thanks again for the specific details. One factor is figuring out a way to keep the bike box for the return trip. Not absolutely necessary of course, and obviously not always possible, but it does simplify things at the end of ones journey to not have to track down a box that is the right size to properly protect your bike.
Ive done the "bike in a box" thing for over 30 years, and it is nice if one can arrange it to have the same box for the return, and handy also to store the various plastic and foam protecty bits in it as well.
.
Possibly if you used the same hotel for the first and last nights of the tour they would store a box?
If you are starting and finishing in Glasgow I could store the box. I am 20 or 30 mins drive from either Glasgow city centre, the airport or Dumbarton. Assuming I'm home. From late August to mid October I am planning to be on holiday in the UK followed by a month bike touring in California and Arizona.