Cycling UK Forum

Hi there. I'm planning a Eurovelo 6 trip this summer, St Brevin-Basle, and am looking at how to get there.

Plan is to book a fully-assembled bike spot on Eurostar, but when booking connecting trains I'm wondering how much time to leave to retrieve my bike from Eurostar at Gare du Nord, and at St Pancras on my return.

There's lots of threads on getting bikes onto Eurostar, but can't see any about getting them back!

How long does it typically take??

It depends on the rolling stock - will you have a bike that has to go in their box (new rolling stock) or roll-on/off (old type).

I got both back after 20 mins or so...but the boxed one I then had to re-assemble, which took another 20 mins. Next time I'm considering going lighter and Rinko-style.

I was planning roll-on, from.what I'd read, I thought all of the Lonon-Paris Eurostars could take assembled bikes, but capacity was limited?

I can cope with 20 minutes if the bike is already assembled. Going to be a bit tight otherwise.

can you send your bike in advance of the train you are booked on?
If so it’ll be waiting for you in the Eurodispatch office. Choose a seat towards the front of the train and assuming you don’t have much luggage to carry you could be at the desk in 5 minutes.
You don’t have much wiggle room if the person staffing the office goes for a cigarette/on strike but on balance of probability you should be okay.

If your bike takes the same train as you you might speed things up by collecting it direct from the platform, if you’re lucky, or may take a while for it to be available at the desk, if you’re not.

Thanks! Sending it in advance is an interesting thought. Presumably it would have to be boxed? I'll have a think about whether that might work.

Any tips on how to intercept it on the platform? That would be the perfect solution I think.

No tips on how to do it but both times I've been on Eurostar (Paris to London and London to Brussels: a few years apart) I did get lucky and found the crew unloading the luggage can as I went past. They were happy to see my documents and hand the bike over both times (in fact they seemed happy to do so. One less item for them to have to shift!)

Andrew-l wrote:Thanks! Sending it in advance is an interesting thought. Presumably it would have to be boxed? I'll have a think about whether that might work.

If you send your bike in advance there a strong chance it’ll go unboxed as they can put it on the next train with space for a fully assembled bike.
On a London to Paris ride a few years ago we finished at the Eiffel Tower then dropped off our bikes at Gare du Nord. Afterwards we spent a few days sightseeing in Paris before collecting the bikes at StP on the return journey.

No experience of collecting my bike from the platform. My only tip would be to find which carriage the bikes are kept and do your best to find a seat as close by as possible.

Read it from the horse's mouth here: https://help.eurostar.com/faq/uk-en/que ... n-Eurostar

My first time at Paris Nord collecting my bike that was on the same train was problematic. I couldn't pick my bike up on the platform as I had done in Brussels. I couldn't find the collection point.
What you do is go to the entrance to your platform and turn right. Keep going to the exit. When still inside the station turn right and walk through a narrow covered passageway, then into the open air - keep going it's quite a walk. The office is on your left, but not obvious. Go in hand over your bit of paper and receive your bicycle. No French required and all jolly pleasant people just like in the London depot.
There's no problem cycling in Paris either on the road or on the plentiful cyclepaths courtesy of the wide boulevards. The cycle paths aren't that obvious.

hamster wrote:Read it from the horse's mouth here: https://help.eurostar.com/faq/uk-en/que ... n-Eurostar

Thanks Hamster - that's where I'd been getting all my info, and it tells you how long beforehand to get there, but not how long afterwards you have to hang around to get the bike back!