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UK train travel with bikes is a pain - other than maybe going to Scotland when you have bike reservations lined up. And it takes more time both to plan a train journey and to do it - so it simply doesn't work for some people or for some trips.
But I do have a thing about doing long journeys across Europe by train - in many ways its at least as much fun as doing it by bike. Sure it takes more research and preparation, but it is fun in a way that travelling by plane never is.
I got hooked on it after I had to quit the TCR in 2019. The train journey back from Austria was both fun and a good opportunity to spend time reflecting.
Going to Zagreb and back last year worked well - 24 hours each way including a sleeper. Highlights included bantering with football fans from Slovenia and Serbia, and the scenery: the Vosges, Strasbourg, Sava Valley through Slovenia - some places I've cycled through and some I haven't.
Having rinko sorted makes it less stressful as I don't have to do the bike reservation element, which adds too much complexity. I find spending an extra hour taking a bike to bits is less tedious than spending the same amount of time researching bike reservations.
frank9755-
I do like trains, it's just when you add the bike it's stress/hassle. There's rarely special space for it so the whole journey is paranoia about people damaging or nicking the bike.
I took trains to RATN which was cool and I trained back from the last TCR I raced (had a Scherrit to deal with my bike which made it much easier) so I'd still use them for sure if I could make it work. I do like a train trip. I came back from Bedford today on the train and it was £18 for a 3 stop train instead of £30 for stopping all stations so I was pretty happy with that.
Oh, we used train to/from An Turas Mor in Scotland and Deano's audaxes. The Scotland train is cool coz your bikes are in their own spot, relatively safe.
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How did you get to Zagreb and what did it cost? Were they much possibilty damaging the bike in a Rinko bag?
hippy
PBoynton
Not even looking at how much of a ball ache trying to sort out which trains and what stupid requirements they have, it's the price/time that kills it. It's why I fly most of the time. At least they're pretty consistently shit and I know how to work around it. Trains w/ bikes seem so random. The same journey you've taken one time - you take again but get a different train or different conductor and you're fucked.