who was it on here that took the bike on a greyhound trip? i'm taking one before long here and am taking at least one bike. i was just sort of curious what all i'll need to do, how they'll treat it, how i should expect it to come out, etc...

was it mesngr? i dunno. i just want to be sure my bike (s?) come out safe.

The shop I work at rents out bike travel cases. That might be something to look into. I think our's go for $25 CDN / week.

Edit: Come to think of it, you could probably hit up a bike shop for one of the carboard boxes that a new bikes comes in. If the foam's gone, pick up some foam tubes used for water pipes and go nuts.

huh, okay. i'll look into that. i thought a large discarded cardboard box would work, too, with appropriate padding and packing.

excuse any disjointedness or idiocy in tonight's posts. the cold medicine is making me feel really weird.

i took my bike on greyhound once...they lost it. luckily, it was on day 3 of a 5 day trip and they found it, and routed it to my final destination before i got there, so i got it back.

pack it reeeeeaaaaalllly well. and make sure you tell the guy throwing the luggage under the bus that it HAS TO STAND UPRIGHT! and don't take no BS about an extra handling fee. because when i brought my bike on, i got charged for it and still had to carry it from bus to bus, but they wouldn't let me put it in the luggage compartment myself.

greyhound rocks, but i'll never trust them with one of my bikes again.

huh....this is a 10 hour trip, just from boise to portland, so i don't expect much of that sort of ****. the handling fee does sound like crap, but i can also stand right next to the handling guy and remind him of the way it needs to go.

dude...

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ight=greyhound

search...

Greyhound's 'official' rules state that the bike must be boxed. Some stations say they have boxes there, but when I arrived they didn't have any. So, I just sweet talked the baggage handler, and he let me put it right under the bus. No problems whatsoever. (Just be prepared to smile and bat your eyelashes....alot!)

If you box the bike, you will definitely need to pay the $15 fee each way, and it doesn't get any special treatment and you are insured the same as you are for luggage - $100 max in case of damage proved to be caused by mishandling etc.

If you have some kind of bag you can get it in (I've seen cheapo duffles for 20 bucks here that wouldn't last many trips, but could easily take up to maybe a 55cm frame and wheels with them packed right), no problem for me - at least in NY and Phila, nobody wanted any kind of a hassle at all. I doubt anyone would point you to the ticket counter and say, "there's a bike in here, you have to pay extra" because a) it would slow them down, b) you'll talk back, and that will be irritating and a hassle, c) the bus will be delayed and d) this can't be a bike, it's in a bag.

In Montreal on the other hand (and I would suspect it might be the same anywhere Grayhound employees would be either extremely nitpicky for a technical reason (border crossing) or have a great disdain for anyone who appears to be a college student) they'd already approved the size, shape and weight of my bag as fine, and once a thrower touched it made me pay extra.

And they definitely will not have bicycle boxes in the stations - they only might have them in stations that also have a Grayhound Courier depot, and probably not there either.

We have a guy that rides greyhound to all his races. Judging from the state of his travel case, I would suggest renting one if you can. If not try to double up on the box even if you have to cut one box apart and stick the piecesto the inside of the other box. Anything to stiffen it up. Mark the heck out of it, name and address.

I've ridden that exact route many times! Except I was leaving from Portland and getting off in Baker City.

Jrowe's used Greyhound before on trips from Boston to New York and he generally didn't bother boxing it, but then again, there's generally not a lot of luggage on those trips. If you choose not to box it, I recommend standing it upright and locking it to one of the vertical supports. That's how I put my bike on the Chinatown busses and it's always worked well.

When I went to Chi for the MNG, I took mine in an Assos bike bag. I had a sheet of cardboard on the inside on either side of the bike and foam pipe insulation on all of the tubes. I got charged the extra fee in St Louis on the way there, but not in Chi on the way back. No damage, no problems other than the one fee and the general suckage of taking the bus (which I have now essentially permanently sworn off).

mabey it was some kind of special deal or something, but i was going to take my bike and myself from VA to philly via greyhound for $60, 12 hour ride, and it seems they dont treat bikes too well.


found out amtrak was $70, took 3 hours, was waaaaaaaaay more comfortable, and they gave me a bike box to boot.

did i mention amtraks bike fee was $15 to greyhounds $50?


thats my $0.02

Greyhound reserves the right to charge $20 to $30 for handling oversized baggage (over 62 linear inches, which just about any adult bike will be apart from folders). On top of that, they officially require that it be boxed.

Having said that, between some cities you can travel unboxed. Boston as far south as Philly can be unboxed, as I recall. Give your local Greyhound a call and find out. If you have to have it boxed, you can usually get a box over the counter. In Boston, we don't have a separate GPX counter (afaik), so you just get it right there at the regular ticket counter. At the Port Authority terminal in NYC, you have to go to GPX to get the box.

I went from NYC to Providence and back on Greyhound a few weeks ago. Got a cardboard box from a bike shop and packed it up, threw it under the bus and that was it. No extra charge.

hmm, so are the suggestions to go unboxed a matter of being able to put it in there and lock it up yourself, like stickyfoot says? (by the way, that's a beautiful ride there, through the gorge and all)

and whoosh!, amtrak doesn't run a train through boise (i wish), but it does run a bus. i think i might check into that as well, and see how that will work.

but i guess it sounds like everything differs depending on where you start, so i'll check with the local station. one thing i was wondering if anyone had bikes come out completely screwed up, but it doesn't sound like anything major happened. plan for the worst and hope for the best, eh, guys?

EDIT: and emily, that might get a redneck to punch me in the face. ; )

i took my bike on the greyhound and it was fine. i got a cardboard box that a bike came in, chopped off about 8 inches from one side and put my bike in there. i had to take everything apart, pedals, seat, fork, bars, stem, wheels, and even my axles so the wheels would fit inside the width of the box. its a pretty tight fit but it works and it keeps it under the linear measurment limit. i also made a bike bag out of some canvas, pretty much a square bag that the box fit into. it weighed less than the 50lb limit. when they asked what it was i said "some bike parts" since its not a complete bike (no brakes or gears) and i was set.

fun story about that greyhound trip. i had to ride my bike to the bus station with the bike box strapped to my backpack, i couldnt even see over my shoulder. i got to the bus station, took my bike apart in the parking lot and packed it up.

If you don't want to get charged the bogous fee from greyhound, tell them it is art supplies, just pack it tight so its not knockin around in the box, oh and as for the box just put it in a bike box that new bikes come in, get it from a local bike shop for free and maby tape or spary paint over the labes, just so they dont call you out on it being a bike. But saying its art supplies works, for free.

I think if I tried that with a burly box handler he would punch me in the face.

yeah,i was thinking a box from a bike shop and disassembling the bike. luckily, i'll be getting a ride...so no riding there with a big box of "bike parts" on my shoulder...haha.

greyhound sucks compared to chinatown buses. where else can you pay 15 dollars to go from boston to nyc, and bring a bike? i didnt even package my bike up, i just crawled into the baggage section and ulocked it to one of the supporting beams.