Taking your bike in Virgin trains

[paddington]

Hi All,

I'm going to be taking my fairly expensive new bike on a Virgin train this weekend and was wondering if anyone had any experience of this they could share with me? Usually I would take it on a Chiltern train where you can actually sit with your bike which is good, but track works mean I have to go with Virgin. I'm assuming I'll be on a Pendolino train - does anyone know if the bikes are kept in the guard's compartment (bad) or if they go in with the passengers. I'd prefer the latter so I can keep an eye on the bike - I'll probably lock it to anything sturdy nearby for an added element of security.

I've already booked a bike space in advance which was itself a pain in the rear - three different people in the Indian call centre told me three different things, meaning I had to trek to Euston in the rain and queue for nearly an hour to speak to a real person. Even then all they could give me was a tatty piece of paper saying I had a bike space.

I'm probably being paranoid but you know how it is with a new bike...

If anyone is interested the bike is a Look 566 Origin and I'm planning to ride the London to Paris on it. I'll post pics if there's any interest.

Thanks very much,
James

[snotrag]

I used to use the Pendolinis a lot, and as far as I can remember, the bikes just go in the end of one of the passenger units like a regular 'local line' unit.

Look out for a bike sticker near one of the doors, you'll probably be sharing with prams and wheelchairs.

[paddington]

Ok thanks, that sounds good. As long as I can keep it in sight I'll be happy. Hopefully an early Sunday morning train will be pretty empty.

[Holst]

paddington said:

Ok thanks, that sounds good. As long as I can keep it in sight I'll be happy. Hopefully an early Sunday morning train will be pretty empty.

In my experience sunday morning trains are more likely to be canceled than empty

Good luck