Anyone taken their bike on a flight?

[exgtt]

Hi guys off to mauzine in a week, the bike hire places out there want €95 a day bike hire!! Jokers.

Is it just a case of semi dissasembling the mountain bike, letting the tyres down and popping it in a case? If I tell jet 2 I want to take a bike they want to charge £27.50 each way and I have to wrap the bike in cardboard (how you do that is a bloody mistery!)

Also is my larger framed Claud butler cape wrath disk likely to be under 25kg? I was thinking more 15kg?

Appologise for all the questions!

[ezi]

exgtt said:

I have to wrap the bike in cardboard (how you do that is a bloody mistery!)

Go to your LBS and ask for a bike box, they just throw them out anyway so should just give you one really.

Edit: Google suggests 2760 g for your bike, take off the seat, bars and pedals and put them in your hand luggage

Edited by ezi on Sunday 27th June 14:18

[neil_bolton]

Some points to consider:

• Let down your tyres, saves any potential issues.
• Consider dropping any pressure in shocks if you have them
• Remove your rear mech, saves it getting damaged
• Cut a piece of wood to the width of you forks and rear chainstays - that way you can stop them squishing it with a ton of bags of top
• When you remove your bars and stem, if you do that is, put bubble wrap around the stem and tape it to the top tube
• Remove the pedals, and put them in your camelbak or something like that
• Consider putting protection on the wheel axles to stop them poking through - a LBS will have loads of the plastic black things that go in the wheels and come from the new bikes when they're transported

I'm sure there is a few more, but I can't remember them at the mo.

ETA: 32kg is the max a single piece of luggage can be transported around the world. Ensure you keep it under that. Otherwise you'll learn the hard way

Also, if you've an allowance up to 25kg in that one item, make sure you use it!!!

Edited by neil_bolton on Sunday 27th June 14:47

[exgtt]

Top tips thanks guys!

Forgot about the pressure in the shocks lol. Will bob over to my LBS for a bike box. €95 euros a day bike hire, still can't beleve the cheek, I wouldn't pay that for car hire!

[Parsnip]

Did it going to switzerland with my roadie - nice crack in the carbon steerer despite a bike bag and a load of clothes and pipe lagging around it. Pack it as if the baggage monkeys are going to use it as a trampoline (which they will)

[dubbs]

bikeboxalan

Look them up, I'm going to buy or hire one with a view that they get good prices secondhand on ebay anyway so you'll not lose much.

Anyone I know that travels with an expensive bike uses one and never has any damage.

[shalmaneser]

I've transported various bikes via plane (all DH bikes though...) and not had a problem if properly packed in a bike box from my LBS.

[Pothole]

I was part of a group which took 16 from Malta to Istanbul last summer; most in boxes, mine was in a bag...we only had one bit of damage, a dent to a crossbar on an ali framed machine, but nothing serious.

That was on Air Malta, not an airline known for the efficiency or gentleness of its handlers

[Rich_W]

Any good?

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/c/cycle/7/Bike_Bags_-_Hard...

Bit pricy, but re-usable compared to a cardboard and wood contraption.

[exgtt]

Those cycle boxes look quality, I'm taking the old war horse though, so their out of my price range unfortunatly. Will invest if I ever take the road bike on a plane. Just realized I miss the start of the tour de France by 1 day - DOH!

[AyBee]

Rich_W said:

Any good?

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/c/cycle/7/Bike_Bags_-_Hard...

Bit pricy, but re-usable compared to a cardboard and wood contraption.

This was my thread about travelling with a road bike to Majorca a few weeks ago.

Here

It was 28kg going out but that's a light roadbike although I had a few other items in the box, a mate using just his bike bag packed it with foam and cardboard and didn't have any issues so with a mountain bike, I'd probably recommend the lots of cardboard and foam with a soft case to keep it under the limit. Read my thread for details of baggage charges (hold baggage and sporting excess charges).

HTH and have fun

[lawrence hello]

On the other end of the scale...

I flew my road bike in two IKEA bags once! The fact that it arrived ok at the other end I can only put down to luck though.