer to the airport, but Camas seems to have better bikepath connections. And might be closer to both the center and the TA. If you are interested, you can check out the really amazing bikepath map here: http://www.red.carrilbicisevilla.es/. Also, you may be pleasantly surprised to find out how good the Google Street View coverage is in Andalusia, especially Seville. Microsoft's Bing also has really good Bird's Eye coverage of Seville.

[ROBERTO]

hello friend,

in Spain we are not accustomed to thrift stores bicycles. The cheapest you can find is the following link: www.hertohu.com.
if you look at our Site, we will observe a link that says, bicycles hertohu.
This sends the bike shop you're going for very little money. For 70 € you have several models of bicycles.

I hope I have helped.

[xabiru]

I think it all depends on the piece of TA you are doing.
If you are doing the whole TA,you will need a good one.

Mine wasn´t quite in the best conditions and had to spend some cash in a new chain and tires.
If you are renting one,beside the price,take care of the condition of the bike, most of all, tires,gears and  brakes.

I recently rented one in Tenerife and as the tires and the pads were quite wasted I almost had an accident downhilling near Teide.

Whatever you decide I would recommend you doing the whole TA,people working on this page have done and awesome job and you will cycle through pretty beatiful places.