Traveling with your bicycle
We want you to use your bicycle! CyclingSavvy strategies will get you around town in good form on your bicycle, but traveling with your bicycle by bus, rail or air can increase your range.
We traveled to Philadelphia with our bicycles
Last October, CyclingSavvy instructors gathered to give seminars and to staff a booth at the Philadelphia Bicycle Expo. (We’ll be back for the next Expo, March 16 and 17, 2024!) Pam Murray flew from Charlotte, North Carolina and back with her bicycle. I rode Amtrak from Boston with mine.
Here’s a video showing how Pam boxed her bicycle for the return trip. Boxing a bicycle does require some mechanical skill and experience. The highlight here is how Pam manages to carry three items to the ticket counter with only two hands…
Policies and prices differ, so you should check in advance each time you travel with your bicycle by bus, rail or air. You may or may not need to box your bicycle. Space is limited on some carriers, notably Amtrak’s Northeast Regional roll-on service.
Make reservations by phone, talking with a real person, so you know about policies, and whether space is available, before buying a ticket! Pam suggests saving a screenshot of the baggage policy on your cell phone. We’ll have more details in another post.
Ebike options are more limited due to greater weight and the risk of a battery fire. On the other hand, a folding or take-apart bicycle which fits into a suitcase or bag is ordinary luggage, and can go on any train, intercity bus, or flight.
Local travel options
When traveling with your bicycle on local transportation, you can usually just ride to the bus stop or station. Most urban public transit systems transport bicycles. Check policies in advance. For example, there may be restrictions at peak hours. Local transit authorities have this information on their Web sites. You need to learn to use the bike rack on the front of a bus, and make sure your bicycle will fit. Sit near the front to keep your bicycle in view. Locking your bike to the rack would take too long, but you can lock a wheel to the frame while waiting at the bus stop.
Bon voyage!
Ya learn something every day! I didn’t know the trick about putting the front fender over the rear fender.
Very well done video. Obviously shot straight through in one take, no?
We shot the video in one bike-packing session, but 48 clips. (Your comment motivated me to check.) Shooting video of each step of the process separately, without the time between them, allowed me to choose the camera position for each step, and speeded up my editing. We had only one retake, where Pam replaced her pedal so we could show how to use foot power to loosen a stuck one. (Sheldon Brown’s timeless words of wisdom in describing this trick come to mind: “your feet are stronger than your hands.”)
As people also discover during our CyclingSavvy courses, everyone, no matter how experienced, has something to learn. Pam has the packing process down, but she learned the stuck-pedal trick. You learned the fender trick. I learned how to carry three things at once and leave both hands free!
As someone who has traveled with her bike by both plane and train, I love this well-produced video. As the owner of not one, but two Rivendell Atlantis bicycles, I was tickled to see that Pam has a Betty Foy :) .
My comment is about Amtrak and the various ways in which it accommodates bicycles. On long-distance, cross-country trains, that is usually as checked luggage in the baggage car. (A separate but inexpensive bicycle ticket is required.) The baggage car is my preference. One simply lifts the bicycle up to a conductor who secures it in the baggage car.
In the Northeast, the one train between Boston and Washington that used to have a baggage car was the overnight train (Nos. 65/66, once known as the “Night Owl”). The recently devised “bicycle closet” that now graces all Northeast Regional trains, the overnight train included, is a nightmare for a heavily loaded solo touring bicyclist with the usual paraphernalia of panniers and camping gear. At best it takes me five minutes during which time I take over the corridor, thereby angering both passengers and conductors as I remove the bags and front wheel before hanging the bike from its rear wheel. This “bicycle closet” seems to have been designed for lightly loaded and casual cyclists. The situation for heavily loaded bike-packers obviously never crossed the minds of the designers.
Yes, Amtrak poses some challenges and has different policies on different routes. The Downeaster, running between Maine and Boston, is different yet from what you describe. Years ago, I handed my bicycle to the conductor, who loaded it into the baggage car. I have recently been able simply to roll my bicycle on board and secure it in an empty space at the end of the car. I used to have to take the Downeaster all the way up to Portland and ride back to my destination in Saco. I can now get off with it in Saco — it is now possible to load and unload a bicycle at any station on the Downeaster, probably because the conductor doesn’t have to be involved.
I, too, have taken the Downeaster many times between Boston and Brunswick. (It’s a three-day ride from Brunswick to my home in northern Penobscot County.) In the past, John, my experience was as you describe it. I was able simply to roll the bike into the coach car and secure it in that empty space. On my most recent trip, however, I was confronted with that same “bike closet” that is now on all the NE regional trains. In this case, however, the conductor took pity on me when he saw what I and the passengers I was obstructing were going through. Turned out that although there was no baggage car, there was a baggage compartment in the rear section of the diesel locomotive. We rolled the bike down there and voila, I had the experience I am used to on the cross-country trains. Along the way he told me that we are no longer allowed to bring bikes into the coach cars and secure them as we wish in that “empty space.” Sigh.
All of that said, who knows what it will be like next time? Amtrak is always full of surprises.
I agree it takes time to get everything off and the bike on the hook. Not to mention other people’s luggage that may need to be moved to access the only place my bike can go – yes, I had a bike space reserved. I take a large bag such as from IKEA to put all the panniers, etc in. Then I open the bathroom door opposite the bike space. Back the bike into the bathroom, lift up the front wheel and hang it. Then the handlebars are higher so as not to trip anyone. My bike fit w/out removing the wheel. I’m glad since I’d also need to uplug my dyno hub.
Pam did not have to remove the front wheel because she is short and her bicycle is smaller than most. I did not need to remove the front wheel of my Raleigh Twenty, thanks to its small wheels. As the photo shows, I did remove the seatpost, along with the saddle and touring bag, and turned the handlebars around bakcwards so they wouldn’t stick out into the aisle. Another time, I hung this bicycle by the front wheel — that works too. The Amtrak conductors are generally helpful and friendly, and don’t care how you hang your bicycle as long as it fits in the space.
Isn’t it generally a $75 each way extra bag charge? Would it be easier and cheaper to arrange to rent a bike from a local store?
The suitability and availability of a rental bike may vary, same with prices, so we suggested a phone call to confirm the price before buying a ticket. Pam had only the bicycle as checked luggage: everything else in a single backpack that would go under the seat in front of her, and her purse, which was too small to matter. As I recall, the charge for my bicycle on Amtrak was $8 each way.
Most people use airplanes and checking bags is expensive. Back in the day I could check skis or a surfboard for no extra charge.
How about doing some research before posting? Prices have actually gone down. As an example, a quick Google search on “charge for boxed bicycle on American Airlines” brought up this page, https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/baggage/specialty-and-sports.jsp . Ordinary bicycles, boxed, under 50 pounds go at the standard checked baggage rate — which of course differs based on the class of ticket. Within the USA, Canada and Mexico and most of the Caribbean, it is never more than $30 for the first bag.
When I flew from Bangor, ME, to Deadhorse, AK, in 2022, the cost for shipping my Atlantis in a BikeFlights box plus two smaller boxes with supplies was $150 to American Airlines and $100 to Alaska Airlines. My weight for the BikeFlights box was in the “standard overweight” range of 51 to 70 lbs. If there is any interest in seeing my boxing and shipping (and a bit of the tundra), see my video at https://photos.app.goo.gl/mX53zgXipPcVtAJB6 .
Usually the bike fee is a nominal $20 each leg. It is less than BikeFlights, less than a bag fee on the airline, less than a rental from what I’ve found and you have YOUR bike. Most rentals are not great and you still have to take all your stuff including lights, locks, etc. that may or may not fit.
Three of us boxed and flew three bicycles to Ireland many years ago. The boxing process was a bit of a chore, but carrying the boxes was worse. If I had to do it again, I’d work out a set of removable casters or other wheels for at least one bottom corner of the box, so I could pull or roll it along. Now we own Bikes Friday, so flying is much easier. However, packing a Friday to fit in its suitcase can require half an hour, in my experience.