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Comment by aww_dang | Hacker News Reader

They sell the cardboard bike boxes at most stations. The baggage guys would give me used ones for free. When I was in the US the total was $25 for the bike fee and the box. All you need is a pedal wrench and some hex keys to remove the handle bars.

Compare to the airlines fees for bikes. If you have something heavier, you might not even be able to pack it aboard an airplane. Then there is the inconvenience of traveling to and from an airport. Even with an airline, you'll still need to take off the pedals and bars.

Amtrak is not the best, but still better than air travel for cyclists. For the cost of a flight + bicycle baggage fees I can get a room on Amtrak.

Sure the food isn't the greatest, but you can also pack your own and include a bottle.

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Carry on bicycle service is available on only a few trains and even then there are very few spots. You can easily run out and there's nothing you can do with your bike at that point.

If you really look into it you'll discover that the notion that checked bikes are available on most trains is a lie. There are so many exceptions. Just because it's available on a train, doesn't mean it's available at your station. Only the bigger stations allow them and you have no way of getting your bike off the train otherwise. So if you want to go somewhere nice to bike around, you're mostly out of luck.

I'm not going to deal with taking the handlebars and pedals off all the time in a train station.

What am I going to do with that box? I ride my bike to the station.

The checked bike thing is horrible even if you're willing to deal with all of this insanity.

> Amtrak is not the best, but still better than air travel for cyclists. For the cost of a flight + bicycle baggage fees I can get a room on Amtrak.

Air travel is far cheaper than Amtrak in the Northeast. Checked bicycles are about $40 to fly with if you pick the right airline and $20 on Amtrak. But what's even cheaper is travel by car. Just rent a car for the day and you don't need to deal with any of this.

Amtrak is now claiming that most routes have bike racks. https://www.amtrak.com/bike-faqs

Personally, I'd still prefer to have mine boxed to prevent scratches.

Scratches? My daily commute on the Caltrain quickly cured me of this concern. The bike racks on the Caltrain are simple and effective IMO, but essentially just cram bikes together with elastic straps.

It’s a great way to unblock lots of people to utilize trains that wouldn’t otherwise. 2 or 3 cars of the train are devoted to bikes. That certainly is indicative of the environment and the temperate California weather, but still. Makes for a marvelous multimodal commute for me.

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