Anyone had any experience taking their MTB on LNER trains recently?
I am going London Kings Cross to Edinburgh at the end of the week to do a Scottish offroad coast 2 coast. I've booked a bike space on the train ages ago but today stumbled across their webpage that states if your bike tyres are wider than 5.5 cm or or handlebars wider than 700mm you should book 2 bike spaces.
Given that there are only 4 bike spaces on each monstrously long train, the chances of getting a second next to my first are non-existent, especially as I know that other members of my party are on the same train and have booked the remaining spaces.
So has anyone tried to take their mtb on this route and been turned off for only having one space? Or should I just ignore this thing I didn't read (honest gov) and just turn up? Any advice or experiences?
I'd be surprised if it's an issue, but if it turns out to be. Turn bars through 90 degrees and deflate tyres. Job jobbed.
Turn bars through 90 degrees and deflate tyres. Job jobbed.
This
Had to do this to get 3 bikes into the 3 bike section (not LNER) where the guard was about the chuck one of the party off as not all three fitted. This sorted it no issue and she was happy for us to continue
Managed to get two road bikes into the space with drop bars and 41mm deep rims, but much wider bars or bigger/fatter wheels would have been tight.
I reckon deflate tyres and turn bars will be alright. If you can maybe also bring something to put on sticking out bits between hanging bikes like foam pipe insulation or something to help prevent knocks or scratches.
Had two gravel bikes booked on a few weeks ago after a multi day ride in Northumberland. Neither would fit in the actual bike racks (and that's without overly deep rims), but we managed to bodge it with hooking the ends of the drops over the luggage rack things in there and use of some cafe locks we had. It's likely you'll need to do something similar with a MTB, poss take the front wheel off and turn bars. I'd highly recommend taking some longer flexi-locks and some bungie cords or similar to let you tie it all up.
Yes, it's an utter farce.
Thanks everyone. The bikes have flat bars so may be easier with turning than a drop bar would be. I'll take a number of extra bungey straps in case we need to lash something up similar to honeybadgerx's solution.
Its a complete farce. Looks like all long distance trains are like this now. Is there any organisation complaining officially about this? Want to add my voice to the protest!
Don’t worry about it. You must have a reservation. The cycle stowage on these trains is crap. However the staff know it and have no problem. You will not be able to use the hooks. The bike will stick out. I find it is best to position your bars facing outwards and use a wire lock to secure the bike to the drop down luggage rack, otherwise it will fall over. Because these trains were built without any thought to the needs of passengers they lack luggage space and despite there being more cycle stowage areas on the train only 4 spaces are advertised! Supposedly these areas are to be used for luggage. I have never seen this. If you have problems there is one of the unadvertised cycle stowage spaces in the adjacent first class coach.
