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Going to Europe? Would you use this?

Your Bike and Luggage to France, Germany, Spain...

Hi All,

Starting in 2016 I hope to offer a service for cycle tourists who, like me, are fed up with the hassle of transporting bikes when going on holiday. I’ve had my fare share of woe in the past and we’ve all read of people trying to ride away from airports on bikes damaged by careless baggage handlers. 

Instead, I can collect your bike and panniers and deliver them to your choice of destination—your first hotel, for example—ready for you to collect.  At the end of your tour I will collect your bike and bags allowing you to return home with the minimum of baggage. Bikes will be transported without having to strip them down and will be well wrapped and strapped to ensure they are not damaged.

I’d like to offer a truly bespoke service including door-to-door delivery and on dates and to destinations chosen by you; however this would be costly.  A cheaper option would be to service different areas one at a time in rotation throughout the season, each area being available to travel to for a couple of weeks at a time. Tackled like this I might be able to bring down the starting price for a bike and four panniers to under a hundred pounds return to destinations in northern France and western Germany with one-to-two hundred pounds being a likely figure for northern Spain, Switzerland, southern France and northern Italy.

I’d be very grateful for your help in telling me how you might use a service such as this; I’d particularly like to hear from cycle clubs.

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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6 comments

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severs1966 | 8 years ago
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I would LOVE this, but mainly because carrying our tandem trike is impossible, especially on trains.

Would you carry a tandem trike? It's a Greenspeed GTT
http://www.greenspeed.com.au/gtt.html

Please contact me if you can do this

severs1966 (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk

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monkeyhumanoid | 8 years ago
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A friend of mine hired a top of the range Cannondale with Di2 for just under 20 Euros a day, insured.  Not sure that this service could compete on price?

 

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hogkite | 8 years ago
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I have recently been looking  at options for cycling certain routes in Europe. I definitely think your service would be useful and I would certainly consider it. Ultimately it will come down to price has to be reasonable for me and enough profit for you. Maybe something not so bespoke would be cheaper?

I would be happy to deliver/collect my bike at a local regional collection point in UK. Could easily collect from destination airport of delivery to local accomodation. I think the suggestion about popular routes is definitely worthy of consideration and you could have some set dates maybe. 

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sm | 8 years ago
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It is a huge pain but often it's easier and cheaper to hire a bike at the destination.

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YourBikeToEurope | 8 years ago
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Thanks for that. We were in Europe over the summer and having looked at the options we plumped for the ferry but had to wait a total of more than five hours loading/unloading between just two ferry trips. We had our baby daughter with us so not much fun—if we could have kissed the bikes goodbye and gone home as foot passengers we’d definitely have been tempted, hence the idea. Thanks again for your reply.

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maviczap | 8 years ago
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Its tempting, as it is a lot of hassle taking a bike and getting more expensive. Choose popular destinations like Bourg d'Osains & St Jean for France, that'd bring a lot of business your way from May to end of September

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