Bikes on Flights

Skootster

Hi

I'm hoping to take my bike with me on holiday this winter assuming I can hire a rigid bike-box.

Do I need to let all or some of the air out of my forks (Fox Talas 32) or rear shock (Scott Equalizer 2) for transpot on a plane? What about the hydraulic brakes? (XTR M975)

Obviously it depends on pressure difference, but having read conflicting opinions on this I wonder what BR members' experiences suggest.

I have read that the maximum drop in pressure might be up to one atmosphere (15psi). I have also read that all modern aircraft holds are pressurised and therefore not to worry about it . . ! (What is the maximum pressure difference shocks and brakes can stand . . . I wonder? )

Any advice much appreciated . . . Thanks!

nicklouse

fork and shock and brakes do nothing to.

tyres yes let the air out.

thebikeschool

Even with a ridgid box pack your bike really well. I think the bagage guys see a hard case as a challenge!
Make sure you put the axles in the front and rear etc to avoid crush damage.

Neily03

I've used one of the soft bags from chainreaction in the past and it was fine, along as you pack it well.

One thing with hard cases to watch is the weight, most weigh as much as a bike empty so keeping it under 32kg won't be easy.....

Another option is a normal cardboard bike box (the type new bikes come in) a lot of people just use them, they're pretty tough..... I am considering one for my trip to BC next year....

Andy!

your shock and fork are likely to be well over 150psi so the pressure change at altitude compared to on the ground is minimal.

tyres obviously not so big difference so deflate. You will most likely need to anyway to help packing.

i have been looking into this too with regards to the cost and was going to ask if someone had a definitive guide.

Neily03

These look really good;

http://www.evocsports.com/index.php/en/ ... elbag.html

But at £250 they aren't cheap...... :?

I used one of these to go the alps;

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=15325

Worked fine...............

Another option is to do something like this;

alfablue

Skootster wrote:

Hi

I'm hoping to take my bike with me on holiday this winter assuming I can hire a rigid bike-box.

Do I need to let all or some of the air out of my forks (Fox Talas 32) or rear shock (Scott Equalizer 2) for transpot on a plane? What about the hydraulic brakes? (XTR M975)

Obviously it depends on pressure difference, but having read conflicting opinions on this I wonder what BR members' experiences suggest.

I have read that the maximum drop in pressure might be up to one atmosphere (15psi). I have also read that all modern aircraft holds are pressurised and therefore not to worry about it . . ! (What is the maximum pressure difference shocks and brakes can stand . . . I wonder? )

Any advice much appreciated . . . Thanks!

Aircraft are pressurised to an altitude of approximately 6800 feet, you can cycle higher than this, nothing needs to be deflated.

Anonymous

Don't know about bikes at altitude or carrying them on planes, but from experience of carrying other items in the hold, and items when driving to altitude, the tubes will likely expand at altitude and compress down at ground level. Often find things are more compressed than they started. Not sure why.

I'd just deflate them just in case of possible problems (tyres popping off the rim perhaps).

doug@basqueMTB.com

Flying with your bike is easy. I do it a fair bit and see a lot of people who have just flown and, so long as you pack OK, it's fairly safe even in a soft bag.

You don't need to depressurise anything.

Here's a quick guide I put together on how I pack my bike. Some people say it's OTT so it's up to you if you want to cut corners but that's how I do it and have been fine so far.

http://www.basquemtb.com/views-holiday-bike-packing/

Neily03

doug@basqueMTB.com wrote:

Flying with your bike is easy. I do it a fair bit and see a lot of people who have just flown and, so long as you pack OK, it's fairly safe even in a soft bag.

You don't need to depressurise anything.

Here's a quick guide I put together on how I pack my bike. Some people say it's OTT so it's up to you if you want to cut corners but that's how I do it and have been fine so far.

http://www.basquemtb.com/views-holiday-bike-packing/

Nice guide there.

alfablue

deadkenny wrote:

Don't know about bikes at altitude or carrying them on planes, but from experience of carrying other items in the hold, and items when driving to altitude, the tubes will likely expand at altitude and compress down at ground level. Often find things are more compressed than they started. Not sure why.

I'd just deflate them just in case of possible problems (tyres popping off the rim perhaps).

It won't happoen. The hold and cabin pressure is at around 10-12psi (3 to 5psi below atmospheric pressure at sea level), so your tyres will be subjected to a massive increase of maybe 5 psi. Yours may be made of tissue paper but my tyres cope just fine. The reasons for deflating tyres are 1) to subject your rims to greater risk of damage by careless handlers, and 2) to placate airline / airport staff who believe in the myth of (normally inflated) tyres exploding.

singlespeedexplosif

nothing needs to be deflated.
+1

IanTrcp

+2

Agree with the comment about placating airline staff though. Just let out a little air so the tyres are a bit squidgy and everything will be just fine.

They don't like CO2 cylinders though...

alfablue

IanTrcp wrote:

They don't like CO2 cylinders though...

another can of worms (no pun intended), airline guidelines vary. I was allowed to take 2 cylinders for my life jacket on BA (identical to those for my tyre inflator), they just said I had to notify them prior to flying. I phoned to notify them prior to flying, they were totally disinterested and didn't even want my name or flight details. I did survey several airlines on this issue and the upshot is they don't know what they are talking about and they come out with arbitrary and illogical rules that demonstrate this, for instance several say yes for life jackets or no, but then yes for mechanical limbs! Its a mess. They are of no risk at all, the rules are just propogated due to fear and ignorance.

Anonymous

And at US airports it's just down to the individual at the time, and you can't argue with them (or not without being hauled off in cuffs or pinned on the floor with a gun in your face).

CH1EF

I would always recommend take a picture with the date in it to show how the bike was packaged so there is a chance if the worst happened you might get some money back!

boneyjoe

Nice helpful thread. My two tips are:

(1) Check with the airline on the weight allowance before buying your bag etc; I found the padded one was too heavy and had to opt for a soft bag (and suitcase to save some more weight!); some airlines allow 10kg for golf clubs, but nothing for other sports equipment, so you really need to be very careful about this, to avoid having to leave kit/bike at the airport!

(2) While there was no major damage with the soft bag, the disc rotors got bent beyond repair (a bit irritating on arriving on hols to say the least!), so I'd recommend removing them as part of the packing and padding process.

Northwind

I had a hell of a time getting my bike down to under the weight limit for my airline, even with a fairly lightweight bag. Had to pack it far less solidly than I wanted to. Then, it turned out tobe too big to go on the scales so never got weighed anyway :roll:

I was pretty peeved though, low weight restrictions really make it hard to protect your bike from the slingers, so you're kind of between a rock and a hard place. Especially annoying when your other bag's 10 kilos lighter than the weight limit, and also you're 60 kilos lighter than some of the other passengers.

Anonymous

It's all getting a nightmare with allowances now and many of the transatlantics are now charging extra for sports equipment when it used to be generally free, or now some set the hold allowance as the combined weight of all luggage and at the same time reduce the overall allowance.

Delta refused to let me pack my ski boots in the hold on the last flight I did with them because the combined weight of all luggage was over the allowance. They gave me the option of paying the excess, or take the ski boots as carry on instead for free. So same weight on the plane, just in the cabin it's free, hold it costs extra. Go figure! :?

So maybe take as much as possible in the cabin and pack the bike in the hold. Wear all your spare clothes on the plane perhaps

Neily03

As long a you keep it under 32kg it will go on the plane but the lighter the better.

Always best to ring the airline before hand in case you need to book it on or pay any charges in advance.

mea00csf

+1 for don't need to deflate anything

Also i personally wouldn't stress too much about flying with your bike. We used a Ground Effect Tardis bag, we needed a REALLY light bag as we were touring point to point and had to post the bike bag ahead of us. It was totally fine, even though it did come out with the normal luggage, shooting down the luggage shoot to the carousel! :shock:

We padded out with pipe lagging and i'd def recommend doing this.. It's worth taking of the rear derailleur, sticking it in a sandwich bag and tying it to the stay. Stick some padding around mech hanger as well.

Northwind

Those Pak'r things you sometimes get as packing material are ace- tough and very very light. Even bubble wrap soon adds up, as daft as it sounds, as does cardboard- it feels light when you're packing though... These things are just like immense bubble wrap. Perfect really.

Skootster

Thanks for all the replies . . . researching further I have found:

At the normal cruising altitude (28,000 to 34, 000 feet) of commercial jets, there is approximately 25% of the oxygen and 30% of the air pressure as at sea level. When the aircraft climbs, the barometric pressure inside the passenger cabin and cargo holds is allowed to decrease, but only to a pressure equivalent to 6,500 feet, or 8,000 feet with some older jets.

Using an altitude to pressure converter gives approximately:

Sealevel = 1.01 bar = 14.7 psi
6,500 ft = 0.80 bar = 11.8 psi
8,000 ft = 0.75 bar = 10.9 psi

[30,000 ft = 0.3 bar = 4.4 psi]

Ideally, the internal cabin pressure would remain the same as that at sea level (no popping ears!), but this would put a much greater pressure load on the fuselage, requiring stronger, heavier construction. However, as pets are carried in the hold and don’t arrive dead I assume that all commercial aircraft have pressurised holds these days.

I guess therefore my conclusion is that one need depressurise nothing on the bike as the difference between pressure at sea level and in a pressurised aircraft is tiny. Even a tyre at 40 psi is only going to experience less than a 10% increase in pressure as the plane climbs to altitude.

Neily03

Letting all the air out of the fork and compressing it is a good idea to reduce the size and protect the stanchions from getting damaged though.

nicklouse

and as stated letting air out of they tyres is required.

alfablue

nicklouse wrote:

and as stated letting air out of they tyres is required.

Is that "required" in the sense that Airlines want you to do this, or required for some technical reason?

mea00csf

letting air out of the tyres is not required. Only if the person on the check in desk is being a PITA.

Anonymous

Surely the policy in force depends on the airline, airport, country of departure and destination, and then on top the mood of the individual at the desk.

I find the rules on airlines vary so much.

evernas

Hi everybody.here is what i did three months ago:bought a soft bag(very big one by the way)from Merlin http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/Bike+Shop ... g_1536.htm and Pro Chain Tension Device from CRC http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=38389
deflated a tyres a bit.put fork in luggage(deflated also) and went to airport.i was a bit worried about putting too much stuffs into the bike bag but there was no problem though(talking about Dublin)-no one even bothered to check my bag out.So it is a kind of luck if you ask me - just wrap some stuff around a frame and put rear mech out.Good luck.

schweiz

All fine unless you are getting on an aircraft with an unpressurised hold (admittedly mainly Business Jets) or the pressurisation system fails at 30,000'. If a road bike* tyre had 120 psi in it on the ground then the air inside the tube would rapidly expand to the volume of the equivalent of about 360 psi on the ground. Safety rules are not just there for normal operating condition but to protect the aircraft, occupants and cargo in abnormal conditions.

Also if there was a cabin depressurisation there'd probably be a thread on here saying 'Be Warned!!.....Boycott XYZ airline!!...cabin depressurisation...never said anything about letting air out...tyres exploded...carbon rims cracked....blame wiggle'

*I know this is a question relating to a MTB and that the tube, tyre and rim could probably stand the inflation from 35 to 105 psi in this case but it's just too difficult to have different rules for different bikes, hence the position of the airlines.