i will be visiting LA for a week and thought about renting a nice bike for a few days. did some research and all i could find was Helen's Cyclery in Santa Monica. Any recommendations or suggestions? They charge about $65 /day for a Trek. maybe i should box up my bike and take it with me?

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I rented from Helen's this past summer when we were in Malibu (my wife did not want me to shlep my bike since we were only going to be in Malibu for 3 days). They rented me a CAAD10 with Ultegra components at that price; I brought my own pedals with me, which I would suggest doing; bringing you own saddle might be a good idea, too. I was not able to find any other place that had a good selection of sizes of quality bikes to rent. I had no problems and would recommend them.

If you have a good travel case you could certainly bring your own bike (I bought a Pika Packworks this fall for a trip abroad, and will probably do that in the future), but be aware that the airlines fees (depending on the carrier) for taking a bike can be outrageous, and could cost more than the bike rental! The Pika is nice because it doesn't look like a bike case, and might avoid the charges (it did for me).

You might have some luck talking to the guys at TwoHubs. I realize they're located in Orange Co, but it might be worth it. Also, as a last resort (unless you want a Trek) you can go through Rock n' Road Cyclery for demo Spesh and Cervelos. Price is reasonable and they have locations everywhere in SoCal.

For 65$ a day I would rent a car instead, cripes!

Or just rent a cheap steel bike for 20$.

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