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Blog 

Cycling Rentals is Corona-virus Clean & Safe certified

5/18/2020

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Cycling Rentals Clean and Safe assurance
Cycling Rentals is a "Clean & Safe" certified business! We are following the strict Health & Safety guidelines issued by the National Health & Tourism Institutes of Portugal. What does this mean for you if you plan on cycling with us?
Cycling Rentals is doing everything to ensure your experience is not only fun and unforgettable, but also clean and safe from Corona-virus. Specifically we are following the Clean & Safe protocol established by the Tourism Institute of Portugal:

Staff Training

Ou staff have received specific information and / or training on:
  • Internal Protocol related to the COVID-19 Coronavirus Outbreak.
  • Compliance measures for basic infection prevention and control:
    • Hand Hygiene: Frequent and careful hand washing with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use a hand sanitizer that has at least 70% alcohol, covering all surfaces of the hands and rubbing them until they are dry.
    • Respiratory Etiquette: cough and sneeze into the flexed forearm or use a tissue; always wash your hands after coughing or sneezing and after blowing; Avoid touching the eye, nose, and mouth with your hands.
    • Social Conduct: Change the frequency and form of contact between workers and between them and customers, avoiding (when possible) close contact handshakes, kisses, shared jobs, face-to-face meetings and food sharing, utensils, glasses, and towels.
  • Compliance with daily self-monitoring of symptoms, such as recording body temperature twice a day, checking for cough or difficulty breathing.
  • Compliance with the official Portuguese national health guidelines for cleaning surfaces, materials and clothing in establishments.
 
General Information


  • Compliance measures with basic infection prevention and control precautions in connection with the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.
  • Internal protocol for the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

Provisions

  • Sufficient individual personal protective equipment for workers involved in all operations.
  • Individual and personal protective equipment is available to customers (maximum capacity of groups).
  • Stock of single-use cleaning materials such as single-use cleaning wipes moistened with alcohol content above 70º.
  • Dispensers of or alcohol-based sanitizer solution near the entry and exit points, or whenever applicable.
  • Waste container with non-manual opening and plastic bag.
  • Equipment for hand washing with liquid soap and paper towels in sanitary facilities.

Hygiene Commitments

  • Washing and disinfection of the surfaces where employees and customers interact, ensuring the control and prevention of infections.
  • Cleaning of common use surfaces and objects such as counters, light switches, door handles, cabinet handles, several times a day.
  • Preference will be given to wet cleaning, over dry cleaning and the use of vacuum cleaner only.
  • Frequent renewal of air in closed spaces by keeping doors open regularly.
  • Supply of alcohol-based hand sanitizers, whenever justified.
 
Management Commitments


  • Observing maximum occupancy of closed facilities, in accordance with the recommendations of the official Portuguese national health guidelines.
  • The maintenance of the social safety distance between customers within the premises, in accordance with the recommendations of the official Portuguese national health guidelines.
  • Preference of distribution of travel and navigation information in digital format, over printed material.
  • Compliance with internal hygiene and safety protocols by the partners involved in the programs sold by the Travel Agency.
  • Availability of trained staff to accompany any symptomatic person to a designated isolation space, providing any required assistance, and contacting the national health service.
Browse Routes
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Why we are serious about Lube and why you should be too

1/21/2020

 
Oiling a bicycle chain with biodegradable lube
When in comes to bicycle maintenance, there is one unavoidable task to make sure you can keep on pedaling - oiling your chain - unless of course you have taken the high road with a belt or shaft drive!
​

At Cycling Rentals we wash, lube and tune a great many bikes throughout the year and that means a lot of bike washing, and a lot of oil residue running down the drain (although we actually use a decantation separator in our bike wash unit).

Right from the start we knew this was a serious concern for us and opted for a totally biodegradable chain lube that guarantees top performance on the the bike and low or no harmful impact on the environment.

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More than you ever wanted to know about cork trees

6/25/2019

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Piles of fresh stripped cork bark in the Algarve in southern Portugal
As you ride through Portugal, particularly the Alentejo and Algarve regions, you will see gnarly, reddish rather sculptural but ugly oak trees sporting large numbers in white paint on their trunks.

These are the
Quercus suber, an evergreen Oak tree, dropping acorns and growing a thick bark that is commonly known as cork. It is the primary source of cork for wine bottle stoppers and a multitude of other uses, such as cork flooring and as the cores of cricket balls.
Portugal produces about half the world output of commercial cork! Here's a brief summary of the billion dollar cork industry in Portugal.
Cork trees being stripped of cork in the Alentejo region in southern Portugal

The Trees

Cork Oak is native to southwest Europe and northwest Africa where it is well suited to this climate: An abundant and evenly distributed rainfall, short summer dry periods tempered by atmospheric humidity, very mild winters, clear skies and plenty of sunshine, very permeable, moist and deep siliceous soils. 

A fascinating and important tree, Cork Oaks can support diverse ecosystems and for this reason are a protected species, with their harvesting process being heavily legislated and regulated in Portugal. The species, which covers approximately 8 percent of the total area of Portugal and constitutes 28 percent of its forests, grows best in the central and southern parts of the country where the largest stands supplying the greatest percentage of high-grade cork are to be found.

Cork bark being stripped and loaded on a truck in the Alentejo in Portugal

The Harvest

Every year from Mid May to Mid August, well-trained seasonal harvesters stage their harvest of the Cork Oak in Portugal. Once a tree is about 25 years old it can be harvested for its ‘virgin cork’ and then every 9 years after the cork ‘bark’ is harvested, and the year is marked on the tree with the last number of that year (ie. A tree harvested this summer will be painted with a 9). Portuguese law prohibits stripping the trees more than once every nine years in order to protect the species. 38 year old bark (roughly the third harvest) is when the bark becomes of high enough quality to produce wine stoppers. 

The harvest of the height of the tree is determined by the diameter, if the tree is 1 metre in diameter, you can harvest three metres of the height of the tree. A Cork Oak lives for about 150 - 200 years on average meaning that it will be harvested about 15 times over its lifecycle.

Tractor towing a trailer of stripped cork bark in Portugal

The Process

After harvest, trucks carry the cork to plants to be stabilised and prepared for cork stopper and other production processes. First, the slabs of bark are pressed under concrete slabs for 6 months, the cork is then sterilized using a big boiler. Next, the cork is classified into quality grades for different uses, with experienced cork workers visually assessing the quality of the bark. Wine cork stoppers are made in the north of Portugal and then exported all over Europe. The residual cork wood can be used for flooring and building materials (see other uses below) but also a new market in cork-based eco-fashion has become a trend in recent years.
Tractor trailer loaded with cork bark in Portugal

The Industry

The European cork industry produces 300,000 tonnes of cork a year, with a value of €1.5 billion and employing 30,000 people. Wine corks represent 15% of cork usage by weight but 66% of revenues. 

Of the producing countries, Portugal, plays an important part in the industrial utilization of cork, and so rightly occupies the foremost position. It has 500 factories, which employ about 20,000 workers, equipped with the latest machinery and utilizing the latest technological advances, enabling the industry to meet the demand for any product. This industry produces stoppers, discs, different types of floats, shoe soles, printing paper, cigarette tips, bath mats, table mats, hat bands, fishing rod handles, different kinds of packing. Cork wool is produced for cushions and mattresses and granulated cork employed chiefly as insulating material in ship-building, as a protective packing for fruit and eggs, and as tubing for plastic substances. 

The Biggest Tree

Near the Portuguese town of Águas de Moura the Sobreiro Monumental (Monumental Cork Oak) is located, a tree of 234 years old, 16 metres (52 ft) tall and with a trunk that requires at least five people to embrace it. It has been considered a National Monument since 1988, and the Guinness Book of Records states it as the largest and oldest in the world.
Cyclist about to bite off some cork bark from a fresh stripped panel

Vanya Maplestone

Vanya is a part-time cycling tour guide, part-time food blogger/writer and full-time food savant. She also loves cork.

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