Bikes on Eurostar?

"Yes you can bring a folding bike or children's bike on board as long as it is no longer than 85cm in length and it's carried in a protective bag which covers the whole bike. This is to protect your bike, other people and their luggage at the station, when going through security, and on board. Please note that the bike will be considered as one of your items of luggage in terms of luggage allowance."

"no longer than 85cm in length"

So 85x85?

Right, should have read the manual. Thanks :)

Time to dust off the sewing machine.

Extra big bin bag?

Carradice do a nice but pricey Brompton-specific travel bag; comes in versions with a shoulder strap and with rucksack straps IIRC.

probably will fit in one of these from any bargain store

No idea if this is any good, but it came up on a search for the Carradice bags: https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bike-accessories/bike-bags-baskets/halfords-folding-bike-bag-213142.html

Took the fixie on in one of these.

Thanks all, all excellent last minute fallback options when this ends up failing in one way or another.

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85cm is the width of the larger X ray machine. That’s the limiting factor. Length is essentially unlimited. Not sure about height.

You can exploit this to get a full size bike on as hand luggage:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B81WxPTFUey/

It worked but everything was shut in the hall... no pre-train beer :-(

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Great stuff! Suitably awesomely holiday-esque bag and all.

Anyone taken a bike on the Eurostar recently?

You haven't been able to take one officially for quite some time. Hope is for the rules to be relaxed in a few months.

You can't take standard bikes on Eurostar for the foreseeable future...

https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-info/travel-planning/luggage/bikes

Thanks for the replies.

It says you can take a bagged folding bike which is not longer than 85cm. S&S couplings aim to make a bike's max length 66 cm. Or you can try the Rinko approach, where you remove the forks. Some diamond framed bikes would sneak under the 85cm limit. My size 56 bike would be 95cm long. Maybe the Eurostar staff would let me get away with it?

eta: Much of my post is a repeat of what's already been said - sorry. But I think the S&S bit is new? I have them on a steel bike and was able to get a bit of value out of them by taking them on a 'no bikes allowed' bus and train in the US.

The question of bags, whether for an S&S or Rinko approach, or anything really, is easily solved by making a cardboard box of the required size, with gaffer tape. You carry it with some nylon straps, and you bin it at your destination. So you only have to carry a couple of grams' worth of straps while touring. When you go home you just buy some tape, scrounge some cardboard from shops or bins, and make another box.

any update on this situation based on any experiences on here recently?

Clocked this the other day... I don't like the sound of 'selected' services, like

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Trying to call them but no one answers, have sent an email. How fucking hard it is to get a fucking bike across the channel eh? Looked into every kind of travel, driving, flying, train and train is the fastest and most efficient let alone most carbon friendly but these cunts have no clear info about bikes.

Eurostar are useless. I was in the same situation bringing a mountain bike and another set of wheels from UK to Switzerland in January and the ferry to Amsterdam was easiest. No baggage limits and if you book in advance it can be cheaper than Eurostar.

It’s a massive shame that they’re still not doing this on the Eurostar. It used to be so good and easy. I hope they bring it back

a twitter DM exchange with them sent me to this URL; still unhelpful.

how the fuck does current covid situation affect this in any way? lazy fucking jobsworth cunts.

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Coz Covid = We just can't be fucked.

On the upside, perfect excuse to buy a Brommie...

Flixbus can (but not always) take bikes. Fuck offfff, this is great.