For a bike tour you need a bike, luggage, navigation skills and, in some cases, be able to pack and unpack the bike.
When I arrived at Frankfurt (FRA), I put my bike together at the airport and rode into the city to a prebooked Airbnb. A few days later I rode to the Frankfurt main train station, bought tickets and ended up at Lille near the Belgian-French border. Trains in this area all allow bikes on board, provided you have a bike ticket. Sixteen days later I arrived in San Sebastian in the Basque region of Spain. My departure was from Madrid, some 450km away and the plan was to catch a train from San Sebastian to Madrid, and then ride from the station to the airport outside of the city. This last leg all had to happen on a single day.
The details below will be boring to many but perhaps useful to anyone having intermodal travel and tight schedules.
On the last day of the ride, as I rode through Bayonne near the Spanish border I went to a Decathlon and a Brico and purchased:
- a 2.5 × 2.0m groundsheet
- a packing knife
- 350mm zip ties
- some rope
- and some packing tape.
Note that these are all easy to carry on the bike.
Across the road was a carwash where I got rid of the mud that I’d collected over 1,500km ride. This is to satisfy Australian quarantine.
Note that when using pressure washers we do not spray into either of the hubs or the bottom bracket.
The train to Madrid was the Alvia, which is classified in Spain as a long-distance train. You can’t just wheel a normal bike on. This is on the Renfe website…
Your bicycle or scooter must be folded or disassembled and carried inside a bag. One bicycle or scooter per person. Remember, you must keep it in the carrying case from the ticket control point to the end of your journey.
If the sum of the dimensions of the case is less than 180 cm, they are considered as hand luggage. If they exceed 180 cm, they will be considered as special luggage (maximum dimensions allowed 140x90x40 cm.)
Pedals must be removed and the handlebars turned 90º.
Keep in mind that you must add the Bicycle Add-on when you buy your AVE and Larga Distancia (long distance high-speed) tickets if the bicycle exceeds the maximum hand luggage dimensions, it is free!
I did the booking online but there was no charge for the bike. They just wanted to know how much large luggage there was and may have even had a pop-up “no” when they had the large luggage rack full.
The bike needed to be packed and it could not be longer than 140cm. The train was leaving at 8.52am.
Riding to the station allowed me to do the packing there. On my rest day in San Sebastian, I had gone to the station to examine where I could pack and how far I’d have to carry everything.
Preparing the bike for the train
Step one was to remove the front wheel, mudguard, front light, handlebars, pedals and saddle. Note that I carried a front rotor protector on this tour and I’m alert to the way they hang onto the hubcap.
Step 2 was to attach the rope so it would serve as a shoulder strap and then use the groundsheet, held on by the packing tape, to cover the bike.
On the train, there was a top rack just for a large package like this
After the train
When the train arrived in Madrid I reassembled the bike. It only took 30 minutes to go from this to this. It does not take very long and once it’s done your mobility is restored.
I could have hailed a taxi to the airport (and left my bike in the groundsheet) but I had plenty of time, plus many taxis have LPG bottles in the boot and no room for a bike. Also I’d have had to carry everything a long way to get to the taxis. Cyclists like to ride anyway, and Google maps took me to T4 departures on a bike friendly route. Madrid is great for cycling.
At Madrid airport, bike cartons are sold by the Left Luggage company, Consigna. They are pricey at 50 euros but, hey! I asked how many they sell and was told only 1-2 per month. About five years ago I was in the same airport terminal the day prior to a departure. I’d ridden out to work out what the availability of cartons was like. I went to the terminal information desk and to Emirates. Both of them told me there were no bike cartons. But I didn’t give up and eventually found Consigna had them. The point is that you have to be a bit dogged when searching for cartons at airports.
It didn’t take long, and I was ready to check-in.
All done. A combination of bike rides and a long-distance train with some packing and unpacking, is taking me from an Airbnb in San Sebastian to my home 40km from Devonport.