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I'm speaking at a conference in Maui in Mid December and my husband and I are planning to stay on for about a week after the conference is over.
We are hoping to be able to bicycle around the island. We did something similar a few years back with folding bicycles but we found them to be somewhat inadequate. Taking bicycles on the plane is both pricey and risky since the airline requires you to sign a waver allowing them to destroy the bikes. You wouldn't have any hints on how to buy, rent, borrow 2 low end bikes in Maui, would you?
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Looks like erosomniac has it covered pretty well. I'll ask around a bit and see if I can get any more information. Do you know where you'll be staying? What/where is your conference?
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My conference is at the Sheraton, Blackrock and we will be staying there through from the 14th through the 18th of December. The following week we plan to spending camping at various sites while we bike tour and hike.
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I wouldn't recommend the volcano biking tours for you. They're not really aimed at serious bicyclists. If you really want to bike down the mountain, you could rent a bike rack with your bikes and just go yourselves.
I haven't had a chance to ask around yet, but I won't forget.
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I'm familiar with the bicycle down the volcano tours and you are right that this is not our style. If we end up biking down from the Haleakala summit, it will be following riding up to the Haleakala summit. What we want is to spend a week + bicycling around the Island. We've bicycled the Hana coast before and would like to do the full loop of the island this time.
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Wow. You wanna bike UP Haleakala? My car has issues going up that peak.
I live upcountry in a town called Makawao, but I work in Wailuku in central Maui. I'll be on island until the 22nd, when I'm going to Honolulu to spend Christmas with friends (my girls are with their dad in Utah this year). If you want to get together for lunch or dinner, that'd be great. I believe my email is available through my profile here.
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I just ran into two fellows from Alpine Utah who rented from this company. They have what they called "high-end road bikes" that they're paying $50 a day for. They said the company is good to work with and has a large selection of bikes.
Hope this helps. Have a nice trip.
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Since we are planning to rent the bikes for 7 - 10 days, I think $50/day even for a high end road bike is pretty outrageous. I know I'm cheap but it seems ridiculous to pay as much money to rent a bike as we would pay to rent a car.
Right now we're thinking about buying a couple of cruisers from the Maui Walmart. After all, we are planning to cruise not race. While we know that quality of Walmart bikes is really low and are ashamed to admit that we are even considering buying something from the evil empire, we haven't been able to come up with a more reasonable and economical solution. We figure we should be able to keep even the cheapest bikes running for a week to ten days as we putz about the Island.
Do you know anyone or organization that we could donate 2 relatively new cheap bikes to when we're done?
You wouldn't have heard anything about the road out to Kipahulu, would you? We have been really hoping to get back out to that end of the Island this trip. Its our favorite spot on Maui and we were really disappointed to read the road has been closed since the earth quake last month.
[ November 30, 2006, 08:15 PM: Message edited by: The Rabbit ]
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Actually, I'm intimately familiar with the road out to Kipahulu. I've had the onerous task of flying out there twice by helicopter for the Department of Health .
The temporary bridge between Hana and Kipahulu is scheduled to re-open tomorrow. The county has been insisting that they are on schedule, but I haven't seen anything official yet. The back road (between Ulupalakua and Kipahulu via Kaupo) will be closed for some time yet... although I know that a few folks (including tourists in rental cars ) have been traveling it. There are 2 damaged bridges that have been deemed unsafe and several overhanging boulders that are threatening to fall. We had another small earthquake (~4.5) on Thanksgiving day and I understand the boulders are even more unstable than they were last week when I was there. It would certainly be safer by bicycle I'm sure.
As far as buying from the evil empire... there aren't a whole lot of other options out here, I'm afraid. I'm sure the Big Brothers/Big Sisters thrift store would love to take the bikes off your hands, or perhaps a scout troop or the homeless shelter? I could probably get you contacts for either of those if you have a preference. There's also a Salvation Army Thrift Store in Lahaina, since you'll be staying on that end.
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Maui Babe, If you've got a contact for either a scout troop or a homeless shelter that would like a couple of cheap used bikes, We'd be delighted. If not we will probably give them to the Salvation Army in Lahaina but it would be more satisfying to just give them directly to some underpriveleges person that would use them.
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I asked my girls if they had any suggestions on where you can donate your bikes. They recommended the Lokahi Tree, a gift donation program run by the Salvation Army. Link
Also, I talked to my buddy at Maui County Civil Defense and the Kipahulu bridge will not be opening tomorrow as promised. He said the new target date is Sunday the 3rd, but he wasn't too confident about that one either. Hopefully it'll be open before you get here, although, I'm pretty sure that it's approved for foot traffic and bicycles now anyway.
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Thanks Maui Babe, If its open to foot traffic and bicycles, that is more than open enough for me.
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) have been traveling it. There are 2 damaged bridges that have been deemed unsafe and several overhanging boulders that are threatening to fall. We had another small earthquake (~4.5) on Thanksgiving day and I understand the boulders are even more unstable than they were last week when I was there. It would certainly be safer by bicycle I'm sure. 
