Cycling UK Forum

What's the best way of Transporting a tandem to lands end and from JOG?

A friend with a van prepared to drive out to meet you? Sorry it's Friday so in silly mode.

Nobody done Lejog on a tandem then? I'm asking on behalf of a friend who wants to do it with his wife (on a solo) and 10 year old son on a Circe tandem.

Depends what you're prepared to spend? Tandem roof rack?

Previous discussion here - mentions of putting it inside larger cars and vans.

We have a Helton-style one, which was very good, and easy to load. However, it was made for a guttered roof (where you can set the bars at any separation that you desire), and those disappeared years ago. Looks as though the design has now been altered to cope with that.

Pendle are probably the classic rack maker.

I meet loads doing it on a tandem, saw a party of riders today doing JOGLE included a tandem among their group. I've never thought to ask them how they are getting back.

Googling it shows the options as courier, hire a van, or cycle back.

TrevA wrote:Nobody done Lejog on a tandem then? I'm asking on behalf of a friend who wants to do it with his wife (on a solo) and 10 year old son on a Circe tandem.

Circe make much of being able to get one of their bikes into a medium size hatchback - but having seen the photo it's not clear that you would be able to get another bike in there as well! I mention this solely to make the point that the transport problem doesn't seem to be much worse than the usual one of getting bikes and riders to the ends of the island.
Unless you want to ride to or from the nearest railhead - I have read about people getting away with booking a cycle slot and turning up with a Circe, but it isn't going to be a cheap option - you need a man with a van or a biggish people carrier. A couple of years ago we got three people, bikes and luggage into a one way hire people carrier to get back to the midlands from Inverness. It was hundreds of pounds cheaper than the three train fares, several hours quicker and much less fuss. We might have dropped the front wheel out of one bike - cant quite remember, but certainly nothing more complicated.
IMO Your friend could do worse than study the possibilities of vehicle hire with a friend to drive - one short period one outward and another to return. He shouldn't need to invest in a rack if you get the right vehicle, and it should be possible to try fitting the tandem and bike in before committing.

Thanks for your replies so far. He doesn't have a car so would have hire one, which rules out specific racks, etc (unless you can hire them too). He's looked into car/van hire and reckons it will cost £750 which is rather expensive ( we spent £225 in total on trains for our Jogle for 2 people).

Point taken. If he lives near you he might be luckier than me - Just done a quick check and I would have to pay £178 for one person one way to Wick middle of next week, starting from Dudley. Rail fares are a post code lottery in my experience. Don't even mention air travel!

If he is planning a relaxed trip he could consider it as Penzance to Wick the long way - via LE and JoG and budget mileages accordingly.
I think I would recommend backtracking on the direct road from Penzance to LE as I seem to remember that the coastal road is rather rugged. At the other end there is the well established option of routing via Thurso if he wanted to avoid backtracking to Wick

Just spotted this thread which might be helpful: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=97962

I'd do a one-way vehicle hire from wherever you are to LE (nearest drop-off point is Penzance) and then a one way hire back from JOG (nearest pick-up point is either Wick airport or Thurso).
Can't imagine how it'd be £750 though - I did a 3-day hire back from JOG recently and even with all the fuel that was still well under £200 (although admittedly it was a small hatchback rather than a people carrier). You'd cope with an estate car though and both wheels off.

Other than that DHL do courier service for bikes, you just have to take the pedals off, pipe-lag/bubble wrap the frame and turn the bars round. No idea on cost for that though.

Getting to LE is easy: you can book your tandem on FGW from Paddington to Penzance and cycle the rest of the way. To or from JOG (I haven't done it) is probably best by car. We carry our tandem like an ordinary bike on the tow ball rack on our Berlingo. AFAIK you can still get a tandem on East Coast.

One way car hire from Nottm-Inverness is £270 for a full size MPV + fuel, so £750 for both journeys is not far off the mark.

I packed my Surly Bigdummy in a large box, I removed the bars and wheels etc and used additional packaging to make the box crunch resistant. I then used a courier which cost about £90 and then flew up to wick for about £100 meeting the bike at my guest house. All worked out great but I was a little nervous about damage, just remember to remove disks and anything else vulnerable. At Lands end I hired a van from Penzance which was £150 including fuel back to Oxfordshire, just make sure you don't book during a national rail strike, I apparently got the last vehicle in Cornwall.

Bigdummysteve wrote:I packed my Surly Bigdummy in a large box, I removed the bars and wheels etc and used additional packaging to make the box crunch resistant. I then used a courier which cost about £90 and then flew up to wick for about £100 meeting the bike at my guest house. All worked out great but I was a little nervous about damage, just remember to remove disks and anything else vulnerable. At Lands end I hired a van from Penzance which was £150 including fuel back to Oxfordshire, just make sure you don't book during a national rail strike, I apparently got the last vehicle in Cornwall.

Fantastic work! If I take the front wheel off my BD it fits in the back of my pickup. I think there should be more Big Dummy events. Mine has just grown a large sheepskin for the kids to sit on nice and snug. The stoker bars have got retro stars on the grips which also sport some flowing tassels! I love my Big Dummy which we've called 'Captain Beefheart'.

http://youtu.be/qN0eesCbN2A

Hi,
I don't see many tandems but did today with just the one rider..............front of course

I don't know if you've got sorted on this yet, but we did JoGLE on our tandem and faced the same issue. Then three possibilities I came up with were:
1. Take it on the train, problem: the rail network will carry tandems as far as Edinburgh, but Scotrail won't...
2. Have a support vehicle & drive up with it, problem: expensive, and then out support driver was diagnosed with Parkinson's so we went unsupported,
3. Take the wheels off, box the tandem & courier it to someone near JoG, problem: cost of courier.

In the end we went with option 3 & carried the wheels in our Extra Wheel trailer on the train. A good friend & agricultural dealer very kindly organised a relay between dealers all the way to Wick for the packaged tandem (I built a box out of double walled cardboard fruit boxes) & it arrived the day before us! The messages on the side were interesting!