Bikes on Eurostar?

i crammed a full bike in a 80x85cm box the other day and went in without excess luggage charge. so as long as your luggage fits in the extra scanner you're good

Well done, good to hear of people getting through successfully, given I'm planning to do it 6 times this year!

How long would people arrive before train departure time from London these days? No bike sadly

Looks like about 15mins so they just heard you past all the non-arseholes.

Yeah got that impression. Have rebooked for an earlier Eurostar and a longer connection before. Luckily raileurope app is v easy on exchanges, and no fees.

Will wait to hear the reply on the bike spaces now. Filling out a whole word doc, returning it, and then just waiting til they decide to get back to you is the maddest booking system

I’ve used a Ground Effect Tardis several times on the Eurostar to transport a 54 cm road bike. No one has ever measured it, but it can be a pain in the scanner (gets stuck). Haven’t been post-Covid though as they binned the Avignon service.

Interesting!
this one?
https://www.groundeffect.co.nz/products/tardis-compact-bike-bag
That's 135cm and you can keep the forks in.
I'm tempted to try it on and see if I can get away with forks in...

I have one of these I've been meaning to sell, yours for a decent price if you want.
Used it a few times, once notable London to Llubjliana by rail, return, with a big 29er!

Interesting!
this one?
https://www.groundeffect.co.nz/products/­tardis-compact-bike-bag

Yes, that one. I put a compression strap around it to pull the bag tight around the frame to reduce the dimensions. Remove the stem faceplate and take the bars off, rotate so that stem is pointing as far backwards as possible, cover all the tubes in foam pipe insulation, cable tie the bars against the forks vertically, remove rear mech. Takes ages to pack and unpack.

Can also voice for this being a very good bag, the large one got my Swarf safely to Italy

Going to rotterdam with eurostar in August, taking my Brompton with a cover bag as supplied by condor.

I'm assuming I just rock up with it covered and folded and it goes in as normal luggage? Anyone had issue with doing this?

I'm assuming I just rock up with it covered and folded and it goes in as normal luggage?

Yes. We used the Brompton cover that fits into a sack hanging from the saddle, if that’s what you mean?

Thanks. Good to hear you made it out that way as my next trip if this one works is to Zagreb!

I think I've got a bag that will work. It's a Montbell Rinko bag:
https://euro.montbell.com/products/disp.php?p_id=1130425

I'm going next Monday so I'll start packing the bike up mid week. The Medium (size I've got) rinko bag is a bit bigger - 170cm - so I'll need to be able to squeeze it somehow. If it doesn't look like it will work, you'll probably be hearing from me!

Yes I'll have to do something like that with a strap.
I won't take much padding though as I have to carry everything in a saddle pack to Toulouse, via a few hills. I'll have to rely on being careful with the bike and not letting it out of my sight!

Not sure it’ll fit in a saddle bag.

Yeah it's like this one but the newer variant with an integrated handle. Not more expensive but they didn't have it on the website yet.

https://www.condorcycles.com/products/brompton-bike-cover-with-integrated-pouch?variant=13570935226451

My bag will as it folds tiny, but I won't have room for pipe insulation, etc.

Ok, I'm going tomorrow.
Close to 85cm. Let's hope they're not too picky.
It's reasonably comfortable to carry.

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eurostar? let me know how that goes!

That poor bike!

I like how you didn't clean it first. #likeaboss

You have externally routed hydraulic lines for this bike?

Yes, not through the fork at least, for this purpose. Rear is internal. But I didn't need to unhitch the fork cable ties, the bars came off all connected up.

I did actually clean it, a bit!

I am now sitting in departures having made it through! .Despite the first person I saw saying 'you cannot travel with that bag'.

I asserted, not entirely accurately, that the bag was under 85cm, that it was a specially designed bag, and folded in the flappy ends to make it look smaller, and she let me in and pointed me towards the queue with the big scanner.

It goes on the scanner, standing upright, in a luggage tray. The person next to me said it looked like a person coming out of the scanner, so a bit weird, but it works.

Next challenge is to get it back on the Eurostar in Paris on the way home. The other trains shouldn't be a problem.

Now I know how it works, I should have, but didn't, look at how much clearance there was above the bag in the scanner to see if I can leave the forks in next time.

I think the length would be ok as long as it fits in one of their trays.

It's a shame they don't make ultralight dropout protectors. You used to be able to get stuff like this:

https://www.renehersecycles.com/shop/equipment/bags/ostrich-rinko-dropout-stand/

But not sure how useful/pointful it really is. Certainly heavy.

Sounds promising anyway.

I hope you go back to "you cannot travel with that bag" and tell them "I just travelled with that bag"

Well rinko'd frank.

I was going to fabricate something like this and bought the bits of metal. But when it came to packing the bike up I realised I didn't need it. I took the hanger off (along with the mech), which took away the really fragile bits, and cable tied some cardboard and thin plywood to protect the frame.