Train à Grande Vitesse

term1te

Does any one have any experience of taking a bike on a TGV to one of the French sportives? I seem to remember you can't take bikes on them.

Thanks

rjeffroy

I took mine to the Ventoux (Beaumes de Venise) last year, Eurostar London - Lille then TGV Lille - Avignon. Boxed or bagged up it is just big luggage. I had no problems with it.

ricadus

I can be done, but it helps if you have a compact bike bag such as the one sold by Decathlon. Just one time I was asked to put the bike in the storage compartment behind the driver's cab, but mostly they turn a blind eye to the odd piece of over-sized luggage stored at the ends of a carriage.

The exception would be if you are traveling during a peak holiday time, especially August, when TGVs are absolutely packed with people and such luggage would be more of an obstruction than otherwise.

Trains with double-decker carriages are a bit easier as there is a bigger space by the doors.

andy_wrx

You can either travel with the bike assembled, 4 bikes per train, reserved, 10Euro, some services only.

Or travel with it in a bike bag as luggage, maximum size (officially, as ricadus says...) of 120 x 90cm, so one of the smaller bike bags like the PlanetX/ProBikeKit/etc will be OK but a fullsize hard bike box is too big.

See TGV/SNCF website
http://www.tgv.com/EN/
- site map (bottom of screen)
- channel 'leisure travel' (icon at bottom)
- 'luggage and vehicles', 'bicycle service' on the right

andyp

As others have said it's generally not a problem if you have the bike bagged. I've taken my bike on both the Eurostar and TGV every year for the past 5 at least and have never had any problems. Just be mindful of other people and their luggage.

rjeffroy's tip is a good one - if you can change at Lille it makes the whole experience that bit simpler as you avoid travelling across Paris with a bike bag and luggage.