Tom Anderson wrote:

Okay, perhaps i was exaggerating a little. But still, the beauty of
the bike + train combination is that you can cycle at both ends of
the trip. Cycle parking is based on people not doing this.

Actually a lot of people use their "regular" bike from home to their country
station, then come into London and pick up an old boneshaker that they have
picked up cheap and which they leave overnight in the terminus station cycle
parking area, in order to complete their journey - on the basis that if it
gets nicked (as is far more likely in London), then it doesn't matter so
much. The cycle racks at Marylebone, for example (which are on the site of
the old platform 4 and under constant CCTV monitoring) are often more full
overnight than they are during the day.