Double Decker Coach + Bike Trailer

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Doc333

Knight Of The Realm & All Around Good Guy
Location
Cheshire
I'm new to road cycling and in fairness have not cycled for around 15-years and that was MTB. Around 17-years ago a friend and I decided to go on tour down to Provence, and we were put in touch with a coach operator who catered for cyclists. I think they were linked to the CTC and were based in the North East. It was a cracking little operation and very cheap considering and I just wondered if they are still around, and if not is there another operation similar?

If I remember the coach company had a regular pick up and drop off timetoble all the way down the A1 all the way to the South of France. We were collected in Leeds, bikes were loaded onto the trailer and off we went, making around 3 stops on the way to Dover. The downstairs of the coach was allocated seats and toilet and upstairs was bar and food etc. The craic was brilliant as all the bikers were good fun and all got on well, and many of us actually agreed to meet up if we were getting off in the same regions.

We got off near to Orange just off the motorway and off we went with our MTB's rigged up as tourers with paniers and racks, which wasn't the best use of a Kona in those days. We had the coach drivers mobile number and had booked to picked up from the same place in 10-days time and would keep in touch either way so that we all knew what was going on. Had a great time and some unusual cycling, like the time we were expecting a huge long, tough climb but due to the 'Mistral' were blown up the mountain and were hitting some serious speeds. We bumped into a few of the cyclists from our coach at a well known winery and think we all got hammered and most of us camped where we were rather than attempt to go on that day.



Anyway
 

ComedyPilot

Secret Lemonade Drinker
Bike Express dot co dot uk
 
OP
OP
Doc333

Doc333

Knight Of The Realm & All Around Good Guy
Location
Cheshire
Comedy, thanks for that and yes it's the same firm. Glad to see they're still in business as they had a great business model and everyone enjoyed it. I suppose they must be still giving good service, so unless anyone knows of a different mode of getting abroad with your bike, I may just have another dabble. :cheers:
 

robgul

Legendary Member
European Bike Express to be precise - excellent, we used them in 2008 and have another French outing already booked for June 2014.

There is also Yorkshire BikeLiner (Simon is the man) who runs a more bespoke service (we used him last year to take 13 of us with bikes across France - again, excellent.

It's also worth mentioning two other transport options for France - Eurotunnel has a bike service that runs twice a day (bikes on a trailer, people in a minibus) and Eurostar carries bikes between London and Paris - both painless procedures (we used Eurotunnel in 2012 (both ways) and 2013 (one way) - with Eurostar in 2013 (one way)

Rob
 
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