Planes, trains, buses and travel limitations with lithium

[melodious]

Planes: http://safetravel.dot.gov/larger_batt.html
Your screwed. "Lithium ion batteries rated over 300 watt-hours (25 g ELC) are forbidden." Maybe could get away if you had some kind of inside connection with the airline. Alternative would be to ship your batteries via mail and pick them up at a designated address (i.e. hotel, acquaintance).

Trains: http://www.amtrak.com/special-items#bicycles
A true folding bike with certain dimensions give you openings. Regular non-folding bikes, you are limited to certain trains with "walk on" bike services.
http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=Page&pagename=am%2FLayout&cid=1251621565025
Seems to be prohibited, but wording is ambiguous because they specify "Lead-acid" chemistry.

Buses: I won't bother posting regulations as typically you can "get away" with carrying them on either via a detachable battery case or simply attached to the bike frame. I'm sure some of us have done this. Also, I'm sure a few have run into some maverick bus driver who would disallow you. I've been denied twice for 2 different (non bicycle) vehicles for 2 different reasons: a small propane powered stand up scooter and a lithium powered stand up scooter. The propane device is self explanatory though I've been able to bring them aboard a bus on a number of occasions. The lithium scooter if I were using it as a handicapped mobility aid would be allowed. In my case, the driver disallowed it. Other than that one instance, I've been able to travel dozens of times with the lithium scooter. I don't regularly bring them aboard buses as part of my commute so my acquaintance and involvement with the bus company is on a per trip basis.

Anyone have experiences with the previous two forms of transportation? Tips and tricks?

 

[amberwolf]

I've ridden with both CrazyBike2 and the Fusin Test Bike on the Valley Metro Light Rail, though CB2 is so large I only even tried it on the first train out and last train back, so they'd be mostly empty at the two end points, which is where I got on and off. WOudl've been tough to do any other way.




FTB is mostly a normal bike in size except for the baskets on the front fork, and the turn signals on the rear rack that stick out a little, so I rode with it in the bike section of the train, holding it upright in the aisle as there's no chance I could lift it up onto the little hooks they have, and it would probalby have destroyed the rim if I had tried to hang it by that, given the weight.



I've also taken DayGlo Avenger on the front rack of a bus, although it only fits if it can be put on with the big side box on the rear sticking out to the front of the bus. I don't think those things were made for that kind of weight, though, and I kept expecting it to fail at every rough section of road (of which there are a lot, especially at the right side where bikes and buses end up).

Once I also tried it on the light rail, hanging it from the little hooks, but IIRC it wasn't motorized then (I think I was between stages, can't remember for sure as it's been a few years). Was still so heavy I had ot have help putting it up there, and I would not do it again because it probably didn't help my wheel any.


No experience with planes or cross-country trains.


Only question I've ever been asked for any of them was "does it use gas?" because I presume those aren't allowed. (never checked)

 

[Kingfish]

Once and only once did I put my FWD on the ST545 Express Bus from Redmond to Seattle: The Express and some Metro busses can store up to 3 bikes on the forward rack which flips down for use, and folds up for non. I caught the earliest bus out of Redmond to Seattle for the annual Chilly Hilly – last Saturday in February in 2010. The bike carried 8 batteries in the triangle, and I had I think another 12 in the trunk bag. Anyways, I carried the trunk bag on board the bus, though I may have left the triangle bag in place. The bike weighed at least twice of a normal bike and I wanted to mount it in the slot closest to the bus, but the driver made me place it outward in the farthest slot so he could keep an eye on it: Dumb ass was definitely not an engineer and knew nothing about cantilever beams and loads. I about crapped my pants on the ride into the City as I watched my bike bounce up and down. After the Chilly Hilly ride, I decided against taking the bus home and instead rode it all the way back – which became the first time I had ridden 75 miles in one day. The bus driver appeared to have zero-concern about the batteries in terms of chemistry.

Chilly Hilly: Ferry ride from Seattle to Bainbridge early in the AM. People just threw their bikes down and went inside for the ride over. Mine was one of 5 MtBs in the first wave and the only electric-assist that I knew of.

A bit later in the year I put the same bike onto Amtrak for the 2010 California Road Trip. The only rule they appeared concerned about was weight and packaging: The bike had to be stowed in an “approved” cardboard crate (two sizes to pick from) and the entire weight had to be less than 50 lbs. The cardboard box weighs 3-5 lbs. so figure that in. I stripped the bike of all batteries and some accessories for boxing, and the boot-lickin’ Amtrak toady told me it was still 10 lbs. overweight. This same jerk told me the day before I was 5 minutes too late to load, and so I had to ride 25 miles all the way back home. Anyways – he let it slide with a warning (yeah, likewise – and I’ll warn others to be wary), and placed my boxed bike on the bottom of a stack of luggage. In both cases, outbound to Klamath Falls Oregon and returning back from Sacramento California, the bike box failed to contain the bike properly. When I returned to Seattle, the bike actually fell out of the box as they unloaded it! For the trip on the train, there was nothing said about my batteries. I stripped the accessories off and carried that in a backpack, and the left/right panniers were also carried onboard, each weighing about 20 lbs. of dead weight. The one benefit to riding Amtrak is that they do have AC power and I was able to recharge on the train.

2010 Road Trip: Bike in a box.

With the 2010 Chilly Hilly and the Summer 2011 Road Trip to California I took a Ferry across the Puget Sound. None of the ship personal seemed to care about the batteries, although heading eastbound from Bremerton to Seattle was free, I got to go to the front of the line, and they let me on and off first. End-to end privileged service!

2011 Road Trip: Eastbound from Bremerton to Seattle; they had me lash the bike down to the rail with a skimpy rope in case of choppy waters.

That’s my experiences with public transportation. Hope it helps.
Cheers, KF

 

[MattyCiii]

My "MENSTRUAL Cycle" was built to ride the train. Subway & commuter rail in greater Boston - and Amtrak as well - allow folding bikes (as long as they're folded, yada yada). I've been taking the bike as a folding pedal bike on the Providence to Boston commuter rail run for years. Then I started adding the electrics - part by part. Not so much to "sneak" the bike by keeping the changes small, but because it's been my "daily driver" and i added electrics bit by bit. So for a while there I had the Recumpense V4 drive main reduction pulley bolted on, but connected to absolutely nothing!

By the time I started strapping a pair of LiPo bricks to the bike's down tube, it was just part of the whole ensemble, never questioned by the conductors.

I don't ride Amtrak much, but this past summer brought the bike onboard for Providence RI to Fredericksburg, VA. Since it was a 2 week trip & all my stuff was on the bike, it was easy to board with the rush of people at the station, fold & stow the bike in the corner, then throw a windbreaker and towel over all the "interesting looking" parts. That track goes under Penn Station in NYC, so my biggest fear was that a passenger would tell a conductor they "see something strange strapped to that bike" and I'd be taken down by the Amtrak SWAT. But I made it round trip.

Nowadays I don't ride the commuter rail so much. To stay stealth, I drop the battery pack off the down tube and put it in the side basket, with something like a towle or hat and gloves over it, to make the bike look more "normal".