E-Bike Hire on the Western Edge of the Black Forest near Offenburg and Strasbourg/Straßburg

The Black Forest features some serious climbs and those of us who are long in years are beginning to think about renting an e-bike, rather than our usual technique of cheating by sticking to river valleys and even taking to the train or bus to ascend the hills. Over the next few weeks we will try to list those hotels, organisations and shops who rent out e-bikes in the Black Forest. We will also try to mention in addition whether a hire company has normal bikes in case you have purists or keeny-beanies in your party. There are over two hundred e-bike charging points in the Black Forest and a goodly number of hire points. While your bike is charging you can lunch or eat a serious sized portion of Black Forest gateau. (All of the portions of BFG in this neck of the woods are enormous.) Obviously you need to check beforehand whether your hire point has bikes available and whether in the case of a hotel the management is prepared to hire to non-guests. You will need a passport or identity card and probably a returnable deposit to hire the bikes in addition to the rental fee.

Where	Tel/Internet	Open	Comment
Vier Jahreszeiten Almstr 49 77770 Durbach	T: +49(0)781 932010 www.vierjahreszeiten-durbach.de	Mon-Sun 6:30am-11pm	2 E-Bikes  Day 25€  Second day 20€
Zweirad Experte Evers Freiberger Str 9 77652 Offenburg	T: +49(0)78124998 www.zweiradexperte-evers.de	Mon-Fri 9:30am-6:30pm Sat: 9:30-4:30pm	5 E-Bikes Half Day 20€ Day 30€
Sparkassen-Garage, City Parkhaus,  Gustav-Ree-Anlage 2 77652 Offenburg	T: +49(0)781 76253	Mon-Sat 7am-8pm	12 E-Bikes Day 12€ With KONUS Card: 8€ Short term loan of unpowered bicycles free of charge.
fahrrad magazin Ortenbergerstr 6-8 77652 Offenburg	T: +49(0)781 9481396 www.fahrradmagazin.de	Mon-Fri 9:30am-1pm & 2pm-6:30pm Sat: 9am-4pm	5 E-Bikes Half Day 25€ Day From 35€ Week From 150€ Month From 300€ The shop also offers a wide range of unpowered bicycles to hire.

The Fahrrad magazin shop is moderately expensive, but you can hire for a week and return the bikes on the day after the hire period up to 12pm at no extra charge. Their hire e-bikes may well be Flyers - high quality expensive Swiss products. In a week you could probably visit a lot of the Black Forest, eat your weight in cream cakes and carry all the cuckoo clocks you choose to buy. It's worth thinking about for week's holiday. There are local regional airports in Baden-Baden, Strasbourg and Basel with good public transport connections to Offenburg and it's not that far to Frankfurt International. You could also take Eurostar, TGV to Strasbourg and then a local train to Offenburg in about seven hours from London.

An electrically assisted trip around the Black Forest may well be on the Forsyth list of things to do this year. We have wanted to try out an e-bike for five years now

E-Bike Hire in the Black Forest on its western edge near Baden-Baden, Buhl and Achern

The Black Forest features some serious climbs and those of us who are long in years are beginning to think about renting an e-bike, rather than our usual technique of cheating by sticking to river valleys and even taking to the train or bus to ascend the hills. Over the next few weeks we will try to list those hotels, organisations and shops who rent out e-bikes in the Black Forest. We will also try to mention in addition whether a hire company has normal bikes in case you have purists or keeny-beanies in your party. There are over two hundred e-bike charging points in the Black Forest and a goodly number of hire points. While your bike is charging you can lunch or eat a serious sized portion of Black Forest gateau. (All of the portions of BFG in this neck of the woods are enormous.) Obviously you need to check beforehand whether your hire point has bikes available and whether in the case of a hotel the management is prepared to hire to non-guests. You will need a passport or identity card and probably a returnable deposit to hire the bikes in addition to the rental fee.

Where	Tel/Internet	Open	Comment
Zweirad Fuhr In den Lissen 16 76547 Sinzheim	+49(0)7221 3776505	Mon-Fri 9am-12:30pm. 2pm-6:30pm Sat 9am-2pm	5 e-bikes 28€ Day
Schwarzwälder Hof Kirchstr 38 77855 Achern	+49(0)7841 69680 www.hotel-sha.de	Tue-Sat 11-23:00 Sun: 10-14:00 Closed Mon	2 ebikes 15€ Half day 25€ Day
Naturparkhotel Holzwurm Am Altenrain 12 77877 Sasbachwalden	+49(0) 7841 20540 www.holzwurmwirt.de	Apr-Oct: 8-22:00 daily	2 e-bikes  Half day: 11€ Day 19€
H Engel, Talstr 14, 77877 Sasbachwalden	+49(0) 7841 3000 www.engel-sasbachwalden.de	Tue-Sun: 8-23:00 Closed Mondays	2 e-bikes  Half day: 11€ Day 19€
Zweiradwelt Rest Oberacherner Str 77 77855 Achern	www.rest-web.de	Mon-Fri: 9-18:00 Sat: 9-13:00	4 e-bikes Day 20€
Ferienhof Fischer Busterbach 13 77889 Seebach	+49(0)7842 2751 www,ferienhof-fischer.de	Ring to make an appointment.	2 e-bikes  Half day: 14€  Day: 24€
Berghotel Mummelsee Schwarzwaldhochstr 11 77889 Seebach	+49(0) 7842 99286 www.mummelsee.de	Daily 9-22:00	2 e-bikes  Half day: 14€  Day: 24€ On Black Forest Hochstraße

E-Bike Hire in the Black Forest near Karlsruhe

The Black Forest features some serious climbs and those of us who are long in years are beginning to think about renting an e-bike, rather than our usual technique of cheating by sticking to river valleys and even taking to the train or bus to ascend the hills. Over the next few weeks we will try to list those hotels, organisations and shops who rent out e-bikes in the Black Forest. We will also try to mention in addition whether a hire company has normal bikes in case you have purists or keeny-beanies in your party. There are over two hundred e-bike charging points in the Black Forest and a goodly number of hire points. While your bike is charging you can lunch or eat a serious sized portion of Black Forest gateau. (All of the portions of BFG in this neck of the woods are enormous.) Obviously you need to check beforehand whether your hire point has bikes available and whether in the case of a hotel the management is prepared to hire to non-guests. You will need a passport or identity card and probably a returnable deposit to hire the bikes in addition to the rental fee.

Where	Tel/Internet	Open	Bikes/Cost/Comment
eBike Station 1        Gutembergstr 1 76275 Ettlingen	+49(0)7243 5054282 www.ebike-station1.de	10-18:00 Wed/Sat 10-13:00 Closed Sun	5 ebikes 15€ Half day 25€ Day
Hotel Watthalden Pforzheimer Str 67a 76275 Ettlingen	www.hotel-watthalden.de	Daily	Enquire  30€ Half day 39€ Day
Zink Cycling Siemensstr 45 76307 Karlsbad-Langensteinbach	+49(0)7202 40091 www.Zink-cycling.de	Mon-Fri:9-12:30, 15:00-18:30	3 ebikes 25€ Day Has normal bikes to rent in addition

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Rails to Trails in Germany: The Bahnradweg Hessen

One of the good things about travel fairs like the CMT in Stuttgart is that it introduces you to areas that you have completely overlooked in the past. We had an interesting ten minutes or so chatting to a young woman on the Wetterau stand/booth. Where? It is a hilly area NE of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The BahnRadweg Hessen runs from Hanau NE to Fulda and Bad Hersfeld. The route offers about 400km of cycleways in two loops in combination with other routes. The route is based on old railway lines and so there are fewer steep climbs than you would expect, or so I am told. This route is on our list for a tryout in April or May this year and we will report back.
The route runs through the Rhön and Vogelsberg Mittelgebirge (hill regions). There are a number of interesting towns and sights on the route:

• Hanau with its connections to the Brothers Grimm
• Keltenwelt in Glauburg, a museum, archeological park and research centre
• Gelnhausen with its historic half timbered houses, moated castle and churches
• Lauterbach - half timbered Altstadt (old city heart)
• Schlitz - castles and towers and half timbered houses
• Fulda with its baroque cathedral and residences
• Bad Hersfeld with Germany's oldest cast bell, a local museum and the ruins of the biggest early churches in the world
• Point Alpha Memorial - on the former DDR-FRG border. This about four km from the route and well worth visiting. 

There are a number of spa towns on the route, so it's not all history and landscape, there are large scale swimming multi-pool parks with steam baths and saunas in Bad Hersfeld, Bad Salzschlirf, Baden-Allensdorf and Herbstein. All of these spa towns have active programmes of concerts and events.

Half timbered houses in Lauterbach (Foto Region Vogelsberg Touristik)

Milseburg Tunnel (Foto Region Vogelsberg Touristik) 

Underway on the Bahnradweg (Foto Region Vogelsberg Touristik)

Mont Ventoux, again!

We went to the CMT caravanning and tourism exhibition in Stuttgart today. It is the reputedly the biggest tourism exhibition in the world. During the first weekend one hall has stands on cycling and walking. There are a lot of bikes to be seen and ridden on, which we largely ignored and checked out walking and cycling routes.
We discovered by chance the Ventoux Club Hôtelier (www.ventoux-hotel.fr), an association of  nine small independent hotels around Mont Ventoux:

• H La Garance, Bedoin, www.lagarance.fr
• H des Pins, Bedoin, www.hotel-des-pins.fr
• Safari H, Carpentras, www.safarihotel.fr
• H Montmirail, Vacqueyras, www.hotelmontmirail.com
• H Domaine des Tilleuls, Malaucène, www.hotel-domaindestilleuls.com
• H Villa Elaia, Puyméras, www.hotel-villaelaia.fr
• H le Saint-Marc, Mollans sur Ouvèze, www.santmarc.com
• L'oustau de la Font, Reilhanette, www.oustaudelafont.com
• H Le Louvre, Sault, www.hotel-restaurant-le-louvre.fr

The club offers you online booking in English. There are bike shops, bike hire stations, bike routes, baggage transfer and walking routes all over the area. If you are feeling brave enough you can even try Mont Ventoux by bike. We had a long talk with the proprietor of one of the hotels. The hotels look delightful and the prices seem reasonable. It's France so the food should be good. The only fly in the ointment would appear to be public transport. You might well have to get picked up from Orange or Avignon station or take a cab. I think the weather in October could well be quite pleasant and you might well meet us then.

Short Term City Hire Bikes in Heidelberg, Ludwigshafen and Mannheim

The "Südhessen Morgen" reported today that the VRN (Passenger Transport Authority) is setting up a Hire Bike System a la Velolib in Paris or Barclay Bikes in London from 27 March 2015 in Mannheim and 28 March 2015 in Heidelberg.   Nextbike in Leipzig has received the contract to supply the bicycles. Fifty two bicycle parking stations not only in the aforementioned cities but also in Ludwigshafen are planned, though not all will be opened in March. It has taken so long for the agreement to come to fruition because although two of the three cities (MA, HD) are in Baden-Württemberg, Ludwigshafen is in Rhineland-Paltinate and each of the states have different regulations about competitive bidding for public contracts. Mannheim itself has mixed feelings about the bicycle although the 200th anniversary of von Drais's trip on a hobby horse - the predecessor of the bicycle out to a pub, on what was the edge of Mannheim at the time falls in June 2017. Feelings ran and probably still run high about plans to slightly narrow the Bismarkstraße across the southern end of the city centre by constructing cycle and bus lanes. It will add a few seconds to a motorist's trip from Heidelberg to Ludwigshafen. The shopkeepers of Mannheim are afraid they will lose custom although parking in Mannheim is almost impossible except in underground garages etc., where it is not cheap.

How environmentally friendly are electrobikes?

Obviously we read any bicycle catalogue that comes into the house. I've noticed over the years that there is a tendency for advertisers to claim that their e-bikes are CO2 free. However, unless an owner has a wind, hydro or solar power unit to charge his or her e-bike some of the power used to charge the battery will have been generated by fossil fuel fired stations, except if you live in France where the majority of electricity is generated by nuclear stations.
As well, the extraction and purification processes of the components of the lithium ion batteries normally used in e-bikes need power, i.e. generate CO2. After several hundred charge and discharge cycles the battery's capacity is much reduced. The battery needs to be replaced. Traditionally at least in my experience old mobile phones are popped in a drawer and forgotten about. Whether this happens with bike or even car batteries, probably not, but at the moment recycling rates are between 4 and 5%. Recovering metals from lithium-ion batteries has a 90% smaller ecological footprint than primary mining.
There is a lot of room for improvement in bike battery recycling, but on the other hand a car not only emits CO2, but also other combustion products, so cyclists even e-cyclists are helping air quality by  emitting less CO2 and filtering combustion products through their lungs. In addition CO2 output is directly related to the weight being moved. A VW Golf weighs about 1500kg (1.5ton). A fat cyclist on an e-bike has a total weight of 150kg, i.e. 10% of a motorist in a medium sized car, so the CO2 output will be much smaller.
The answer to the question is "yes e-bikes are environmentally friendly, but better battery life and recycling will make them even more so".