European Rail Travel - Bicycles on German trains

Trying to figure out if we were "ugly Americans" ...

My wife and I were returning to Munich after a day trip to see Neuschwanstein Castle. When we boarded the train in Füssen, along with hundreds of others, we took 2 of the fold-down seats along the sides of the railcar. A few minutes later, a couple of bicyclists boarded and insisted we had to move, as those seats were "reserved" for bikes. By that time, there were no other open seats (that we could see) and a large crowd still boarding, so we stayed put. After a day of exploring the castles, we didn't want to stand for the 2 hour return trip and I saw no signage indicating the seats were special in any way, such as those for the elderly or infirm. The cyclists muttered at us the entire trip and while we tried to ignore them, it made my wife uncomfortable.

I'll admit we later saw cyclists leaning their bikes against these types of seats on other trains, but there were plenty of unoccupied seats, so it wasn't an issue.

Were we wrong in not giving up our seats ?

Generally speaking, these trains have limited, designated space for bikes (and, if there's a guard, they may not allow them to be placed elsewhere). It's not always clearly marked - normally, there's a bicycle logo above the seats, but sometimes there's just a logo on the exterior door.

I don't have much experience of this in Germany (the trains I used to take my bike on there were generally empty ones!) but certainly in the UK, you're supposed to move, but plenty don't, even when there are loads of spaces!

You don't have to move for bikes (except in long distance train where the bike owner has a reservation for this specific place for the bike, but I assume that wasn't the case otherwise they would have mentioned it).
Travelling with a bike in the train is in Germany quite cumbersome. You have very few (especially long distance trains) left, where it is possible to travel with a bike. Therefore it is sometimes essential to get into a train with a bike, since there is sometimes no alternative. However, cyclicts have to communicate this in a sensible way.
cheers
757DUDcompartment
PS: The places with a bicycle-logo are called multi-purpose-compartment. There are strict priority rules
1. Persons with a handicap (be careful, sometimes you don't see it)
2. strollers
3. Everythink/everybody else.
I transported once a 2.50m (8 ft) christmas tree in this kind of compartment.

I'll admit we later saw cyclists leaning their bikes against these types of seats on other trains, but there were plenty of unoccupied seats, so it wasn't an issue.

Were we wrong in not giving up our seats ?

This is an issue in the UK as well, and is why I believe these "multipurpose spaces" with seats are a bad idea. The trouble is that people like those seats because they face sideways and so have almost unlimited legroom, so they take them first and won't move, or are reluctant to move, even for prams/wheelchairs, let alone bicycles.

On some UK refurbished trains in the late 1990s, mainly in North West England, a certain design of luggage rack (up top), cycle rack (down below) was installed. This, plus a separate wheelchair area, is far more useful.

Neil

I was on a German train yesterday, travelling in the upstairs compartment above a Mehrzweckwagen, and made a point of looking out for signage.

Found a sign at the entrance to the multi-purpose compartment requesting passengers to give priority to those travelling with wheelchairs, pushchairs, bicycles and large baggage. It was phrased as a request rather than an order.

This was in Northern Germany, so the train on which the OP was travelling may not necessarily have had the same signagage.