Contents (hide)
  1 Your bike
  2 Bikeshops
   2.1 Old City
   2.2 HaHalutz 26
   2.3 HaHalutz 7
   2.4 Big Shopping Center
  3 Conditions for cycling

Your bike

Bring it with you from abroad. Airlines usually agree to take bikes, but price may be high. If you plan to do so, you should ask about conditions before buying your plane ticket.

If you really have to buy your bike in Israel, it may be advisable to go to Tel-Aviv or Jerusalem. However, if you really insist on buying your bike in Beer-Sheva…

Bikeshops

Old City

There are two bikeshops at HaHalutz Street in the Old City. If you plan to repair your bike there, you should carefully negotiate price and conditions. The owners barely speak English.

In both shops you can buy new, as well as second hand bikes. Among second hand bikes occasionally you can find 20 to 30-years old Peugeot and Nishiki road bikes for 200-300 NIS. They were pretty well constructed and suffice for commuting within Beer-Sheva. The main advantage of buying such a bike in a bikeshop is a possibility to do free of charge a full service before purchase. However, in order to get the full service, you have to say specifically what should be repaired or replaced. Also, it should be mentioned that these bicycles were very popular in Israel some years ago and there is a chance that you find one covered with rust as a garden decoration in a house of your Israeli friends. Usually it can be returned to working condition pretty cheaply, if you can do simple repairs on your own.

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Ruhama. Nishiki bike as a garden decoration (garden scissors required to cut it out).

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Another Nishiki bike in working condition.

HaHalutz 26

You can buy there Raleigh and Specialized mountain bikes. No bikes with 28" wheels. No trekking equipment. Service is reliable and can repair your bike pretty quickly, often on the spot. IMG_3065.jpg

HaHalutz 7

Much smaller shop. New bikes from the very low end of the market. You can buy here spare parts for a resonable price. IMG_3066.jpg

Big Shopping Center

There is a shop called Aluf Ofnajim (Champions of Bicycles) located in the Big Shopping Center (see section on shopping). They offer a limited selection of Moongose and Schwinn mountain bikes. Quality of service yet to be checked.

Conditions for cycling

Weather conditions in the south of Israel are good for cycling all year round. There is no snow, rare rains, temperature above 15 Celsius grades even in the night. However, during the hottest summer months (Jun-Aug) temperature can reach 40 Celsius grades

The concept of bike lane is unknown in Israel, but quite often there are asphalt shoulders suitable for biking

Traffic is dense on most roads near Beer-Sheva; because of the dense traffic and careless drivers it is more fun to cycle off-road

If you want to start your trip outside of Beer-Sheva, you can take your bike to the bus under the condition, that there is enough space in the luggage compartment. The bike ticket costs 50% of the price of the normal ticket. It is forbidden to take bikes on the train