Hi has any traveled to Mayhem on the train before ?

I dont have a car at the moment as I handed my old one in for the scrappage deal.

Im travelling down Friday night from London.

I’ve booked my bike on the train, but I get the feeling Great Western dont check how many bikes are booked on.

Whats the bike storage like on Great Western if pretty awful on Virgin Pendalinos is it similar ?

Anyone else traveling from London on the train are we likely to have to fight it out to see who gets the spaces ?

it went horribly wrong last time i tried it!

admittedly some of the problems were weather based, so i’m not going to blame the train companies for that, but their attitude to bringing bikes on the train was awful (travelling down from preston)…so bad in fact, that i cadged a lift for the bikes of another rider rather than risk being turned away from the station with them.

As if to prove my fears right, on the way home after the race two other riders – who had booked their bikes on the train and had the tickets to prove it – were turned away as the guard had already let too many other bikes on!

“good luck” is all I can really say; it might all go smoothly, but it probably won’t!

yeah though that,

what I really want to know is how much room is there on great western trains ? if theres more than a couple of other bikes am I going to be in trouble ?

If they’re still running the same stock as they were when I tried it (2007 i think) there’s enough room for 3 bikes…provided you believe the guard

you’d have been on virgin train not great western at least to the midlands.

yeah it was virgin to birmingham the gt western from there (or rather, it was supposed to be, it ended up being virgin to birmingham then black cab the rest of the way!)

My experience with bikes on trains has always been very good. Virgin did tell me once that I couldn’t take my train on the service I’d booked cos it was already full but I ignored them and turned up with bike anyway, no-one said anything or asked to see a reservation number. And there was loads of space!

It’s the issue of getting to Eastnor from the station with all your kit, it’s a fair old ride and it’s not flat either! Driving down on my own a few years ago I passed a very slow cyclist on a full sus sagged almost to the limit, just this enormous rucksack with a pair of legs sticking out underneath. Anyway, I stopped in a layby a bit further on and the guy asked me how much further it was. When I told him about 8 miles he looked ready to cry since the woman at the station had told him it was 6 miles in total and he’d already ridden 7! I gave him a lift the rest of the way, his rucksack just about fitted into the car…