experience in flying with bikes

kamil1891

Tell me guys what are your experiences in taking your road bike on the plane. How do you pack them? What to do to protect them? Did you have any negative experiences with it? And as much as you know about flying with your bike Advice very appreciated as I will be going overseas with my bike soon (I mean I hope I will take it with me!)


Kamil

Anonymous

Damn! The thread title promised so much!

I flew with easyjet from Liverpool to geneva and back with my bike.

I used a tifosi bike bag but put the bike in a frame box inside that.
I used pipe lagging on the frame, undid the handlebars from the stem and unscrewed the rear mech and wrapped that in bubble wrap.
I packed most of my clothes/tools etc in there too, the clothes work as extra protection.

I had no problems at all.

kamil1891

NapoleonD wrote:

Damn! The thread title promised so much!

So, if you have attached some wings to your bike you can also share some experiences with us



Thanks a lot, I am a bit scared to take it on the aircraft as some people said that when they had arrived they collected the bike in "slightly" worse condition as before.

So, you say that bike bags do the job?

Monty Dog

Most of the airlines will quite happily let you fly with your bike for a price - most count it as 'sporting goods' and charge a flat fee similar to skis and golf bats, rather than charging you by the kilo. It does vary with different airlines. Some people prepfer hard shell cases - the problem is that they are heavy, baggage handlers don't like them and if they get dropped, heavy items hit the ground harder than light ones. I've done the hardshell and the soft case - my preference is to keep the bike bag light and well protected. The best is my Ritchey Breakaway - fits in a near regular size case and doesn't incur any excess baggage charges and as it's steel, is pretty robust.

Remove pedals - fit frame spacers - plenty of pipe lagging around the frame, secured with cable ties - turn the bars round and pointed down to protect the levers - strap wheels either side to stope them moving around and then fit the whole lot inside a padded bike bag.

cornerblock

Foam pipe lagging, nice and cheap from B&Q or Homebase, +1 to the bubble wrap too. And cable ties to keep things in place. Always a nervy time waiting to see if your bike has arrived first of all, and then that it is all fine and in working order. Be careful with the extras in the box that you don't go over the Airlines weight allowance. Oh and some insist on you deflating the tyres.

graham.

Don't make "jokes" when you go through security.
When I say they have the power to "block your passage", I mean it in every conceivable sence!
Graham.

overgeared

flying with a nice bike boils down to handing over something fragile that you´d rather not let out of your sight...to put it in harms way and let it out of your sight.

my experience has not been good...broken bike boxes, waiting a loooong time for the oversized luggage to come out at the wrong place, and bike boxes missing impossibly long connections.

i prefer to think of it as an unavoidable risk if i am not to miss out on the pleasure of riding in other countries. having a second "cheaper" bike for foreign trips, possibly the one you kit out with a compact chainset, keeps the worry down i find.

kamil1891

Thank you for advies. Really appreciated

I don't even want to imagine what would happen if I had to find out that the bike was damaged during the flight. That is why Im very worried and Im even considering leaving the bike here and maybe hiring something "ridable" overseas

sub55

flying with bike
http://www.bikeradar.com/road/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12777445







my apologize NapoleonD

neeb

I can really recommend the Polaris Bike Pod or something similar:

http://www.cyclesportsuk.co.uk/product_ ... ts_id=4319

Not to be confused with the Bike pod pro, which is a fully rigid case. EVA cases are made out of the same sort of semi-hard fabric-like stuff as Oakley sunglass cases. It's a great compromise between a bike bag and a fully rigid case as it is much lighter (and usually much cheaper) than the latter but still offers plenty protection against things getting bashed or snagged. It won't offer so much protection against compression, but if you pack it sensibly it will be fine.

Not particularly cheap but well worth it if you plan to travel regularly with the bike.

kamil1891

neeb wrote:

I can really recommend the Polaris Bike Pod or something similar:

http://www.cyclesportsuk.co.uk/product_ ... ts_id=4319

Not to be confused with the Bike pod pro, which is a fully rigid case. EVA cases are made out of the same sort of semi-hard fabric-like stuff as Oakley sunglass cases. It's a great compromise between a bike bag and a fully rigid case as it is much lighter (and usually much cheaper) than the latter but still offers plenty protection against things getting bashed or snagged. It won't offer so much protection against compression, but if you pack it sensibly it will be fine.

Not particularly cheap but well worth it if you plan to travel regularly with the bike.

This seems to be ideal but a bit to expensive for my budget now However, I will be going more often overseas so I will be looking to purchase one of these, eventually

cougie

I've flown fourteen times with my bike - twice in a hard shell and the rest in a soft bag. Only damage was a bust bottle cage once.

Pack it well and it should be fine.

milleman

Recently flew with sleezy jet to Spain and took my bike in a borrowed bike box-semi rigid type of box.

Used plently of pipe lagging and loads of bubble wrap but was still pretty anxious handing it over to the airline, glad to say it arrived safe and sound although the luggage label was ripped off and the cover had a few scrapes despite the FRAGILE stickers!.

The others on the same trip had a variety of boxes from very impressive (but heavy and expensive-£400.00) fully rigid boxes which looked very secure to one chap who just got a cardboard frame box from his local bike shop. A quick straw poll of everyone on the trip who had experience of taking bikes on flights revealed no major damage.

The cost was in the region of £30-35.00 from memory

The only slight issue was having to take the bike box to the cargo check in as they are classed as oversize and will not fit through the average check-in desk-but this only took a couple of minutes.

There are numerous videos on the internet which give usefull tips on how to pack the bike.

rickwiggans

The carrier regulations vary from airline to airline, and are not always well understood by check-in staff. Carry a copy with you, so in the event there's an issue, you can stand your ground.

sungod

i'm quite tall so some boxes won't take my bike, so i use the large frame version of one of these...

http://bikeboxalan.co.uk/

it's tough, easy to wheel around, plenty of space to pack in other stuff up to the airline weight limit, or slightly beyond it :-)

local bike hire is worth checking, some places you can get pretty good bikes, but you may need to book well in advance, for just a couple of trips hiring is cheaper, more and it becomes cheaper to get a box

if you can fly monarch, they take bikes for 18.50 each way on their scheduled services

there's always a risk of damage or loss, so suitable insurance is essential, standard airline baggage compensation is limited by the montreal convention to 1000sdr (currently about 977 pounds)

bikeboff

I've used the Polaris bike box on a few occasions now (ten flights, I think), and it's been fine. It does lack a handle for pulling it along, which is slightly annoying when needing to walk any distance, but it seems to do a good job of protecting the bike.

As the others have said, you will need to take off the wheels, pedals, and saddle, deflate the tyres, and turn the handlebars - all pretty easily accomplished and reversed when unpacking.

rickwiggans

When flying Easy jet, be careful about putting stuff in the box other than your bike. The rule is nothing in there other than the bike, because as long as there is only a bike in there, there are no excess baggage charges, even if you are over-weight. If (and I realise you'd be unlucky) they ask to see inside and you're carrying other stuff, you will be whacked with excess baggage charges.

The reg is 20kg for your hold bag (if you have one).

You've paid for a bike, so that puts your allowance up to 32Kg, but as long as there is only a bike in the box - you can exceed your 32 Kg allowance without charge. Getting caught is low risk, but in these days of trying to extract every last penny out of punters - at least it's as well to be aware.

Blue Meanie

I left a CO2 cartridge in my saddle bag, which shows up on x-ray, but still got through customs. Best bit was being shown the x-ray as you could see all the welds and seams in your frame. Density differentiation shows up in false colours, you could discern and probably count the bearings in your bottom bracket!
I've flown dozens of times, only one bent and dented frame so far...

antikythera

I have an airnimal with its own suitcase which works really well, although the case is already 5kgs!. There's the normal amount of external scratches and case damage the handlers feel compelled to dish out, but the bikes fine.

However I found that when traveling over seas the airnimal, didn't let make the most of the cycling opportunities (small wheels, heavy'ish etc..) so I've opted for a regular bike.

When I travel with a regular bike, I use a polaris bag. I found this is the most versatile solution I've used to date. Its worth keeping in mind that any transport solution is going to be sacrificial.

I've used both soft and hard Scicon bags, cardboard boxes etc. But the Polaris has a fantastic combination of lightweight, durability, flexibility, capacity, protection and price. The only issue I've had is that there isn't an adequate handle to hold on to when rolling the bag around. I've resorted to a bunch of nylon straps that I wrap around to serve as a handle.

After you've chosen a bag, the most common advice your going get (IMO)is to use pipe lagging, perhaps sheets of additional foam and removing the bar's (and possibly seat posts). Bubble wrap for the parts that have been taken off and using cycling clothes to pad out the gaps. If I do anything different its to use a rear derailleur protector instead of taking it off.

Internal protection really depends on how much time and effort you're prepared to put into wrapping up the bike.

rc856

If you want pictures to go with all the above advice then Google Condor Cycles and have a look at their blog for June 2010.

DeadCalm

I'm looking at 300 Euros each way to take an oversize bag (h+l+w > 158cm) from France to Thailand on Air France. That is outrageous. I could buy a half decent bike for not much more than that. I've looked at a couple of other airlines and the rules all seem to be pretty much the same. Do people actually pay these charges or is there some way around it?

Cheers

Sean