Booking Bikes onto French Trains

Doing the Raid Pyrenees in September and planned on driving to Bordeaux then getting the train down to Hendaye. Then at the finish the train from Cerbere back up to Bordeaux. When I try and add bikes onto the tickets online it says it cannot be done with a generic message saying there is ‘no space’ or ‘try folding your bikes down’ which wont be an option.

Anyone else experienced this and found a work around?

Is it SNCF? I’ve looked into this recently and they have a page of info which if I recall correctly states you don’t need to reserve.

Who are you biking tickets through?

Buying, I meant!

Was using loco.com and oui.com

You don’t need to book for regional trains I think that’s SNCF but we need to get one of the TCF ones which requires booking and its these that the problems arise.

Seat61 usually has a lot of decent info on bikes and trains. If there’s no designated bike space or it’s fully booked it won’t let you. I’ve used a single mattress plastic bag some wheel bags and a couple of Bungies to pack a bike as luggage. No issues.

https://www.seat61.com/bike-by-train.htm#France