Moving Our Bikes from Germany to France

On a whim during a bike trip in Germany last year, we rented storage space and left our bikes behind in Regensburg.

We’ve posted elsewhere about why we did it, but the biggest reason is we plan to do a lot of bike travel in Europe and the biggest hassle associated with that is getting bikes on and off airplanes. After some online looking, we found Radlparken Regensburg and rented a Radboxen, a mini bike garage with a code lock, storing our two bikes and a lot of our gear for the next time we’re ready to travel.

We aren’t ready to do a big bike trip yet, but our Radboxen lease is about to expire, so we make a quick trip to Regensburg to retrieve the bikes and move them to Paris. Regensburg is a cool city, but it’s a little out of the way, while Paris is a transportation hub with connections to almost everywhere by train or bus. We’re hoping it will make future trips easier.

A Tale of Two Bike Moves

It all starts well. We land in Munich, spend a couple days sightseeing, and then take a train north an hour or so to Regensburg.

We’re nervous. They’ve been there almost a year. Will they even still be there? Will they be rideable? Will the locker open?

Man and woman standing next to open bicycle locker — Amazingly, the locker springs open like magic, the bikes are there, they’re in good shape, and all we have to do is clear some dust and cobwebs and pump up the tires before riding away.

Strasbourg bike ride — It’s like a miracle. The weather is perfect and Regensburg is beautiful. We do a little bike trip to test their roadworthiness and explore the trails that surround the city along the Danube River. We’re giddy.

Day Two is another story. We’re hoping for another day of bike travel perfection. Instead, we have Fumble Day.

Those of you who do self-guided bike travel will recognize Fumble Day. It’s the first day of a trip where you fumble around with your gear. You load it, unload it. Rearrange it. Think out loud about how to organize it for optimal efficiency. Take everything out, repack it, and then do it again because you found something under the bed that you almost left behind. Then on to the bikes where you pump up the tires and set off, an hour late, only to stop at least two more times to adjust brakes, rearrange gear, and consult the map for the third time.

Such is the situation on Day Two of our bike moving quest. It starts in the parking garage under the hotel where our bikes are stored. We have a back tire flat, and Robin wrestles the wheel off the bike to change the tube only to realize he left the valve open the day before which caused all the air to escape. So, no puncture, which is kind of a relief, but by the time he’s reinflated the tire and reattached the wheel to the bike, he’s got grease all over himself and his clothes, and we’ve heard a disembodied robot voice coming from Robin’s helmet which is his intercom system announcing he’s got a low battery. Forgot to turn it off yesterday. Oops.

We plug the helmet into a battery pack to charge while Robin goes back upstairs to wash his hands. By the time he gets back and the panniers are repacked, the helmet has enough juice to navigate to the train station, but so much time has passed that Kelly has to go to the bathroom, so it’s back upstairs, and then finally out the door the hour late that Fumble Day generally requires.

We think we’ve left the bad FD juju behind, but it follows us to the train station. We have to get on a train with our bikes and gear and and go back to Munich. We start making mistakes finding our departure platform the moment we get there. Misreading the numbers hanging over the platforms, we think we’re on the wrong one. We cram our bikes and gear into an elevator which takes us up and over the tracks to the platform on the other side. We consult the electronic display to make sure we’re in the right place and realize that the platform we had just come from was the correct platform, so it’s back in the elevator and up and over to our original starting point.

We walk down to our platform and prepare to wait the hour or so before our train leaves. Robin passes the time consulting the Deutsche Bahn train schedule app and sees there is another train for Munich in 25 minutes. It leaves from Platform 4, which is back up the elevator, then halfway across the skywalk, then down another elevator.

We arrive in plenty of time and begin emptying our pannier bags into the backpacks we brought specifically for this purpose because we won’t be able to fit our bikes in the space on the train with the panniers full. However, about halfway through this process we see that the train for Munich has been changed to Platform 1, right where we started.

Train platform — Thinking we have found an earlier train to Munich brings smiles, until moments later when we learn we are on the wrong platform.

Stuffing everything back in the panniers, we hurry to get back on the elevator, across the skywalk and back down the other side. We make the train with a few minutes to spare. You can’t reserve a place for your bike on this train, so we hope the bike car isn’t full which would be our luck, given how the day has gone so far. Miraculously, there are two bike hooks open, so after loading up our backpacks yet again, we work together to get the bikes into their space and find a seat for the trip to Munich.

bikes on train — Once in Munich, Kelly waits on the platform with our backpacks while Robin retrieves the bikes. This becomes slightly complicated as new passengers are also trying to board.

On the platform, with panniers once again loaded, we breathe a sigh of relief. Fumble Day is over and we’re still speaking to each other. Bicycling, especially in a city with fantastic bike lanes, is a breeze compared to getting them on and off trains.

On to France

After two more days in Munich, it is time to head west to Strasbourg, France. Instead of a train, we elect to go via FlixBus for a couple of reasons. First, we can go direct, meaning we don’t have to get on and off with our bikes to make connections. Second, we can reserve a space for our bikes which eliminates the worry of whether they’ll be room for them.

At the Munich Bus Terminal we unload our panniers into our backpacks and the drivers secure our bikes onto the back.

loading bikes on bus — At first we’re a little worried about how our bikes might fare on the rack, but they’re well secured, and the drivers check them every time we stop for a break.

The bus trip has five or six stops, including one on the outskirts of the Black Forest. It’s a pretty drive, but extremely curvy and hilly in places. We’re glad we’re not riding through here.

In Strasbourg our bikes are unloaded, the bus drives away, and we repeat the now familiar process of loading our pannier bags.

bikes at train station — Hundreds of bikes are parked outside every train and bus station in both France and Germany.

The final leg of relocating our bikes is a train from Strasbourg to Paris. Once again , we choose this mode because we can get a direct train as well as reserve a space for our bikes.

train ticket — Some of the fast French trains require you to box or bag your bike. Fortunately this train to Paris allows you to roll your bike on.

The Fumble Day curse has expired, and the trip to Paris goes smoothly. In Paris we have space reserved in a cyclopark, a separate secure area in an underground parking garage dedicated solely to bikes. With our key card we have 24/7 access to the bikes, but, more importantly, we feel confident leaving them here until we return. Just for good measure we add an Apple AirTag to each one so we’ll be able to track them if they happen to get moved, aka stolen.

Paris cyclopark — This cyclopark is clean and seemingly very secure. It should be a good home for our bikes for the next several months.

Krause Travels