Transporting 4 bikes & 4 people to London to ride the off-road LTB

[Muddychic75]

Any thoughts on the easiest cheapest way to do this ? Anyone done this & got any advice or tips Please

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

Hire a van from a national hire firm, drop it off in London

 

[Muddychic75]

Groupsave on the train is probably your best bet.

I thought this too. TY

 

[Muddychic75]

Hire a van from a national hire firm, drop it off in London

But vans don't tend to seat 4 do they ?

 

[jefmcg]

For some reason, I decided to check http://www.easycar.com/ which looks at multiple car hire companies. If you specify "return to a different location" and "england", you only get these choices. It doesn't seem like a practical option. Group save seems the best in this case.

 

[Salad Dodger]

When I was looking to hire a van recently, the max they had was 3 seats.
Of course, you could hire a 7 seater mpv type vehicle, but you wouldn't get 4 bikes in it......

So some sort of train deal looks favourite.

 

[the snail]

Ride your bikes to London. Well you did say cheapest...

 

[Tim Hall]

Off peak you can get any number of bikes on Southern trains. When the bike spaces are full the other bikes just go in the unused doorways - but watch out for East Croydon where the platform is on the unexpected side.

Why are people so keen on putting yet another vehicle on the roads here, when there is an excellent train service that's free for bikes, I wonder.

[QUOTE 3129101, member: 45"]I think people are discussing the alternatives, not forcing through the use of road vehicles.[/QUOTE]

TMN didn't say "force" she said "keen on". But I'd agree, from West Sussex to London Town Divine, the obvious method seems to be a bit of Groupsave Goodness.

To the OP: Deploy the Mk1 Winning Smile when jibbling more than two bikes into the available space. On the way back from our French excursion there were manycyclists onthe train out of Brighton. Announcement over the tannoy alerted everybody to this fact and that they should move if necessary to let the bikes go to the appropriate spaces.

 

[Muddychic75]

Ride your bikes to London. Well you did say cheapest...

Ha since I've signed up for 75 miles I'm intending not to exceed that really !

 

[Muddychic75]

Thank - you everyone I feel a phone call to Southern Trains coming on : )

 

[vickster]

Certainly this weekend with the bhf l2b, there have been amends to cycle policy. There was a poster up at city thameslink yesterday. Here is southerns announcement

http://www.southernrailway.com/your-journey/cycle-policy/bike-ride/

I don't know whether this other ride will carry the same restrictions

 

[vickster]

On Sunday it reads like it's both directions, any southern or gatwick express.

http://www.southernrailway.com/download/26235.3/cycle-restriction-map-for-bike-ride-2013/

Ditto FCC

http://www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk/plan-your-journey/major-events/

 

[vickster]

I don't know when it is, the OP doesn't say

 

[mrbikerboy73]

It's on the 20th September.

 

[Muddychic75]

TY

Certainly this weekend with the bhf l2b, there have been amends to cycle policy. There was a poster up at city thameslink yesterday. Here is southerns announcement

http://www.southernrailway.com/your-journey/cycle-policy/bike-ride/

I don't know whether this other ride will carry the same restrictions