Bikes on trains from Blackpool to Manc

Ride back ? Trains should be fine, just avoid the Manchester Blackpool weekend.

Direct and fairly regular service usually has the standard space for a couple of bikes without reservation and you'd be unlucky to not get it on.  Sit with it and enjoy telling the Blackpoolists to stop touching it.

We did the Manchester to Blackpool organised bike ride and cycled home afterlunch. I think we ended up cycling about 134miles. So no  idea what the train is like.

It felt like an achievement at the time.

Ride back ? Trains should be fine, just avoid the Manchester Blackpool weekend.

Don't really want to ride back, turns it from a pleasurable bimble out into something a bit more epic, and don't really want that.

Is the Manchester Blackpool route a decent one to follow?

I'd stop for f&c in Lytham and skip Blackpool tbh.  Much more pleasant.

Yeah, to be honest we may well do that (oh yeah, there'll be two of us)

Some of it is but there are probably better ways out of Manchester and Salford.

To be honest it was long enough to go for routes to have changed.

We did it in strong winds and rain because my partner was booked for shoulder surgery and this was her last ride   before the op.

The National Rail Enquiries app tells you what the specific cycle restrictions are on any particular train journey, breaking it down leg by leg. Quite handy for planning ahead. Pity online bike booking for the likes of Arriva still seems beyond them.

I assume it’s just the normal Northern Rail

So not running? 😉

I’d stop for f&c in Lytham and skip Blackpool tbh.  Much more pleasant

Or go the opposite way. Chips at Bispham and on to Fleetwood!

Well, indeed...

is there a decent 'gravel' route to blackpool from Manc? my partner lives in Chorlton and this seems like a good activity for a day when she's working and I'm not...

I'd probably look at south Manchester to north Wales instead of Blackpool for gravel, plenty of nice bits or Laureen's Ride into Cheshire, old Railway into Delamere, head for Chester on another old railway route, along the ship canal towards the coast and then into the hills rather than through the shellsuits of the coast.  Plenty of options for where to catch a train back from.

rather than through the shellsuits of the coast

Sometimes people want to immerse themselves in the culture. Fighting off the XL bullies, singing Who the **** is Alice at the north pier bar after a Chubby Brown gig. Then getting your head kicked in by a roided up bodybuilder over some spilt larger.

Once you get past the Metropole hotel you've pretty much got the beaches to yourself (you can bob for turds till your hearts content) and the seafront is pretty pleasant by any standard.

You'd have to be pretty unlucky to not get a bike on a Northern Rail service. Avoid rush hour and any sort of festival/gig/airshow and you'll be fine.

is there a decent ‘gravel’ route to blackpool from Manc?

The obvious "off road, not exactly gravel" route would be the Transpennine Trail.

Do you have a clever gravel route across the Ribble up your sleeve slowoldman?

There's a few off-road routes to Wigan area from Manc, and then the Leeds Liverpool would take you to the outskirts of Preston. After that IDK - nothing obvious on the map but I've not ridden on the Fylde.

If you're not super committed to Blackpool, Manchester to Formby is a lovely ride and mostly traffic free via The Floop and then onto NCN62. Done it on gravel bikes a couple of times, few nice pub stops then fish and chips on the beach and the train back.

a friend rode huddersfield to lytham last year he said the lumpy grass up towards lancaster and then across was horrendous, we did the leeds to liverpool canal in sept2023, 2 day stopover blackburn

home on northern rail liverpool to halifax via preston via wigan/ blackburn/burnley/todd/hebdon ,

if you need tpexpress only 2 bikes per train so book well ahead

as per @crazy-legs our train in preston to halifax was absolutely rammed, conductor allowed four of us on..

Riding up the seafront from Blackpool to Fleetwood is surprisingly pleasant, then the little ferry over to Knott End opens up routes to Glasson Dock and Lancaster.

If you do decide to get F&C in Blackpool, I highly recommend this place

HOME | Mysite (yorkshirefisheries.co.uk)

Very helpful, and let us keep bikes inside whenever we've used them.

Do you have a clever gravel route across the Ribble up your sleeve slowoldman?

Back inland to Preston. I didn't suggest it was the most direct or even enjoyable route.

There's pretty much no off roading on Fylde coast so once you're at Preston you just need to look at getting on to the quiet lanes.

Edit - there's miles and miles of quiet b-roads on the Fylde coast, you can pootke round those endlessly, or head to Lytham and ride straight up the prom to Blackpool.

You can avoid Blackpool if you like, but aiming for the tower makes an obvious finish line for the Instagram moment 😜🤣 and there's plenty decent places to eat/drink, this being the obvious choice as you should be fine wheeling your bikes in

https://www.abingdonstreet.market/

Much more convenient/frequent getting train from Blackpool North than being on the south line at Lytham or having to ride back to Blackpool from bispham or Fleetwood