You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I am about to use the Caledonian Sleeper for the first time since they introduced new rolling stock.
I noticed that they specify a max tyre width of 2.5. I have 2.8s . Does anyone know what the bike racks are like? Will I get away with it? Would deflating the tyre a bit work? Or could I hang it with a strap if the tyre doesn’t fit?
I was on the sleeper on Wednesay night. Bike storage is vertical hanging racks. I would say that the 2.5 inch max tyre width is about right - although with use of a small strap or length of cord to secure the wheel you could make it work for something a little we wider. If the racks are full, you will need to turn your bars.
Would letting some air out of the tyre help?
I’m more concerned about the stated max length of 180cm. Seems a bit shorter than most modern MTBs (medium size up).
The sizing is a bit wierd, my brother's hardtail was a little over the length limit but hung ok.
My rigid mtb was borderline and I needed to turn the bars (and wheel, not loosening the stem) 180 degrees to get it to hang nicely.
So if your cables will allow you to rotate the front end a full 180 try that and remeasure as it will make your bike shorter.
When we put our bikes in the guard told us there were no other bikes booked so we could lob them in sideways if needed.
Thanks all. Yes, the 180cm max length is a bit tight! My bike isn’t particularly long and it’s over that…
I am hoping that with some soft tyres and/or a few straps it will fit.
Yes it's ended up making the decision which bike to take. No way I can get the LLS(ish) FS under 180cm, even with the fork the wrong way round. The XC HT should be OK based on Spooky's experience.
If its the same arrangement as the LNER Inverness to London carriages, Its a tight booth for two bikes. My Stanton Sherpa medium 29er with 2.4 front tyre was a bit of a struggle: one side has a high wheel hook which my bike couldn't fit on as the hook was too near the ceiling; the other side has a lower hook, that was OK. Fortunately the other bike booked on was a smaller hybrid bike with road tyres, that fitted the other hook, behind my bike. |Bars had to be loosened and shifted a bit. Here's a pic of my bike in before we sussed out how to get two bikes in.
[img] 
?1[/img]
It's different to the above, it's like a long cupboard with about 6 or 8 hanging spaces.
Ah....disregard my contribution 🙂
If its the same arrangement as the LNER Inverness to London carriages, Its a tight booth for two bikes.
Yep, my fully loaded and long 29HT totally filled the cupboard.
Reporting back…
The bikes fitted fine. One with 29 x 2.8 tyres and wide low profile rims. The other with 29 x 2.6 and slightly deeper rims. On way back there were 6 bikes in the cupboard our MTBs and 4 other gravel/road bikes.
The staff were helpful as ever and everything went smoothly. The changeover at 2am in Edinburgh is a bit of a pain but it’s not that bad.