From: choy@skorpio.usask.ca (I am a terminator.)
Subject: Re: bicycles on trains in germany - some lessons
Organization: University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 20:27:46 GMT

In article <1992Aug21.162632.16176@beaver.cs.washington.edu>, pauld@cs.washington.edu (Paul Barton-Davis) writes:
|> For many years now, I've been planning to write a book about
|> travelling with a bike on the European railroads. I've never done much
|> about it, but over the last week or so, I gathered some more
|> information from personal experience that might serve as a starting
|> point for a chapter on Germany, one day.
|> 
|> The story begins in Oostend, in Belgium. I've just arrived on a night
|> ferry from Dover, England, complete with bicycle. Its 04:30, and
|> there's an hour until the train to K\"oln leaves. I follow a group of
|> Austrian cyclists into the baggage area. They are being told that the
|> 05:30 service to K\"oln does not have a baggage wagon, and so they can
|> either ship it or wait for the 08:30 train. Since I know that I'm
|> taking an IC train from K\"oln to Berlin which will not accept
|> bicycles, I decide to ship my bike (which costs about $12). The
|> baggage agent tells me it will be in Berlin with a day or so of my
|> arrival there.
|> 
|> 24 hours or so later, I pay a visit to the "Gepack Aufgabe" counter at
|> the Berlin (Zoologische Garten) station. Someone tells me that the
|> bike will not be in Berlin till Tuesday (its now Thursday morning).
|> 
|> This is where the problems begin. My wife (who is already in Berlin
|> for a scientific conference) and I have booked couchettes (sleeping
|> accomodation) to Stuttgart, leaving tomorrow (Friday). We were
|> planning on being on our bikes somewhere between Freiburg and
|> Frankfurt on Tuesday. We spend 24 hours wondering about dumping my
|> bike (a custom built English mountain bike) in Germany, and claiming
|> it on our insurance. The next day, Friday, we pay another visit to the
|> station to see if we can find out anything else. We find out two
|> things: firstly, that our train to Stuttgart will not take bicycles
|> anyway, and that secondly, my bicycle has arrived.
|> 
|> For a short moment, it seems that everything is fine. We decide to
|> check our bikes now (12 hours ahead of our departure), in the hope
|> that they will be in Stuttgart within a few hours of our arrival early
|> Saturday morning. The woman at the "Gepack Angabe" counter informs us,
|> however, that they will not be there till Tuesday.
|> 
|> Some very fast thinking takes place, and we ship them anyway. In the
|> end, they don't show up until Wednesday mid-morning. Our flight leaves
|> Frankfurt Thursday at 11:30. Its about 150 miles between Stuttgart and
|> Frankfurt - we manage to ride about 75 of that on Wednesday afternoon,
|> and spend a wet, noisy night on a platform, waiting for a train to
|> Heidelberg, from where we plan to go by train to Frankfurt.
|> 
|> But the hassle isn't done with yet. Despite 4 staff people all
|> assuring us that the bicycles can be taken with us on the slow, local
|> train that we are taking, the conductor insists that they cannot.
|> Close to despair, I argue with him in broken German, show him our
|> flight tickets and point out that this is *only* train we can take
|> that will allow us to make the flight. I am close to simply locking up
|> the bikes and saying goodbye to them when he relents, and allows us to
|> take them.
|> 
|> Finally, it seems, we arrive at the airport, box up the bikes, and
|> head for home. But its not over yet. United manage to destroy one of
|> the bike boxes and thereby lose a pedal (one of the wonderful old
|> Suntour XC-Compe's with sealed bearings). They agree to replace it,
|> but it delays us at Seattle by an hour and a half.
|> 
|> All in all, we spent an extra $300 on accomdation and transportation,
|> in return for 6 hours of cycling and a lost pedal.
|> 
|> So, some quick, take-home lessons:
|> 
|> 	1) to take your bicyle on a train in Germany, it MUST have
|>               the bicycle symbol next to it on the timetable.
|>               Be absolutely certain that the day you are travelling
|>               is not covered by a footnote or an exception.
|>               
|>               Taking your bicycle in this way will cost you 5DM on
|>               top of the normal ticket price.
|> 
|>          2) If you are travelling by a train that does not have the
|>               bike symbol (i.e. no baggage wagon), you will have
|>               to check you bicycle in as baggage. This will cost you
|>               21DM, and you bicycle may be delayed by up to a week.
|>               
|> 	      So, if you think you may end up checking your bicycle,
|>               plan to spend some time at your destination waiting for
|>               it to arrive.
|>          
|>           3) Almost without exception, no IC, EC or ICE trains will
|>                carry bicycles. Nowadays, even many D trains do not.
|> 
|> -- paul
|> -- 
|> "Fun" is a word invented by advertising executives to sell soft drinks.

How about packing the bike in a large suitcase and treating it as you
would a toothbrush? Bikes can be flattened or shortened by removing the
tires, turning/removing the handlebars, removing the pedals, etc.
There's also the single-fork, single-chainstay, single tube bikes.

Isn't the world's smallest bicycle only 2.5 inches tall?

Henry Choy
choy@cs.usask.ca