Getting touring bicycles to start/end of route?

Question

I'm intending to do the transamerica bike ride from Virginia to Oregon but would have to fly from the UK. Assuming I fly to Richmond and the start of the route is in Yorktown, and fly out from Portland and the end of the route is Florence, what is the best way to a) transport my bike to these points i.e. bus, train etc or b) cycle a decent route to these start points?

Answer 1

I led these tours in the 1970's.  Have not done this in decades though.  Are you going with a group?  

Since the  prevailing wind is from the west, consider flying to the west coast first, bicycling eastbound and flying back from the east coast.

In any case, you can do this a couple of different ways.

On thing you can do is buy your bike at one end, (pre-ordered and set up of course)  and then sell it at the other end, not worrying about transporting a bike on trains and planes.  You Will loose several hundred dollars on the bike, but it is almost the same as extra hassle and transport on our airlines.

Our Amtrak does have good "roll on service" at many MAJOR stations.  End of the line is almost always a major station, plus some others like Chicago and Denver.  Transfers can be problematic.  

some times some stations require you to buy a bike box and box it up.  It is a pretty full size box, so no real big deal.

Portland and Oregon have one  of the best bicycling infrastructure systems in the USA, so that side of the Trip- bicycle travel will be rather easy compared to other parts of the US.

Best of  luck and Tailwinds

Edit:  I reread your entry, and looks like you were talking more about local transport at each end.

Yes cycle it.   Plan ahead by contacting the local cycling clubs and lining up real good local maps.

Answer 2

get a bike box from a bicycle shop and take the front wheel off and take the handle bars off.  and ship it by mail.  you wont need to disassemble any brake or gears.  if needs be ship it to one bike shop to another.  and have them box it and have the other assemble.

cost to ship about 25 dollars.  disassemble and box 10-15,  assemble 15-25.

Answer 3

Well you could check out how near the rail net work runs to your start/stopping place or you could consider hiring a car/pick-up, assuming you have quick release wheels and hire a car with a big enough boot.