Empire State Trail Bike Rentals

If you are flying into New York from another state or country to ride the Empire State Trail, a rental bike is a convenient option for your tour. However, the rental bike you choose for the ride will be an important decision.

The important factors to consider are trail and road conditions and if the bikes you want to rent are set up for overnight touring.  You will also need to think about if the bikes are well maintained and convenient to pick up on your way to your tour. The rental bikes offered by Gotham Bicycle Tours are specifically set up for this.

• Trail conditions – The Empire State Trail is not a continuous trail maintained by one organization.  It is an amalgam of existing trails, with different trail surface types, that were stitched together. Some segments are paved. Some are not.  Some are segments are well maintained. Some (especially New York City) are battered and bumpy.  This is why we offer  Marin Fairfax 2 hybrid-style bikes.  They are strong, comfortable bikes that take on all conditions. (For information about what the trail is like, click here)
• Overnight touring – Ideally, your rental bike should be set up for touring. You will at least want a rack above the rear wheel to attach bags to so you can carry some or all of your stuff. You will want tools and a repair kit in case you have a breakdown. You will want tires reinforced against punctures. You will want a helmet, lock and an opportunity to change out the pedals if you bring your own pedals.  Just going with the cheapest bike you find online will not meet these requirements. However, the bikes from Gotham Bicycle Tours have all of this. They are set up and accessorized specifically for overnight tours on the Empire State Trail.
• Maintenance – Most other rental bike shops in New York have huge fleets of bikes intended for hourly or daily rentals, where the bikes are used constantly and are serviced by staff periodically. Gotham Bicycle Tours is the opposite. We only have a small fleet of bikes that are serviced after every ride. We understand where you are about to go with the bike and we make sure its ready for several days of riding.
• Convenience – Our rental bikes are stored in Woodlawn Heights, which is northernmost neighborhood inside New York City, near the Empire State Trail. This means you can come pick up the bikes from us and get directly on the trail at the City line (if you want to skip riding in NYC).  It is also easy to take the bikes back down to Manhattan using a bike-friendly train (25 minutes back to Grand Central), or you can just ride them back to Manhattan (takes about 60-90 minutes), or we can deliver them to you for an extra fee.  If you have flown into NYC but you want to take the train to Albany or Buffalo so you can ride back, we can meet you at the train station with the bike and help you get on the train (which is complicated with a bike).  Nobody offers service like this, except us.  While you may pay us a little more for the bike or the delivery fee, you will save a lot of time and aggravation, which is worth a lot.

How to get your Empire State Trail rental bike from Gotham Bicycle Tours

To rent a bike for your Empire State Trail bike tour, visit our bike rental page where you can reserve your bike for the days you want. If a bike in your size is not available online, please contact us since our booking system is set up to be conservative with inventory to avoid double-bookings.

You may also want to contact us before you finalize your booking if you have questions, or if you want to set up a delivery or receive your bike at the train station. We can work this out by phone or email before you pay for the rental.

Because we focus on a small fleet of bikes that we mostly rent to long distance riders, we do not have regular store hours or a traditional storefront.  When you are ready to rent, we will pick a time to meet, whether we do this at our storage location in Woodlawn Heights, or if we deliver your bike to your hotel or a train station. You always get good service from us. We want you to have a good time here in New York.

Pricing: $85 per day.  After three days, the price defaults to the $250 weekly rate. 

Rental panniers are available for $100 per pair if you want to carry belongings with you while you ride. (You can also bring your own panniers and they will work with our bikes).

If you have excess baggage that you do not want to take on your ride, you can store this with us for free during the term of your rental. 

Delivery fees

We are currently the only bike rental company that delivers bikes in NYC or the Lower Hudson Valley. This is a huge convenience for our clients, but we need to pay staff for the time involved with making the delivery.  The delivery (or pick up) pricing is as follows:

• Local delivery – Bronx or Lower Westchester County – $75
• Manhattan – $250
• Queens or Brooklyn – $300
• Northern Westchester or Putnam Counties – $200
• Dutchess or Ulster Counties – $400
• Capital Region – $600

The above numbers are all based on travel time.  Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn are all very expensive because the TRAFFIC IS SO BAD. However, we will try to make it worth your while.  For example, if you are ending your tour at Battery Park in Manhattan, we can come pick up the bikes from you and drive you to your hotel as part of the arrangement for no extra fee.  Then you can see for yourself how bad the traffic is.