Getting Bikes to Land's End
This was not as easy as it should have been. Packing up your bike so they are safe for travel is pretty straightforward, as is getting to London Heathrow. But getting your bike to the starting point is unnecessarily difficult.
Disassemble your Bike
- I start by taking the pedals
- Then take off the wheels
- Place padding around the frame. We use various sizes of pipe insulation to protect the frame, it’s cheap and easy to fit on the frame.
Remove the Derailleur
I’ve had a bent derailleur and my only option was to replace it. If this gets damaged it could ruin your holiday. Good news, it’s fairly simple to remove and reinstall. I used my crank brothers multi-tool Allen wrench to unscrew it. I then wrapped it with bubble wrap, leaving the chain on. Look at it a bit when you unloosen the derailleur, and you can see a little screw that sets the stop for the right placement of the derailleur. Leave that screw alone and the stop will be at the correct place when reassembling.
Protect the Axels
After going through the airport luggage handling process, any pointy part of the bike is at risk of poking through the cardboard box. To protect the axels I cut some old flooring planks into pieces and taped them to the axels before placing the wheels into the box. I also added bubble wrap between the wheels/axels and the frame of the bike.
Mark Seat Post and Handlebar
To help get things back to their proper position take note of where things are before you disassemble your bike. We put painters tape around the seat post and handlebars to mark where we like them. This helps get up and running quickly, without a lot of fiddling around with the fit of your bike while on tour.
Reinforce Box
There are usually a few handholds on bike boxes to facilitate lifting, moving and throwing the box. These have be ripped off by overzealous luggage handlers at the airport. To help them out we assure the hand holds are clear of any obstruction and reinforce them with extra cardboard and tape. We even add tape to the top and bottom of the hand hold to assure it feels good when gripped.
Over-sized Luggage Pick-up
When arriving at your final destination, look for signs or ask for the designated location for oversized luggage pickup. It’s usually in an out-of-the-way corner and will include items from various flights. On this flight our bikes were waiting for us when we got there, but sometimes our bikes seem to be the last thing off the plane.
UK Trains and Bikes
- We thought we could show up, buy tickets for a train, and then roll our bikes on (or keep them in the box) and make our way to Penzance. This was not so simple.
- You MUST have a bike reservation with your train ticket. Only 5 spots per train
- You get these from GWR website or at the station when you get your tickets
- People living outside of the UK can not use the GWR website to purchase tickets
- RedSpottedHanky doesn’t always have the ability to reserve bike spots
- We called RedSpottedHanky and GWR many times. Ended up buying tickets at twice the cost than others just to get one with reservations. Even ended up leaving a couple hours later than we would have wanted.
-Edward Abbey
