Packing a bike for a flight

[beckerman]

Greetings!

I would like to take my bike overseas over the summer. I'm flying on Norwegian, who charge a flat rate of £38 to ship a bike, but I have no idea what to demount, how best to pack it, etc. It's not a hugely expensive piece of kit, a Dawes which is probably worth about £500, and this is not going to be a regular occurrence.

So, have any of you seasoned bikers ever taken your bikes with you on a flight and, if so, what's the best way of packing them up?

Any advice gratefully received!

Ta,

/beckerman

[Rob_T]

With one of these

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/dhb-elsted-bike-box/

[beckerman]

erm....

Whilst that looks lovely, I was sort of hoping for a little more cost-effective approach given that I'm only going to have to do this one or two times....

[Ken Sington]

Have a Google or even ask at your nearest bike shop; there are a few places that will rent hard shell bike boxes

[Rob_T]

Then try this

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Mountain-Bike-Cycle-Luggage-...

Don't be put off because item is in HK. I've bought loads of bike stuff from china and quality is good

Hope this is more to your liking!

[beckerman]

Now that is a good idea! I'll look into that.

/b.

[Gargamel]

Could just ask local bike shop for a cardboard box that a bike came in.

Easy enough to tape the bike into the box and tape the box up.

[shalmaneser]

Gargamel said:

Could just ask local bike shop for a cardboard box that a bike came in.

Easy enough to tape the bike into the box and tape the box up.

Just do this, why pay for the privilege of a box?

Take off wheels, pedals and spin the bars to 90 degrees so the bike's flat and you're away!

[Fourmotion]

I've seen the way they throw bikes onto the plane, it really put me off wrapping it in just cardboard. I've hired a box from Bikeboxalan. For piece of mind it's worth it.

[andySC]

+1 for the Bike Shop cardboard box option. Bikes are delivered this way from the factories, so why not? A £500 Dawes is most likely aluminium so it'll take a knock or two ;-)

Seriously, pedals off, wheels off(skewers out aswell) seat pin out. Spin the bars 90 degrees & tuck one of the drops under the top tube. Might be prudent to remove the rear mech too, no need to disconnect the cable but cable tie it to the inside of the rear tri.

Either that or you could buy my Scicon Atlas bike box?

[village idiot]

took my road bike out to geneva last weekend... used a dhb padded bike bag... no problems at all on the way out there, but on the way back, it was a abused a bit and there are now some wear marks on the frame where it is obvious that the bag has not been put on the top of the hold (very pissed off!).

one thing to bear in mind is that if you fly BA, you get 23kgs allowance and this can include a bike bag at no extra cost... my colnago in the bike bag plus all my clothes, shoes and other bits and bobs weighed in at 22kgs... if you go for a hard case, it is unlikely you will be within the allowance so will pay more.

[Beyond Rational]

Spacers like these to stop the frame and fork being twisted (or crushed) in ways they weren't designed for when the wheels are off. If not included in a bike bag purchase. Alternatively, bike shops usually will have plastic packers from frames if you ask them to hold onto them.

[WeirdNeville]

That last bit is the most important, either get some plastic spacers to tape into the dropouts or else install some hubs with QR Sqewers to support rear stays/forks in transit.

Byt the way, My wife bought a £20 guitar in Vietnam to practice on whilst we went around the world. It came with a vinyl guitar bag offering NO protection whatsoever. It just had a "fragile" sticker stuck on it and it went in regular hold luggage as we wern't too bothered if it got snapped. It flew from Vietnam->Singapore->Sydney->New Zealand->San Francisco-> UK without so much as a ding in it. So, for all the bad press baggage handlers get, big respect to them for that.

[Sea Demon]

shalmaneser said:

Gargamel said:

Could just ask local bike shop for a cardboard box that a bike came in.

Easy enough to tape the bike into the box and tape the box up.

Just do this, why pay for the privilege of a box?

Take off wheels, pedals and spin the bars to 90 degrees so the bike's flat and you're away!

When we did LEJOG last year the 3 of us did this and the bikes were fine - no probs.

[beckerman]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

I am actually flying on Thursday night so taking the bike was a bit of a last minute thing and I am a tad limited on what I can order or get hold of in the timescales . So, I think I'm going to pop round to my local bike shop tomorrow and see whether or not they have a spare box that I can use. Hopefully if I follow your suggestions re demounting the various bits & pieces, get some spacers in place and a goodly amount of bubble wrap on anywhere that sticks out a bit, it should all be ok.....

I'll let you know how many pieces it arrives in

[jshell]

I did just this last week. Alpine bikes are seling off lightly used bike bags for 35 quid. Put my bike in for a service and they also stripped and packed it for travel. Wheels off, bars off, seat post out, pedals off, rear mech off and bagged. All packed in bike bag with doubled sheets of cardboard down each side a bit of carpet outside the wheels for protection. Homebase sell red/white 'Fragile' tape so at the airport I wrapeed the whole thing in tape too. From the departure lounge I could see the handlers taking good care with my bike whilst loaded onto the plane. Got it here and all good except a mildly warped rear disk. That was SAS.