Taking a bike to Monterrey?

[shadon]

So I have the idea to go to Monterrey for Thanksgiving in order to ride the 17 mile Drive and to explore a bit on my bike. I don't drive so my thought is to take Amtrak, but taking a bike on Amtrak looks to be a big pain the the butt. So that's out.

Does anyone know of a way get to Monterrey from San Francisco via public transporation on which I could take my bike relatively easily? I'm envisioning a bus with a bike rack on the front...but is there such a thing for that distance?

TIA

[roguedog]

Not sure you can avoid Amtrak the whole way but you could take CalTrain down as far south as you need. Looks like as far as Gilroy (http://www.caltrain.com/caltrain_stations.html)

Then you'd probably have to catch Amtrak from there. At least it's only half a pain the ***?? Or.. hmm.. you could probably ride from Gilroy if you spend the night there and take off early in the morning.

http://www.sfbike.org/download/tubetimes/html/issue092/article05.html

[ridethisbike]

I've been on a variety of long distance bike trips that started or ended with a ride home on Amtrak.

If you want to take Amtrak to get to/from a bike tour and don't want to box your bike, turning the handlebars, removing pedals, etc., the thing to do is to use a bike that folds.

I've been on 5 bike trips via Amtrak with folding bikes. The simplest was when I put my 20" wheeled Giatex folding bike (http://ridethisbike.com/products/Giatex-Sport_550-folding_bike.htm) into a suitcase and carried aboard the suitcase as a carry on. I placed the suitcase in the luggage rack for carry on's near the door to the rail car & took my seat.

When the conductor announced that we were pulling into the station, I left my seat, walked to the luggage rack, pulled down the suitcase, zipped it open, unfolded the bike & zipped up the case - all before the train came to a stop. Two other passengers that were also standing there in the vestibule could not believe what they were seeing. The look on their faces was priceless.

If none of your friends have a folding bike you can borrow, here's a place with quality folding bikes for as little as $300 (http://ridethisbike.com/folding_bikes.htm).

Respectfully,
Larry Lagarde
World-Class-Bike-Trails.blogspot.com (http://world-class-bike-trails.blogspot.com/)
Urging bicycling for recreation, commuting, health and a better future.