Finding a bicycle in Venezuela and riding beyond...

Cuba is obviously a terrible place to try and buy imported things like acceptable quality bikes, because of the economic system and trade sanctions. Trinidad should have been more promising, but perhaps acceptable bikes just don't get imported there because of the lack of a sufficient local market.

Venezuela I'm sorry to tell you could be as bad as Cuba. Due to increasingly soviet style policies, the country now has a shortage of foreign currency, a black market currency rate that is plummeting, very little local industry, and lots of shops with empty shelves: even toilet paper is in short supply. Thus the chance of finding an acceptable quality new bicycle at a sensible price is nil. Though you may find a second hand bike bought in better times and a seller happy to accept cash dollars, but it would be a private transaction out of sight of the authorities, not some organised trading area.

but if it's for a bike I would go anywhere

Fancy starting in Colombia instead? You'll get a bike no trouble there, cycling is practically the national sport. Also, provided you stay away from the militia-controlled areas, these days it's a lot safer than Venezuela, where even the security forces are willing to shake down tourists. Also Venezuelan visas have become a bit of a problem these days, depending upon your nationality.

Thanks a lot for the info, iviehoff

Fortunately, I've just checked and as a Spanish national I don't need a visa to enter Venezuela (up to 3 month-stay).

Unfortunately, everybody's talking insecurity, muggings, armed robberies, corrupt policemen and a shortage of even the most basic things like deodorant, shampoo or toilet paper! :-) So finding a bicycle logically is going to be tougher than ever now...or maybe not ;-) But I had understood the black-market dollars made things even cheaper for those of us who can bring foreign currency inside Venezuela??

Just to clarify, what I'm looking for is an OLD, second/fith-hand bicycle, the kind that don't have much paint left on them anymore, with very simple brakes and gear-shifts...that's all. For sure, imported bikes in Cuba where cheap-plastic-from-China and I wouldn't even use these type of bikes even if they were given to me for free! Anyway, thanks again for your help and I'll keep on searching, but maybe it's time I start looking at other ways of transportation...motorbikes maybe? ;-)

I biked thru Venezuela back in '99. Your comments about empty market shelves and muggings and robberies bring back the memories. Yes, even back then the story was the same - there wasn't much food selection in the little markets and we were warned constantly about not biking on this or that road due to being robbed (we never encountered a dangerous situation except once with children raising a rope to try to stop us (be careful of this!)). But the one thing which shocked me, as I recall, was the long shelf full of toilet paper! And not just in one town. As for your question about the bike, it's a poor country where you won't see any on the roads. Caracas would probably be your best bet, but no doubt it still has the same reputation as back then. I would suggest searching on line for local bike clubs and sending them an email. Colombia might be your best bet, tho I'd hate to suggest skipping a country.

I biked thru Venezuela back in '99

Hugo Chávez came to power in 99, so you saw the place when it was still (relatively speaking) thriving. He didn't get his sovietification going for a few years.

Just to clarify, what I'm looking for is an OLD, second/fith-hand bicycle, the kind that don't have much paint left on them anymore, with very simple brakes and gear-shifts...that's all.

But you won't get very far unless there is enough wear left in the components. Bicycles stop working when there's no metal left on the rims, or the teeth on the gears are so worn down the chain fails to engage with them. Someone once (famously?) rode the length of South America on a Venezuelan postman's bicycle, but it didn't have gears, or only a 3-speed Sturmey, and solid and heavy like a tank. I doubt you are willing to ride such. Probably from former times there are some tolerable bicycles in the country to be bought second hand, but what I am saying is it may be tricky finding them. Shortage may also make them curiously expensive, even for cash dollars.

Bicycles stop working when [...] the teeth on the gears are so worn down the chain fails to engage with them>

Hahaha yes, this has happened to me more than once :-) But I found it easy to fix and spare parts for this type of "simple" bikes readily available (at least in other countries).

Shortage may also make them curiously expensive, even for cash dollars.>

You're absolutely right, that's exactly what happened in Cuba...I guess the situation in Central/South-America is very different to Europe or Asia regarding second-hand bicycles.

Thank you both for your answers, I will try my best to find a bike here in Trinidad before leaving!! And of course I won't miss or skip Venezuela for nothing, even if I have to walk/hitchike all the way to Colombia :-)

[...] we were warned constantly about not biking on this or that road due to being robbed (we never encountered a dangerous situation except once with children raising a rope to try to stop us (be careful of this!))>

Ah yes, this is always the case in most countries, it is well-intentioned local advise but it usually comes from people who only have newspaper-experience about crime/danger. Interesting hobby that of some kids in rural areas, reminds me of those other children who threw stones at us in Morocco (a classic!!) because we didn't give them any money -- thanks to whoever passed before on a bike throwing money around...

Thanks for the tip, travelinghobo, I've just sent an email to a few bike magazines/clubs in Venezuela :-) so far the most promising is this one in Caracas:
http://www.ciclismousb.com/ (Simon Bolivar University Bicycle Club)

I guess the situation in Central/South-America is very different to Europe or Asia regarding second-hand bicycles.

There are two kinds of issue.

(1) Poverty. Reasonably acceptable bicycles are not imported because of poverty. This can become less of an issue as incomes go up, at least locally in a capital city for example, but a history of poverty may mean that there are not many second hand bicycles of quality to be had. For ex, you can now get reasonably nice bicycles in La Paz, Bolivia, the poorest (large) country in South America, but you couldn't when I was there 15 years ago. In Central America, there are some very poor countries, though there were some reasonably nice bicycles in Guatemala City even 15 years ago because cycling is popular there. Though "cycling is popular" can translate to "you can buy reasonably OK racing bikes".

(2) Economic system. Countries with capital and/or forex controls reserve their scarce forex for importing very important things, like equipment and machinery for enterprises, not consumer goods. Thus it can be difficult to get decent foreign bikes and spares. This is the issue in Cuba (which is also poor), Venezuela and Argentina, possibly Ecuador.

Spare parts is another issue. As you noticed, you can get basic "international" spares. But nicer bikes sometimes demand Shimano-standard spares, which can be trickier in places where Shimano-standard bikes are rare, or the economic system impedes import of them.

Touring accessories is another issue. Reasonable quality panniers and racks tend to take longer to arrive in a country than bikes. Eg, you can probably only get them in Chile in all of S Am, other places you'd mostly have to import them, or they'd be very diff to track down.

[...] we were warned constantly about not biking on this or that road due to being robbed (we never encountered a dangerous situation except once with children raising a rope to try to stop us (be careful of this!))>

Ah yes, this is always the case in most countries, it is well-intentioned local advise but it usually comes from people who only have newspaper-experience about crime/danger.

There is that. But there are also unfortunately bits in parts of Lat Am which can result in an unpleasant experience for the tourist. There are locations in Peru, Guatemala, etc, where cyclists are quite routinely separated from their valuables by bandits. You need to know about this if you do not wish to be so inconvenienced. There are bits of Colombia where tourists are still kidnapped. Parts of Mexico are rather dodgy too, the bits infested by drug cartels.

Colombia is much safer than it used to be, but there are still some bits you don't go to that are run by militias, and the displaced population who have left these places is still measured in the millions. You do need to know where not to go to in Colombia.

I know a cyclist who went to one of the parts of Colombia you don't go to, and he got kidnapped. He managed to escape within a couple of days, he was lucky. One of the rare occasions where being a useless idiot (he wasn't very useful to the kidnappers) saved him from the trouble being a useless idiot had got him into.

I know another cyclist who went to another part of Colombia you don't go to, who realised what he was doing and took the precaution of travelling that bit on a bus. The other travellers on the bus insisted he get off the bus 10km before town as they didn't wish to arrive in town with a gringo on board. As he was cycling the last short distance, he went past dead bodies lying by the road side. He was advised at his guesthouse to eat early and stay in. He got up early in the morning to take a river ferry and heard shots being fired worryingly close by.

I know another cyclist who goes to Colombia frequently, and stays away from the bits you don't go to, which have fortunately greatly reduced in recent times. He has still had a gun pulled on him, but it was stuck out of a car door and he pushed the car door shut, cycled off, and they didn't follow.

Venezuela meanwhile now has a much higher murder rate than Colombia. It's difficult getting reports of the impact on tourists, because few tourists go there any more, in part because the fiddled currency etc makes it ridiculously expensive for tourists to go there, and because the place, being sovietified, has become rather dire for pleasant tourism like it used to be. But a work colleague told me that her brother went to a wedding in Caracas, and got shaken down by the army at Caracas Airport - they picked him up between taxi and terminal door, drove him offsite to a rough building in a dodgy part of town, put the frighteners on him, which all boiled down to extracting money off him if he wanted to catch his flight - he got back to the airport just in time and a couple of thousand dollars lighter. He'll never go back there until there are some big changes in society.

Iviehoff, I know you've been on this forum for years, and as I recall (from when I used to bike and hang out here) you usually had worthwhile info to report. However, long time travelers know not to listen to the friend-of-a-friend story and seeing as how you're a long-time traveler, I wonder why you're reporting these friends of a friend stories. If it isn't first hand, almost always there isn't anything to it. If I join in on the game, then I could say that they guy I biked with in Venz. carried on into Colombia and nothing bad happened to him. Then again, he chose not to go into the bits one shouldn't be traveling in. I still travel extensively, tho not by bike, and can assure you that almost always when something bad happens to a person, they're leaving part of the story out (usually the part wherein they did something stupid to get themselves into the situation).

If the OP has common sense and maintains his awareness of what's going on, he'll most likely be okay.

And I went to Venz. 6 months after Chavez became president. Half the people we spoke with supported him, the other half didn't think it was going to go well.