Bike bag or case?

Pigeons in flight

Hi - I'm off to France (Poitiers) by Ryanair in July and was wondering whether to use either of the above or just turn the bars, take the pedals off and hope for the best. I used a friend's soft bike bag a couple of years ago with my (steel framed) Pompino which ended up with slighting bent frame - quite unbelievable given the robustness of DN6 frames. The steed I will be taking this time is a planet X carbon - which would seem to be even more vulnerable. Ryanairs' weight limit is 20kg, so I cld be pushing it with a hard case. Dhb seem to get good reviews - any particular thoughts?

Thanks
Graeme

jc4lab

..Naive not to complyy with the Ryanair guidelines for how you must pack a bike .A;lso Maybe for every damaged bike theres 10 that aint.Ground Effect Tardis is one bag is plugged here by our seasoned users.

andymiller

jc4lab wrote:

..Naive not to complyy with the Ryanair guidelines for how you must pack a bike .A;lso Maybe for every damaged bike theres 10 that aint.Ground Effect Tardis is one bag is plugged here by our seasoned users.

i plug it a lot, but i'm not sure I'd send a carbon frame bike by air with it.

A crateworx (or some spelling like that) corrugated plastic box is the best combination of lightness and protection I've seen.

Make sure you're properly insured!

jc4lab

http://www.bike-express.co.uk/TourList. ... Item&ID=11
If you aint booked the flight this might be avalible.Just a suggestion but Near Liverrpool airport for example theres a Halfords which has lots of cardboard bike boxes..Maybe theres one near yours.

bikergirl17

viz ryanair, i thnk i was at 22 kg in the hard case with literally just the bike and got assessed a £20 per kg (!) fee on the way back (gran canaria to UK) ... no charge on the UK over flight. (as an aside, i recommend easyjet over ryanair as they allow up to 30+ kg, which means you can use the box as a suit case as well).

with a carbon frame i would go a hard case or, if you go soft, make sure you carefully and securely wrap your tubes, take off and tape up the derailleur and bubble wrap the components.

Pigeons in flight

Thanks for the comments. jc4lab - I hadn't checked Ryanair's updated cycle carriage policy when I posted. Last time I checked it was simply turn the bars, deflate the tyres and remove pedals. The bag/case condition must be, relatively, new addition.

I dislike Ryanair with a passion, but it was the cheapest way by a country mile to get me and my family out to the in-laws nr Limoges. I will check out your recommendations, but will alos look into bike hire.

Cheers

Garrigou

I've had 400+ cyclists visit the place my wife & I live in France in recent years and the 'scores on the doors' re airlines & bike handling are as follows:
Easyjet - 200+ bikes; 1 late arrival; 1 snapped front fork (possibly not well packed/braced)
BA - 100+ bikes; 2 late arrivals; 0 breakages
Ryanair - 40+ bikes; 0 late arrivals; 0 breakages
You hear a lot of 'scare stories' from the minority of unlucky people who HAVE had a bad experience, but overall the airlines do an ok job. Pack carefully in either a box or a bag and (based on what I've seen at least), then more than 99% of the time you'll be fine.

Philip S

Used a Scicon Atlas Compact to carry my carbon bike on a Ryanair flight to Poitiers last year. no problems at all, apart from trying to fit the bag (it's a rigid case, rather than a hard shell) into my mate's estate car at the other end. We managed in the end with one of the rear seats down, but it was looking a bit dodgy for a while. You really need to take your transport at the other end into consideration...

The case was very easy to wheel around at the airport, and dead easy to pack. Mrs S has a soft bike bag for her AL bike, but it was a nightmare to carry around in comparison (I should know, seeing as it was me doing it), but she had no problems either.

I was impressed by the baggage handlers at Poitiers for the amount of care they applied in getting the bike bags off the plane, but I doubt that was replicated in the UK.