Folding Bikes - Folders on Britrail? (cycling in Scotland)

So we're planning a trip to Scotland, flying into Ediburgh. We'll be going with our newly paired Dahon SpeedPro folders. Part of the plan is to take the train over to the Glasgow area for some bike riding in the area of the Trossarchs (sp?) and of course to see Glasgow as well. The question is: what do we need to do to take the folder Dahons on the Britrail train between Edinburgh and Glasgow (and back)?

A propos, is there anywhere to get local bike route maps to take along? I've found plenty of useful resources online but that's not much good on the road. :D

So we're planning a trip to Scotland, flying into Ediburgh. We'll be going with our newly paired Dahon SpeedPro folders. Part of the plan is to take the train over to the Glasgow area for some bike riding in the area of the Trossarchs (sp?) and of course to see Glasgow as well. The question is: what do we need to do to take the folder Dahons on the Britrail train between Edinburgh and Glasgow (and back)?

A propos, is there anywhere to get local bike route maps to take along? I've found plenty of useful resources online but that's not much good on the road. :D

Well, this info is only stale by 18 years, so take it with a grain of salt...

Regular bikes rode in the bagage cars of the Britrail trains. You just needed a plastic encased sign that said where the bike was to be put off. We usually ran back to the baggage car and took our bikes off ourselves. You might be able to bring your folder right on the train. But, putting it in the baggage car might save you some lugging of luggage.

Some of the trains in the Glasgow area were more like subway cars. No baggage car. In that case we just wheeled the bikes right on the train.

When you get there go to any bookstore and get the Ordnance Survey maps for the areas you are interested in. They are very detailed and have enough elevation information so that bike routing makes sense. You might need to buy two to get coverage of all of Scotland.

Glasgow was, well, urban. South and north of Glasgow was pretty nice. The higlands were great for biking. Roads were generally much better graded than in the south of England. Edinburgh is beautiful and was easily bikeable then.

Have fun!

Britrail? Britrail has never existed ;) British Rail is sadly no more.. the railways were privatized and split into multiple operators some years ago, to the detriment of service and safety :(

Anyways, a website with links to all the various train operators is here: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/
Here you'll find departure times, links to operators etc etc.

I believe most rail operators are ok with folding bikes on all trains, but you should maybe check with the specific operator for your journey to make sure. (Rules for full-size bikes are confusing, because they sometimes charge, sometimes don't, sometimes you have to book, othertimes you can just show up.. varies from company to company, of course...)

For paper bike maps, my recommendation would be to check out www.sustrans.org.uk Here you will find not only online maps, but they have a decent webstore which will let you order paper versions. I've never ordered from outside the UK; within England the delivery was very prompt.

Have fun planning & biking around Scottland!

Hi,I live in Glasgow and go through to Edinburgh on the train with my bike quite often.Their is no restrictions on folding bikes on any trains in Scotland. www.firstgroup.com-scotrail-index.php is the link you want for train info. Their are plenty of Cycle route books available in bookshops over here, and you can ride from Edinburgh to Glasgow via canal but its a long jaunt as it snakes about a bit.Forth and Clyde Canal, Union Canal and Falkirk Wheel can be googled for info.I would not do the canal in one day,its a bit to much but the train is never to far away.Hope this is some use,let me know if you want any more info.

yangmusa was breakin' my heart with the fact that British Rail is no more. It was a highlight of our tour over there. It rained. It rained a lot. Our friends in the US knew we were suffering because day after day Wimbledon was rained out and it was on the news. I'm glad to hear that the trains are still bike friendly. It can save your tour!

Dear Oboeguy,

My wife and I live in one of Glasgow's suburbs and we use the local trains in conjunction with our folding bikes quite frequently.

As far as the Glasgow-Edinburgh rail journey is concerned, there are frequent fast trains (by Scotrail) between the two cities. These trains have a few stalls designed for non-folding bikes hung on the inside of one of the carriages. Sometimes these stalls are full. However, when this happens, I have had no trouble placing my Dahon Boardwalk folder in the space beneath them. Similarly, when we have taken the train from Glasgow out to the Arrochar/Tarbert station on Loch Lomond (opposite the Trossachs), if the bike stalls are full, we have been able to place the Dahon and my wife's Giant Halfway beneath the stalls - much to the amusement and approval of the train conductor.

Locally here in the Glasgow area and its surrounding suburbs, we enjoy the dense network of mostly electric trains run by the Strathclyde Passenger Transport (SPT). These trains are quite excellent and we use them frequently. Folding our bikes allows them to be placed in the special spaces allocated for wheel chairs, prams, etc. in each train. You can readily see where to place them - since there is a blue wheel-chair sign at the doors of the carriages marking the positions of these reserved spaces.

With regard to cycle maps, there is a series of four really excellent cycle maps for Edinburgh city and the the three counties (West, Mid and East Lothian) that surround the city. These are published in full colour by Spokes, the very active cycle campaigning group based in the city. Here in Glasgow, we have a rather more ordinary (but adequate) cycle map for the whole city that has been published commercially. Other smaller maps have been published for specific cycleways by the local minicipal authority. All of these maps can normally be purchased in the local cycle shops - in Edinbugh at Biketrax (which has a huge range of Dahon and Brompton folders in stock) and the Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative. Both of these very large bike shops are located in the area of the Meadows in the city centre, only two or three hundred yards apart. Both have good Web sites - http://www.biketrax.co.uk/ and http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/ respectively

Here in Glasgow, the best source of cycle maps is Alpine Bikes, which has two branches in the city centre.
For going further afield - e.g. from Glasgow out to the Trossachs via Loch Lomond on the Sustrans national cycleway Route 7, you should buy the relevant Sustrans map [entitled "Lochs & Glens Cycle Route - North"]. If you decide to cycle between Edinburgh and Glasgow over the central plateau between the two cities, you can do so along Sustrans Route 75. Again there is a special Sustrans cycle map for this route entitled "Clyde to Forth Cycle Route". This dedicated cycleway is an alternative to the cycle route between the two cities using the towpaths of the Union and the Forth & Clyde Canals - which, as one of the other contributors has mentioned, is a bit sinuous as it avoids the hills between the cities. But, of course, the canal route has no hills to go up and down. There are good maps of the two canals published by Geoprojects - though these are not specialized cycle maps like the others mentioned above.

There are several dedicated cycleways within Glasgow city that are completely vehicle-free and very pleasant to ride. Let us know when you are coming to the city and perhaps we can arrange to meet up - as we did with Chop! (another Forum correspondent and folder enthusiast) when he visited Glasgow.

We have enjoyed biking the cycleways in Denver, Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco and Reno during our visits to the U.S.A. in recent years. We hope that you will enjoy your biking on our cycleways just as much when you come to Scotland.

Gordon Petrie

Wow, another great, informative post, thanks so much!!

Kinetics bike shop in Glasgow is also worth a visit. It's located in Bearsden - you can check out their website...