Arriving at Heathrow with a bike in a box

Hi Bernie.  This might be a bit late for you but I'm too going to travel from Australia to ride LEJOG, but in June/July.  I came across your post as I was also looking for ways to escape Heathrow with a bike in a carton.  In the end I've resolved to book a taxi to take me to Windsor or Slough, where I'll stay a couple of nights to recuperate from the flight & get into the time zone  (I'm then going to ride a circuitous route to Swindon or Bath to get the train to Penzance).  Quotes have been in the £30 to £35 range, which is more than the bus of course but avoids the hassles of finding the bus stop and loading/unloading the bike, especially if the destination bus stop is some distance from where you want to park yourself for the night.  My two cents for what it's worth.

Heathrow Terminal 5 is a nightmare with a bike. First time I flew through there was with a bike in a proper bike bag. None of the lift doors are wide enough to take a trolley with a bike bag across it, so you have to summon lift, take bike bag off trolley, put bike bag in lift, then trolley then at the next floor, take trolley out, then bike bag and put back on trolley. Ridiculous. I also had another bag, hence the need for the trolley.

Stuttgart airport with a doddle in comparison - just a bit of a walk to drop bike off once checked in.

Don't bother going to Evans for a bike box on the way home - all the bikes are delivered to store pre-built. Might be worth phoning ahead and asking a local bike shop to hold onto a box for you - otherwise, you might be stuck if the recycling has taken them before you get there.

> unless the RailAir coach services to Reading take bikes or bikes in boxes.

Railair to Reading will take a bike in a box, those buses have a lot of storage underneath. You can get the bus from LHR Central Bus Station if arriving into T2/T3/T4 or direct from T5 if you're on BA and arrive there. There's three buses per hour in daytime and it'll cost under £20 for a single. You get deposited outside Reading railway station. Reading is the first mainline stop for fast trains out of Paddington so a good place to catch a train heading West. Just round the corner from the station, in Friar St, there are some chain hotels if timings dictate an overnight stay in Reading.

Wish you well with your odyssey, I am sure you will receive a plethora of advice of where to cycle; noting your sustrans comments would recommend the Camel trail from Padstow. It is a simple route, buts needs to be as you cannot take your eyes off the scenery.

Don't go to Hayes & Harlington. If you're wanting to get a GWR trains you can book your bike on if you book online- but you do have to book for a specific service. The services to Cornwall don't stop at Hayes & Harlington, their first stop is Reading, so you might as well take a local train (Heathrow Connect, not Express, unless you're proper minted) to Paddington; unless the RailAir coach services to Reading take bikes or bikes in boxes.

Ciao Bernie

Did LEJOG some years back with a friend and we flew into Heathrow. We reassembled the bikes in the Arrivals area, and simply put the bike boxes next to a rubbish bin. We then caught the Heathrow Express with the bikes and connected to the overnight train to Penzance.  Woke up the next morning in Penzance and cycled down to Lands End to start. Couldn't have been easier, and I personally would recommend this over a more complicated route with flight connections where your bike will be moved around.

Depending on where you intend to finish I'm certain a local bike shop will be able to fix you up with a bike box for the return journey.

Good luck!

Can I ask where you are coming from?   It might help us suggest some alternative air routes

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!

Bernie, that sounds like a brilliant trip. 

Have you considered the Kings Cross, London to Penzance (Night Riviera Sleeper Train)? Which does take a bike (booked in advance).

You could avoid fyling and Heathrow totally that way, get a Eurostar from France, then hop on the sleeper train to Penzance - wake up, voila!

If you're using the NCN routes for the first time around Britain, be aware they can very massively in quality, a few being farm tracks or across fields. 

Still, as long as you have reasonable sized tyres, you'll have an amazing time exploring some of the best countryside in the world, I am very jelous.

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 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.

It isn't legal to cycle in or out of the Central terminal area of Heathrow- they have banned all cycling through the tunnel, ripping out the cycleway that used to exist.

If your bike is still boxed (a proper travel case? What will you be doing with the box whilst cycling?) I think you'd get away with claiming it as standard luggage on the trains and coaches.

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.

Would suggest that a direct flight to Bristol deserves consideration. Plenty of nearby bike shops, a number of comparatively good cycle paths, within easy reach of Cornwall.

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 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.

Hi. I would stop at somewhere like the Holiday In. In Slough. There is a bus service from terminal 5 and it’s a much better location to start your travels. There are also plenty of bike shops that you can find on Google. 

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.