what to do with a bike box once you have landed?

jonathan2

Hi,
What can one do when cycle touring with a bike box at the airport? I know I could wrap the bike in pipe lagging and use a bike bag. But, i have heard horror stories pertaining to the damage that can occur due to poor handling by the 'baggage' staff. I will be landing in France (Pau) or Lourdes. Any ideas.
It has often occured to me that a nice little earner for anyone living next to 'any' airport would be to offer a service where bike boxes can be stored for about £20.00. per week.
Any ideas (regards what to do with the box not the new 'business' idea)
Cheers

JJ

Jonny_road

All the tours I've done have ended in a different place to were we started so its always been a case of ditching the boxes in the car park or if we've been lucky a big enough bin. Then hitting all the bike shops at the end point for a new box, only hasn't paid off once so ended up buying a bike bag for the return journey.

Might be worth looking on http://www.warmshowers.org/ for a friendly cyclist to look after your box for you.

Jonny.

crankycrank

On one trip I just folded up my box at the airport, strapped it to my rack and rode 15 miles to the main city where I knew of a place that would store it for 3 weeks with all the packing at 1/10th the price of the airport. It was a little cumbersome but worth the effort since replacement boxes were basically non-existent there. When you unfold the box and tape it up again it's still usable. Of course if you can find a storage site ahead of time it will save you from the headache of searching an unfamiliar city.

andymiller

Book into a hotel for the night before you leave and the hotel to store the box?

Go by train?

jonathan2

Many thanks for the answers thus far. Obvious though it is, the train seems a possibility although i doubt the price can compete with budget airlines.

pneumatic

From experience, both Geneva and Copenhagen airports have left luggage offices that will store bike boxes. Others probably do, too. Worth checking out.

Beware the prices, though, made worse by exchange rates. 10 days storage for one large bike bag (with three others stuffed inside it!) cost us 78 quid in Denmark :shock: The woman even apologised in advance for the cost.

alfablue

The answer (and you won't like it) is to use a clear plastic bike bag, which is approved by the CTC and used to be supplied by BA on their flights. This works because it spells "BIKE" to the handlers. I have had a very good experience using these, having observed them being stood upright on the truck to the aircraft (rather than being under loads of other stuff as a bike box or thick opaque bike bag would), the handlers even brought the bikes to us by hand in the baggage area. You are sort of daring them to mishandle a bike - they (most probably) won't.

The bags folded up are easy to carry on the rack throughout the tour. The bags are closed with a zip tie or duck tape.

I don't think you will find many or any incidents of bike damage with these, you will find plenty with boxes / opaque bags.

bahzob

I've been discussing this with guy at our club who is a bit of a cycling tour extremist.

Problem is not so much with circular tours (where I think best is find a good hotel that will store box for you.)

But my preferred type of tour starts one place, ends the other,

He has 3 solutions for this (sort of last is a bit extreme).

- Cardboard bike boxes, chucked at start and scrounged at end as already mentioned
- The bike express http://www.bike-express.co.uk/
- Ride all the way (just about feasible from us here in Newbury)

jc4lab

A"Ground effect tardis "bag seems to be recommended a lot.for the larghe bike..I myself have a couple of folders ( a Brompton & a Dahon )but they are not for everyone..For them I have a bag that folds into a bum bag..Plenty on Ebay.

andymiller

jonathan2 wrote:

Many thanks for the answers thus far. Obvious though it is, the train seems a possibility although i doubt the price can compete with budget airlines.

I was being a wee bit tongue in cheek suggesting the train - it does have the advantage that you don't have to worry about baggage handlers, but you usually do still have to worry about what to do with the bag at the other end. You could travel to Pau using either a sleeper train or the Corail service from Paris. (The Corail service takes about a day but is a beautiful journey across the Massif Central). Unfortunately the charges on Eurostar and French trains for carrying an unbagged bike do add significantly to the cost - and for me are prohibitive.

My personal choice (not sure if this makes me a cycle tour extremist) is a Ground Effect Tardis. When I've done with it I fold it up and post it to my final destination. Works well - although there've been times when I wished it had a pair of wheels! However if you're going to fly with one you do need to pack carefully - the last time I flew somewhere with one somebody described me as arriving 'with a bag of bits'.

pneumatic

bahzob wrote:

I've been discussing this with guy at our club who is a bit of a cycling tour extremist.

Problem is not so much with circular tours (where I think best is find a good hotel that will store box for you.)

But my preferred type of tour starts one place, ends the other,

He has 3 solutions for this (sort of last is a bit extreme).

- Cardboard bike boxes, chucked at start and scrounged at end as already mentioned
- The bike express http://www.bike-express.co.uk/
- Ride all the way (just about feasible from us here in Newbury)

Solution 4 would be to post the bag on to your destination. We did this in Spain, posting the bags in Pamplona and arranging to pick them up from the parcels office in Santiago ten days later. Simples.

bahzob

pneumatic wrote:

bahzob wrote:

I've been discussing this with guy at our club who is a bit of a cycling tour extremist.

Problem is not so much with circular tours (where I think best is find a good hotel that will store box for you.)

But my preferred type of tour starts one place, ends the other,

He has 3 solutions for this (sort of last is a bit extreme).

- Cardboard bike boxes, chucked at start and scrounged at end as already mentioned
- The bike express http://www.bike-express.co.uk/
- Ride all the way (just about feasible from us here in Newbury)

Solution 4 would be to post the bag on to your destination. We did this in Spain, posting the bags in Pamplona and arranging to pick them up from the parcels office in Santiago ten days later. Simples.

What a good idea! and so simple. The best ideas often are. I'm planning a trip in Switzerland/Austria next year and that's the option I'll look into first. Ta.