Travelling with your bike

petemadoc

In particular Ferries and hotels.

Heading down to France on Sunday, staying in a hotel on the way down and catching the ferry over the Channel. So what do you do with the bike while staying at a hotel? Keep it strapped to the car with a lock or bring it inside? I assume it's safe enough to leave the bike stuck to the car during the crossing. Using a rear bike rack btw.[/quote]

MountainMonster

Ferry will be fine with the bike strapped to the back, noone is allowed in the auto part of the boat when it is in motion, and an announcement comes on the loud speaker telling you when you can return, just try to be waiting first at your door to go back down to the cars, and D-lock the thing to the car.

As far in hotels, since you'd probably be bringing your luggage in, surely you could drop the back seats and lay the bike inside without the front wheel when you won't be using auto or bike?

petemadoc

Moving bikes inside the car isn't really an option. There'll be 2 road bikes on the rear rack and two small kids bikes inside the car. I might just bring them inside the hotel room Might get some weird looks but at least I'll be able to sleep

anto164

MountainMonster wrote:

Ferry will be fine with the bike strapped to the back, noone is allowed in the auto part of the boat when it is in motion, and an announcement comes on the loud speaker telling you when you can return, just try to be waiting first at your door to go back down to the cars, and D-lock the thing to the car.

As far in hotels, since you'd probably be bringing your luggage in, surely you could drop the back seats and lay the bike inside without the front wheel when you won't be using auto or bike?

Don't forget to cover the bikes with somehting so they cant be seen if you do put them in the back of the car. It's written in many insurance contracts that cycles are only insured in the car if they are not seen. I.e. take a big cloth and make sure they're not obvious.

Evil Laugh

Hey I and 5 others rode n to s through France this summer staying in hotels. We got the ferry over, there was a room to lock bikes but people with cars just had them on racks. Nobody will nick anything on the ferry. Chuck some locks on if you want.

Wrt hotels, every hotel we stayed in bar 1, an etap in n Paris, had secure bike storage. Be it a locked garage, store room or just letting us take the bikes into hotel rooms (great for a cheeky bike clean in the shower!). We took it for granted after a while which was why we came unstuck at the etap, our last hotel on the way home. They are really geared up for that type of thing over there. Everyone was interested in our trip and really accommodating to our needs. We used the Logis chain a lot and they were all excellent and reasonable, also ibis, the same if a little pricier.

Have fun. The quality of the roads and the attitude towards cyclists from drivers and peds is a different world entirely to old blighty.

priory

french hotel i would be amazed , and make it explicit, if they do not invite you to put your bikes in a suitable place. make sure you have a good lock with you.In the car I would take a long motorcycle chain for a group of bikes

bikeboff

I've just travelled through France, staying in a different hotel every night for almost three weeks. No problems with any hotels. Sometimes I did leave my bike in the (support) car for ease, and because I wanted to give it a clean/lube, but the rest of the time I left it in the hotels, usually in a storeroom or unused ground floor area. I only used my own lock a couple of times; most of the time it was secure. Just ask, and most - if not all - hotels will be accommodating.