A wonderful thing for a cyclist is taking your bike on the tube, exiting at a suitable station, and continuing on to your destination on the bike.
Transport for London allow you to take your bike on the train at certain times and on certain lines or sections. For us in Hillingdon, the Metropolitan line can take us all the way to Aldgate from Uxbridge. The Elizabeth line from Hayes or West Drayton allows us to get to the other side of London at Abbey Wood, or out in the other direction towards Reading. Even the Piccadilly line can let you travel as far as Baron’s Court with your bike if you fancy a ride down the Thames Path from Hammersmith.
However, if your bike is an eBike, you have a problem. They are not allowed on unless they are foldable, like a Brompton. It is possible for a lithium-ion battery to catch fire and since a burning bike might be hard to remove from the carriage you can see why they’ve been banned – though unmodified batteries from reputable manufacturers are highly unlikely to cause any issues.
We were tipped off by a friend on a recent ride that it is possible to carry a non-foldable eBike on the tube on one simple condition. The battery has to be removed from the bike. In a Freedom of Information request, TfL itself confirms this to be true.
The wording in the TfL statement that “the carriage of Li-ion batteries is not recommended” does not explicitly ban the carrying of the battery in a rucksack or other bag. This makes sense in that it could easily be carried out of the train in the event of an issue in the same way as a foldable eBike.
If challenged by staff, you could refer them to the above FoI or simply point out that the bike is a normal bike as there is no battery attached.
Thanks to Peter of U3A Cycling for pointing out the TfL response to the FoI request.