A few months ago, a service was launched that lets you rent a bike and accessories the same way you rent a car or book a flight. You pick a destination city, give the dates you're traveling and what type of bike you want, and the service attempts to find you available bikes in shops around the area.
Before you get to the city. Without you having to poke around once you get there, trying to find an open shop with a bike that fits you.
RentaBikeNow.com is a great idea. I like the idea of renting a bike in advance and having it waiting for me. The site provides service in 144 cities. The only problem is, it doesn't seem particularly comprehensive.
When I entered "Washington, D.C." and "Saturday, September 12" to see what bikes would be available at local bike shops, I was given five bike shops to choose from. Unfortunately, just one was actually in D.C.
The other four shops were in close-in Maryland, close-in Virginia, far-out Virginia and very far-out West Virginia. West Virginia? That's not a D.C. bike shop.
But I'll cut the rentabikenow folks some slack. These things take time to build.
And perhaps there are better choices of shops and bikes in other cities. I'll certainly keep them in mind next time I travel to a U.S. city and want to bike.
RentaBikeNow hopes to expand worldwide. Good luck to them. It would be a useful service if done well.
Boldly Go Solo 
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