I have the following bike bag:
https://douchebags.com/the-savage-bike-bag-black
I plan to hop around Europe after things open up a bit. I'm sure I'll be taking the Eurostar between London and Paris quite a bit. Looks like Eurostar only allows 2 pieces of luggage similar to the airlines.
So what approach would you recommend for getting my bike bag back and forth? Does Eurostar have some type of additional checked baggage service? Or would I need to arrange the delivery of my bike bag through some type of external provider?
A bike bag plus one other bag hold a lot of gear. How much are you planning on taking?
Eurostar has bike specific transport carriages and you don’t need to pack the bike up at all. Although they do tend to book up quickly and it’s an additional cost. It’s fairly straight forward.
I did it last year. You have to strip your bike luggage off the bike and carry it with you as hand luggage. You leave the bike with the concierge and they put it on the train. It was not bad with bar roll, frame bag and tail pack but could be tricky with a fully loaded tourer. That said i traveled back with a load of festival campers and all their camping kit as hand luggage so Eurostar are use to lots of stuff being carried through.
The hardest part about Eurostar is booking / traveling on the same train as your bike which means a wait for either you or your bike whilst they catch up. Don't forget to stash your camping knife in your bike frame as they will confiscate if you leave in hand luggage as I found out!
Let's say that I would prefer to travel with my bike packed up in my bike bag. I'll have a 60 square inch luggage bag with my other stuff in it as well as a garment bag. Standard airline luggage. In addition, I'll also have my bike bag. On an airline, I would simply pay an additional fee for the bike bag. On the Eurostar, do they reserve space to accommodate the same type of excess luggage?
When you say after, and quite a bit, don't forget that come January you are onto standard Schengen visa terms.
Yep I'm a USA citizen. So I'll be hopping around Schengen and then letting my Schengen visa reset in UK and Ukraine
You'll need to book the bike in advance and then book yourself on the same train. I did this last year. They have two places per train for unpacked bikes and more for packed bikes. The best way to book this is over the phone with them so you can ensure you get the same train as your bike (they don't guarantee this though) and you get two tickets, one for you one for your bike. You then drop your bike off at the luggage drop (which at St Pancras is a bit of a walk from the main station)
All info here.
https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-info/travel-planning/luggage/bikes
The walk to the bike collection/drop at Gare du Nord is further than the one at London.
If you are London based you do have the option of dropping your bike the day before your train and the it is more likely to be at the other end the same time you are.
I contacted Eurostar via Facebook Messenger and they said that my bike bag would normally be handled via their EuroDespatch luggage service but that this service is not currently provided due to current travel restrictions:
https://www.eurostar.com/us-en/travel-info/service-information/coronavirus-and-eurostar-service
The url above states that First Luggage (alternative luggage handler) is still operating, but their same day delivery service isn't available. Here's the website for First Luggage:
https://eurostarluggagedelivery.com/