Taking the bike to the alps

Brut33

I'm riding in the Alps in September, and flying out with BA.
Having never taken the bike by air before, I was wondering what I can take with regard to the security checks etc.
CO2 tyre cylinders?
Aerosol lubes?
And lastly energy gels?
cheers
Andy

CumbrianMan

Andy
Re the CO2 cylinders and aerosols, I'd have a quick look on the BA website. They'll have somewhere where it tells you what can/can't be taken, and what is to be placed in the hold and/or in the cabin.

Re the energy gels and powders, i just shoved them in my bike bag.

Just make sure that you pack your bike well, and protect the frame if needs be with pipe lagging. The baggage handlers at Liverpool airport simply walked over the top of my bag as they were loading them up the luggage belt into the plane :evil: . Fortunately, the padding of the bag and the pipe lagging meant I only had bent bottle cages (thank heavens they weren't carbon).

Suffice to say, I've travelled to the Alps 3 times and Lanzarote twice, and so far bike has been in one piece on all occasions.

Cheers
Alan

sampras38

I'm going out to the Alps on Monday, also flying with BA. To save on excess baggage the bike box needs to be 23kg or under (mine's 21kg). All gels and CO2 cannisters will be in seperate suitcase and will be checked in.

As aready suggested, make sure your bike is packed properly, remove pedals, wheel skewers etc and protect things such as gearing etc (I use bubble wrap).

maddog 2

Don't take CO2 in hand luggage cos they'll take them all off you.

sampras38

maddog 2 wrote:

Don't take CO2 in hand luggage cos they'll take them all off you.

Anyone that does deserves all they get..;-)

term1te

CO2 is easy enough to get hold of this side of the ditch, and they won't let it on a flight.

I was flying BA from Heathrow to Basel with a couple of bike chains (so much cheaper in the UK). I wasn't sure if I could take them hand luggage, so asked the nice lady at the BA desk. She didn't know, so phoned someone in security, who also didn't know. So I was taken to the security supervisor, who happened to be at the x-ray machine at the front of a very long queue (early days of T5). She said, "oh I don't know, put it through the machine". So my bag was put through the X-ray and deemed to be OK. I was then waved on having jumped a massive queue. So smile and ask politely, you may get better service than you'd expect.