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