Buying a touring bike/gear in Europe

Hi

Has anyone bought new or secondhand cycling gear in Switzerland and/ or Germany?
Are there good local newspapers / flea markets to look out for? Please help.

The one place to check for decent used long-distance touring gear is the market place in the German language section at http://www.rad-forum.de/ Another good source is ebay.

I think you would be best off if you bought a new bike at a local dealer and resold it to the dealer after you are done touring in Germany. Let me know where you plan to start, I can ask questions in German for you on the forum mentioned above.

Thanks alot, I will check that out! Also, do you know of the cheapest way to get from Frankfurt down to Switz (Zurich). The trains and flights look very expensive from an Australian perspective! Thanks again.

Train travel in Switzerland is very expensive, I would take a look how much a one-way flight from Frankfurt (FRA !!!!) to Zurich would cost you. It should be less than 100 EUR, so not that much compared to what you pay for a full-fare train ticket (Frankfurt-Zurich is roughly 90 EUR by train).

If you are set on the train there are a few tricks to make it cheaper on the German side. You can book online in advance, this will sometimes get you a special offer (39 EUR).

Or you can use a Laenderticket, this will get you as far as the German border for roughly 30 EUR. It will then cost you another 10 EUR to get from the German border (Schaffhausen) to Zurich. Travelling with Laenderticket is slow, but the best way if you got a bicycle with you or are not sure when you will leave Frankfurt.

The specific Laenderticket you want is the Baden-Württemberg Single Ticket (if you are alone, 19 EUR at the vending maschine) or the Baden-Württemberg Ticket (if you are in a group of up to 5 people, 28 EUR at the vending maschine). There is a map of where it is valid here
. As you can see, this ticket does not cover Frankfurt directly, but the border is close to it. So from Frankfurt Airport you need to buy a ticket to Ludwigshafen or Mannheim before you can use the Laenderticket. I personally would recommend taking the train to Heidelberg, staying in Heidelberg for a day or two, then using the Laenderticket to get down to Schaffhausen at the Swiss border.

Laendertickets are valid for regional trains only (that's why travelling with them is slow) and from 9 am to midnight on a weekday and from midnight to 3 am the next day on Sat or Sun. There is also the Happy-Weekend-Ticket which is valid for all of Germany, costs 37 EUR at the vending maschine and 39 EUR at the counter and lets you travel on regional trains on a Sat or Sun with a group of 1-5 people. It is not uncommon to find "tickethikers", people who are looking for somebody with a Laenderticket or a Happy-Weekend-Ticket who lets them ride on his or her ticket together with them.

In order to find connections that are valid with Laendertickets or Happy-Weekend-Ticket you need to select "only local transport" at the link to the bahn.de site that I gave you above.

Hope this was helpful.