Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
Fully agree. I think that Amtrak has been more than generous, they have expanded their baggage car service to include racks for bikes and at many non-luggage stations they will load or unload a bike from the baggage car. And they have gone out of their way to allow folding bikes even though they are larger than other carry on bags.
It took a lot of cyclists to get Amtrak to expand their luggage policy for regular bikes in baggage cars on most routes by adding bike racks instead of having to box them and to get Amtrak to allow bikes to be loaded in or unloaded from luggage cars at stations that do not otherwise allow checked luggage in or out of a baggage car. Is your destination on a route that does not have bike racks in the baggage car? Or some other special case where they will not allow you to take your non-folding bike off of the baggage car?
The little bit that I have read about Rinko bikes is that you are removing the wheels, handlebars, fork, pedals and maybe some other parts from a full sized bike. Then calling it a Rinko bike. And that some parts have been developed to make assembly and dis-assembly easier and faster, like using the quick release removable pedals that are common on folding bikes. It is pretty clear to me that Amtrak has decided to allow folding bikes as carry on luggage as a special case, regular carry on luggage must be under 28 x 22 x 14 inches but if it is a folding bike they will instead allow a larger size of 34 X 15 X 48 inches. So what you are saying is that you want them to expand their special case to cover full size bikes too.
When Amtrak says:
You must fold up your folding bicycle before boarding the train.
and:
Only true folding bicycles (bicycles specifically designed to fold up into a compact assembly) are acceptable.
It is pretty clear to me what is and is not allowed as a folding bike.
Why not just check the bike in the baggage car? It sounds like all you really are trying to do is avoid the bike luggage fee of $5 to $20 instead of putting your bike in the baggage car. Or does the specific route you want to ride not have a baggage car? Or is it one of the rare routes that lack baggage car?
You make some good points. I understand your point about not wanting to screw things up for those with Dahons and Bromptons and such. It does appear that Amtrak set an upper size limit consistent with most if not all folding bikes, but wants to exclude disassembled non-folding bikes, even if they meet the size requirement. That is presumably to limit the numbers of those sorts of bikes they will be asked to handle.
I admit finding this irksome and arbitrary. It's precisely as if they decided to limit numbers by decreeing that only bikes with yellow or orange frames are acceptable. Also, as a former editor, it bothers me that the language they use is unclear and doesn't seem to accomplish its purpose. As I said, most cyclists (and probably Amtrak itself) would consider a bike equipped with Bilenky couplings to be a true folding bike, but by Amtrak's definition, it's not a folder, but a disassembled bicycle. It doesn't fold up, does it? Don't you have to undo some threaded fittings and take it apart?
The route I will be traveling does accept bikes as checked baggage, and I could go that route. My objection to doing so is just that it's less convenient. I also feel better about stowing my own bike than handling it over to a baggage handler who probably cares about it much less than I do.
But I would certainly not set foot in the train station until the bike was fully dismantled (or as I prefer to call it, "folded up") and packed in its bag. I'd rather avoid an argument than risk losing one.