Arriving at Heathrow with a bike in a box

Did LEJOG a couple of years

Did LEJOG a couple of years ago – flew into the UK (Southampton rather than London) with the bike carefully wrapped in a cardboard box, hired a car to drive down to Penzance and ditched the box in a recycling bin. Stopped at a Halfrauds somewhere along the A30 to pick up some bits, so my advice would be forget about stopping at LHR (other than checking the bike is OK), and finding a decent LBS en route.

Have been in & out of a few UK airports now and assuming that, as you’re arriving at LHR, you’re coming long-haul so I’d recommend looking at flying into somewhere like Amsterdam, Paris or Frankfurt and getting a connecting flight to a regional airport in the South West as the difference in air ticket price will probably be less than the saving in travel costs out of London.

I don’t ride in the UK that often, but everytime I’m always shocked at the truly dreadful condition the roads are in. As for using Sustrans routes, I rode from Portsmouth ferry port to Oxford this summer which was mostly along the NCN and it was properly shit – totally unrideable even on 38mm gravel tires in places and even barricaded off by building sites at times. Ironically I bailed at Reading and caught the next GWR to Oxford no problems whatsoever without any pre-booking!

Hi Bernie, good luck with
Hi Bernie, good luck with your travels and not wanting to put a downer on things, friends have ridden lands end to John o groats and loved every moment of it.
Others have highlighted challenges which I won’t repeat.
You do however mention Sustrans and bridleways which rings alarm bells with me. If you are on a road bike and attempting to ride an unsurfaced bridleway, it will be an impassable mud bath in the rain. If you have factored this in, all’s well and good and good luck.

If you can tell us your

If you can tell us your onward travel arrangements it’ll be easier to advise.

What type of box have you got, is it just a cardboard one that you’ll bin or a proper travel case? That’ll affect things too.

The best option, seeing as you’re already heading west) is to go to somewhere like Reading, stop in a Premier Inn or similar there and then train onwards to Cornwall from that point. There are buses/coaches to all sorts of places from Heathrow, it’s well served by National Express and they’re pretty reasonable about bikes most of the time, especially if they’re boxed.

Heathrow is inded the anus

Heathrow is inded the anus mundi. If you have to fly in there I would advise you not to try and cycle out, but take your bike still boxed onto the Heathrow Express train, which takes you quickly to Paddington Station in London, and from Paddington get the next train to Plymouth. Depending on the time of day, this will cost you from about £80 to £160, which is probably less than you’d pay for a hotel in Heathrow or central London, and you’ll have to pay it anyway unless you plan to cycle to Cornwall. Unbox your bike in Plymouth.

There is some wonderful cycling down there.

I think (but you should check to confirm) that if you keep the bike boxed you won’t have the hassle of having to book it onto a train, but you can still put it in the baggage carriage.

Bernie77 wrote:

thanks for the rapid responses. Further info –  I want to start in Cornwall and I thought that starting in Heathrow and getting a train would be the good option. From your comments though this is not the case. 

Maybe i should try for a connection to Exeter or somewher in the south west, head to Cornwall by train and then start my odyssey.

Thanks

bernie

Be VERY careful with the atrocious cycling policies that rail operators have (particularly in the South West).

If you book train tickets online you are meant to be able to reserve a bike space. You need a bike reservation to take a bike on an HST (when you book online it doesn’t say if the train is an HST or not – so calling up might work).

I’ve had so many issues with the GWR cycling policy that I now no longer take my bike on trains – it’s a real shame :/

You could try going to Woking

You could try going to Woking on the Railair link coach that drops you at Woking Station.

It is 150 yards from a Travelodge.

Woking also has direct trains to Exeter it certainly used to be cheaper from Woking to Exeter.

Do you have to fly into
Do you have to fly into Heathrow? Just getting out of the one way system on a bike would be enough to make you want to go home. Almost any other airport would be preferable.

Why are you coming to a very

Why are you coming to a very congested country, when you can cycle around France on virtaully deserted roads.  I live in the countryside and its OK, near towns and cities in the south of England its Bedlam.  Cancel your flight and goto France for cycling.