Equipment for your cycling trip: Rent or buy?

We tested it and summarized the pros and cons for you.

High-quality equipment for your cycling trip can quickly cost several hundred or even over a thousand euros. But what if we're unsure whether investing in a high-quality product is even worthwhile? Is renting equipment for your cycling trip a good alternative? How well and spontaneously does equipment rental work, and for whom is it really worthwhile? We put it to the test.

Katrin tested two things: renting equipment for her cycling trip and using the first functions of the cyclebee app.

ADVERTISEMENT: Our team tester was Katrin. She spent ten days touring alone on her trekking bike. For our test, we contacted... Eddy's Adventure Katrin selected an ultralight bikepacking tent and a three-season sleeping mat. These products were provided to us free of charge for the test period. However, all procedures followed standard rental processes. You can find out exactly which products we tested at the end of this article. Katrin stayed at campsites during her tour.

From our office in Graz, we traveled across Austria:

• Mur cycle path to Leoben
• Iron Road to Hieflau
• Enns Cycle Path to Liezen
• Salzkammergut Cycle Path via Lake Hallstatt, Lake Wolfgang and Lake Fuschl to Salzburg
• Then on to her hometown in central Bavaria.

She planned the entire cycling trip, which followed official touring cycle routes, using the Cyclebee app. And yes, basically this list is all you need. 🙂

If you would like to test our map functions and the simple cycle route planning yourself, register with us as Test user:in.

Basically like online shopping: rent equipment for your cycling trip

Order products via the website – individually or as a package for your tour

Just like with online shopping, you add the items you need for your cycling trip to your shopping cart. You can either select everything individually, as we did, or rent a complete bundle. These bundles consist of coordinated products, such as a lightweight tent, a sleeping mat, a sleeping bag, and bikepacking bags. This way, you save money thanks to the package price and don't have to search for all the products separately.

If you are unsure what equipment you need, you can also get advice – either via chat or by phone.

For everything you add to your cart, you specify the rental period. The price is only calculated for your actual rental days. A small discount is also available for rentals of seven days or more.

Thanks to express delivery, your equipment will arrive in time for the start of your cycling trip.

Once you have ordered everything, the equipment will be delivered via express delivery on the start day of your trip.

The package contains everything you need:

• Important information
• The return label
• Your ordered equipment, of course.
• An energy bar 🙂

After the trip, it is sufficient to remove all coarse dirt, pack the equipment back into the designated bags and send it back.

High-quality, lightweight and like new: No feeling of "foreign" equipment

The tent, the matching groundsheet, and the sleeping mat were in like-new condition. Katrin didn't feel like she was using someone else's equipment. The quality of the tent and sleeping mat was excellent; everything was well-made, easy to use, and the small pack size made it perfect for her tour from Graz to Salzburg. And despite a few summer thunderstorms at night, everything in the tent stayed dry.

The advantages of renting equipment for your cycling trip

You can invest more specifically in equipment that you also use in everyday life.

If you're using traditional panniers, you probably use them frequently in your everyday life. This makes the investment of around €100 per bag pay off more quickly. Camping equipment is different. Here, it's worth doing the math:

You remain flexible and can adjust the equipment for your cycling trip at any time.

Do you travel by bike in a variety of ways? Sometimes with the kids in a family tent on summer vacation, sometimes with your gravel bike for a break in autumn just for yourself, sometimes with friends for a leisurely ride? Instead of buying the right equipment for every eventuality and season, you can specifically buy the items you'll need for each tour. Anything else you might need for that particular trip, you can rent.

You don't need to worry about cleaning and maintaining your equipment after your cycling trip.

You probably feel the same way, right? We all love being out on our bikes. Unfortunately, everyday life often comes crashing back, and we're grateful for anything we don't have to worry about. After all, we need the time and energy to develop a fantastic cycling app. 😉

From our point of view, therefore, one of the biggest advantages of renting is that after your tour you simply pack up the equipment, send it back and the rental company takes care of the cleaning, inspection and storage.

The disadvantages of renting equipment for your cycling trip

For longer cycling trips, you'll have high rental costs.

If you enjoy taking longer trips, the rental costs add up quickly. For example, if you go on a two-week trip once a year, you'll have already paid the purchase price by the second year if you're renting.

Especially in summer, you are dependent on availability.

Especially during peak season or with popular products, it can happen that the equipment you want is already booked. You might find yourself in a similar situation to bike spaces on long-distance trains. In winter you can go, but don't want to; in summer you want to, but can't. In both cases, the advice is: plan ahead and reserve in advance.

However, the risk with the equipment is certainly much lower 😉

Individual adjustments are more difficult.

If you have specific requirements for your equipment, such as a particular frame shape for your bicycle, it can be difficult to rent suitable equipment. In such cases, buying is often the better option.

Conclusion: A good opportunity to try out new things and for occasional bike trips. In the long run, however, investing in high-quality equipment is worthwhile.

Renting equipment is ideal, especially for beginners or occasional cycling tourists. If you're planning your first multi-day tour and don't want to invest in all the gear right away, renting is the perfect way to try out high-quality products. You can test what suits you best and avoid costly mistakes. Even if you're still unsure whether you enjoy camping at all, renting allows you to get a taste of it without a long-term commitment.

If you plan on taking frequent cycling trips, or already know you'll be on the road regularly, investing in quality gear is worthwhile in the long run. It's important to focus on high-quality, durable products. Especially if sustainability and quality are important to you, buying premium equipment makes more sense than purchasing cheap products that might become unusable after a short time. You can also buy the products directly from Eddy's Adventure. In this case, a portion of your rental fee will be credited towards the purchase price, allowing you to test the equipment risk-free. This way, you'll hopefully enjoy your gear for a long time and experience many wonderful moments on your tours.

And here, as promised, are the tested products:

• Tent: NEMO Dragonfly OSMO Bikepack 2P – Bikepacking Tent
• Groundsheet: NEMO Dragonfly Bikepack 2P Groundsheet
• NEMO Tensor Sleeping Mat 3-Season Ultralight – Regular Wide

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