Hi I am planning on cycling the eurovelo 6 from germany to the black see - so basically following the danube river. Once I (hopefully) arrive in at the shore of the black sea in romania I have to get me and my bike back to germany. I do not want to use planes for traveling, so the train is the obvious choice. When doing some research I noticed that taking a bike on the train in Romania is most of the times not allowed. Does anybody has experience in how to circumvent this problem. Sofar I thought about dissebmbling the bike and transforming it into a piece of lugage. A friend of mine suggested to rent one of those special bike cases - does anybody know if those are rentable in in Bukarest or even Constanta?
Any suggestions are welcome!
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While unsure of specific bike containers, I am sure you could find a bike shop and hence bike box.
In days of old, I would pull wheels and wrap my bike and wheels with a sheet or tarp. Just a package in another name. This allowed me to hop any train in Europe, although some conductors questioned me, none stopped me from traveling.
Romania, while having some rough roads, great place to travel and visit.
From Belgrade to Black Sea: Getting to Bucharest (crazyguyonabike.com)
It was quite easy and no disassembly or packing was required. There were a bunch of other bikers and everyone got their bike in.
Just for the records, I traveled the night train from Bucharest to Viena with my bike disassembled and packed into two big Ikea bags, one for the frame and one for the wheels. I did not even get a questioning look from the conductor when boarding the wagon with 2-bed cabinets.
Two other bike travellers with fully assembled bikes at the Bucharest train station told me they asked the lady at the international tickets booth on multiple days, she told them to ask the conductor once the train arrives. It was a success and they were told to "just put the bikes in the corridor where there's space". So it might be worth to just try.
Another way could be, if you want to be safe and have the extra cash available, to book a whole cabinet.
Samuel! Good evening! You pose an interesting question here. Romania can be difficult and your idea of dismantling and keeping the bike in a case is a really good one. Do you have a road bike, tourer or hybrid? I would make contact with https://www.posta-romana.ro/en who have 'post restante' style services where you can leave post for collection up to 8 weeks later (I think). I would try to buy a case - second hand ones can be found on eBay and some of the deals are very good indeed. Wiggle do some good ones but don't overlook Decathlon too - probably ideal for what you need! Good luck.