What's New at Bike It! Bellagio
We're nearly one month away from opening for the 2019 season. We are excited to share some new things that we have in store for this season: new bikes (2019 Bianchis), new rental accessories (power meters and Karoo GPSs), new routes, and a new weekly shop ride schedule!
You can now rent one of our Karoo Cycling GPS by Hammerhead. We have preloaded all Bike It! routes on the GPSs, and we can upload other routes of your choice based on your riding needs and wishes. We have also inserted many points of interest (POIs) to make it easier for you to find the gelato shops, or restaurants and cafes we tell you about! The touch screen is nice and visible, and the maps are clear and easy to follow. These GPSs will be a great addition for those renting MTBs, as Karoo's trails are also mapped very well. No more getting lost in the woods! And of course you can still see all of your riding stats such as distance, speed, elevation, etc.
Speaking of stats … what's missing? Watts! Great news for the data-driven cyclists--we now have power meters available for our road rentals! We offer the Stages Cycling Left Crankarm meter. It can easily be connected with any bluetooth device (including our GPS rentals), as well as switched from one bike to another. We have power meters available in 170mm and 172.5mm crankarm lengths. Add a GPS or Power Meter to your rental order here!
Try our GPS rental on one of our new routes! We say it all the time, you can spend a month or more on Lake Como and never repeat the exact same ride … there are so many possibilities! We've added three new rides to our routes list: 1 easy, 1 medium, and 1 challenging. Check them out!
Pedalata A Porlezza
A great family bike ride, this route is so much fun on electric bikes! Starting in Cadenabbia or Menaggio, you ride almost entirely on secondary, traffic-free roads to Naggio, a small town above Menaggio on Lake Como, before descending to the beautiful town of Porlezza on Lake Lugano. After a relaxing coffee break lakeside, you head back to Menaggio along a beautiful cycle path, sometimes through the backcountry and sometimes open and surrounded by panoramic views of both Lake Como and Lugano. Plan this bike ride as a family activity during your vacation, it will be an unforgettable adventure through scenic mountain towns! There is also the option to do this ride just on the bike path as an out and back ride to Porlezza, making it about 25km total and without the long ascent.For the full loop, we recommended this ride as a guided tour for your family
Torchio di Palanzo
This out-n-back bike ride takes you to the town of Palanzo and its ancient wine press, or torchio, one of the many wonders to be found on Lake Como. Enjoy spectacular lakeside views before beginning the 6km gentle climb to the medieval town of Palanzo. (Palanzo is also one of the oldest towns around the lake, very well preserved and truly authentic!) After visiting the torchio, which is always open, head back the same way to Bellagio.
Val Cavargna
This route is quite isolated and 'wild,' lush, and immersed in pure nature, just like the valley that surrounds it. It's just in between Lake Como and Lake Lugano, and its towns have been isolated and somewhat abandoned for a long time (the road that takes you up there has been in place since 1948!), so biking along is like riding back in time in this authentic, rural, and mountainous area. The ride is short but quite tough, especially the terrible Passo della Cava ... but we can guarantee that it's worth the views, peacefulness, and traffic-free experience! Get your climbing legs ready!
From April to September, nearly every Sunday we are running a shop ride, departing from our shop at 8:30am. Our shop rides are for visiting road cyclists as well as Italian locals who want to explore and ride in different areas together. We have created ride levels to give you an idea of pace and difficulty for each ride, as well as an event for each ride on Strava. Because we are running these rides to promote cycling camaraderie (no cost), we just ask that you bring euros for ferry tickets and coffee/food if we stop You can sign up via e-mail or Strava!
We look forward to riding with you this season!!!
Represent the Bike It! Team
Buy from our selection of summer and spring/fall gear. Explore both our team jerseys and Bianchi specific gear.