Take Your Bike by Train

Trains and bikes make an ideal combination if you live within easy cycling distance of a railway station. You can cycle to your station, take the train to somewhere else, have a nice circular bike ride, or cycle to a third station and return home by train.
Travelling by train can be expensive, but the Internet allows us to search for the cheapest fares, and there are some bargains available, providing that you can travel off-peak, when the trains are less busy. Also you need to book well ahead of your proposed travel date, and this means that you have to take a chance on the weather. 
Another problem is that modern trains have very limited space for bikes, and to be on the ball here you need to have a cycle reservation, which is free, and get that before some other cyclist gets in  first.  If you have a folding bike, no problem, since these are carried as luggage and there are no such restrictions.

Sometimes an Off-peak Day Return is the cheapest and sometimes two single tickets are better.
Surprisingly, return tickets are often only a few pence dearer than one single ticket.
Having a Railcard brings reductions of about one third off the price, but the card costs £25-£30 per year. There are many categories of Railcard.

So first decide when and where you wish to go, trawling the rail ticket Internet sites for fares which are good value.  You need to be flexible here, changing your preferences as necessary to get best value.

Having settled on a trip, you pay by credit card on-line, but cannot get a bike reservation. For that you need to apply at the station ticket office. Although you can have rail tickets sent on to your home address, it is best to collect them from your home station where there is a machine which prints them off.  You then take those tickets to the ticket office and ask for cycle reservations.

In the good old days, you had one ticket for the journey, but sadly those days have gone, and you are inundated with a ticket for every eventuality.

Above no less than 14 tickets of various kinds for a simple return journey with a bike from Derby to Coventry.
They are as follows.
1. Derby to Coventry (only valid with seat reservation ticket).
2. Seat reservation ticket for D to C ( I did not want a reserved seat but it is mandatory).
3. Cycle Reservation (attach to cycle).
4. Cycle reservation (passenger copy).
5. Coventry to Birmingham (only valid with unwanted seat reservation).
6. Seat reservation ticket for C to B.
7. Cycle reservation C to B, attach to cycle.
8. Cycle reservation C to B (passenger copy).
9. Birmingham to Derby (only valid with seat reservation)
10. Seat reservation for B to D.
11. Cycle reservation for B to D (attach to cycle).
12. Cycle reservation (passenger copy).
13. Collection receipt (credit card receipt which looks like rail ticket).
14. And finally, in the centre, Senior Railcard.

The outward journey Derby to Coventry was on a single train, but had there been a need to change trains at Birmingham as on the return journey, a further three tickets would have been issued.
What a crackpot system!
Having said that, the total cost of £6.60 for the return journey with bike is very good value.  A recent one-way trip Derby to Sheffield cost only £2.63.