Choices: Either (a) Padded Bikebag (requires wheel removal) & pray?
(b) Keep wheels on, twist bars, remove pedals, pipelagging etc. etc & use a large clear bag ( supplied by CTC shop )- Hope baggage handlers recognise my *pride & joy & treat it with care..

What are your experiences?

* I should point out the bike is a fairly robust steel touring bike.

I had my five spot frame in a box in a padded bag. Still got dent in top tube. But that was about sixth time I've flown with a bike. Think I will buy hard case next time.

Cardboard box inside bike bag, careful packing.

Been out three times, and only one issue (brake hose pulled from lever) from my poor packing the first time.

first time used a bike bag, £80 bag got trashed bike fine

sea freighted my bikes twice now packed in a standard cardboard bike box well packed no problems (worse things happen at sea you know)

best tip I read was to put a pic of Darth Vader on the box with the words "The Dark Lord Protects This"

oh and remember always fly with your helmet in hand luggage, apart from knowing it's not been smashed around its always fun to put it on when the seatbelt light goes on

Flown two bikes twice. Both times in padded bags and the bags well reinforced with cardboard and bubble wrap . No issues either time

Get yourself a cardboard bike box from your local LBS ,better than a bag ,then tape it up with brown tape ,always works for me

1. Bike box from LBS
2. Bubble Wrap from Garden Centre

Wrap any body armour (legs / arms) round top tube/forks. Done it 4 times in last 2 yrs. No problems at all (Easyjet x 1 & BMI Baby x 3)

Don't forget to let the air out of your tyres. You will be asked at check in.

Unless it's a lightweight carbon/Ti pride and joy, then bars sideways, tyres down, rear mech undone + taped to the chainstay, and pedals off.

Done this a few times, and never had an issue. This was with a robust orange P7 set up for touring. The thinking behind it is –
Bike in a bag = handlers throwing it around as normal luggage.
Bike prepared as above = handlers can see it's a bike, and therefore treat it with a bit more care.

Just flown with a bike. It had been packed by:

taking the wheels off
tie-wrapping the frame & forks to a piece of cardboard the size of the box
used cardboard & pipe lagging tie-wrapped to bike to protect
bars had been taken out of the stem, padded & tie-wrapped to the frame
spacers in brakes & axle voids
rear mech unbolted and tie-wrapped to inside of rear triangle
discs off the wheels
another piece of cardboard in box between wheels and frame
FRAGILE tape all over it. No worries.

I think the "if it's obviously a bike the handlers treat it with more care" is an urban myth. I bet most of them really couldn't give a crap what they're hurling about halfway into a shift.

Personally I go with a hardcase bike box just for peace of mind, I've travelled half a dozen times with a cardboard bike box (with pipe-lagged bike inside) and only had one incident but that was enough to screw up the first half of the holiday. So I'd agree chances are small that something will get badly damaged if using a cardboard box or bike bag but using a reinforced bike box (although they're expensive and heavy) means short of the plane crashing your bike will be fine.

Bike box and bubble wrap, no problems 3 times, even though I could see them throwing the boxes from the back of the loading thing and walking on them 🙄 Idiots.

Don't forget to let the air out of your tyres. You will be asked at check in.

Even though there's absolutely no need whatsoever.

I think the "if it's obviously a bike the handlers treat it with more care" is an urban myth. I bet most of them really couldn't give a crap what they're hurling about halfway into a shift.

yep.. In 2002 flew to Verbier. The advice at the time was not to pack the bikes in anything, just protect the frame so the handlers were more careful, and they couldn't sling a box at the bottom of a pile, which to a point worked.. However when I saw a baggage handler at Geneva just drop my bike on to the tarmac I could have beaten him to death with his own shoes…

Ive onyl flown with a bike twice, I thought it was an easy pain free experience, used a free bike box from a shop, no problems at all.

Be aware not all free cardboard bike boxes are equal, seems stupid but the specialized box I got was about twice as strong as the BH one I had first trip, spend a bit of time packing and its easy, and if your touring you can bin it and get another to fly home with, use some straps around it to make it easier to handle.

Done it twice, no problems. Padded bike bag borrowed from a forum dweller, protected by strategic placement of bits of bike box, plus lots of bubble wrap. Bish bash bosh… but none of it got through to the bike!

mikewsmith – Member
oh and remember always fly with your helmet in hand luggage, apart from knowing it's not been smashed around its always fun to put it on when the seatbelt light goes on

Sleazyjet wouldn't let me take my helmet as carry on. Because I might have attacked someone with it on, or something

Flown quite a few times now. Bike bag and sensible packing – wheels off, mech and hanger off, spacers in. Loads of pipe lagging on the corners Leg padson forks, elbow pads areound rear dropouts, bars sideways and turned so the brakes point down, then pipe lagging to protect the shifters. Discs and QRs off wheels, job jobbed. I also stick a sheet of polyboard in either side of the frame to spread any impact loads out.

At the end of the day, mtbs are fairly robust, bar the obvious bits, and with sensible packing. The issue is puncture/sharp object protection, and if it is going to get through a cordura bike bag, a card board box is going to do nothing. I'll admit I'm nervous about flying with my road bike which IS quite fragile – rizla thin ally tubes and carbon bits.

Don't forget to let the air out of your tyres. You will be asked at check in.
never been asked that, ever.

flown a few times – firstly with a bag, pipe lagging on tubes etc. Sat in window seat of plane watching baggage handler throw the bag to his mate, who dropped it onto the tarmac.
got a hard case after that.
helmet – aye, always as carry-on, and in a Giro helmet pod in case some c0ck tries repeatedly ramming his briefcase into it to make it fit into the luggage space.

bike box inside a Ground Effect Body Bag. Works really weel. Wheels off, discs off wheels, brake calipers off and dangling, bars off and dropped down side of frame, forks spun round.

pipe lagging round frame, dropout spacers in frame and forks. wheels with mostly inflated tyres strapped to each side of the frame (kind of makes an airbag!)… no damage yet.

the bag with handles makes it a lot easier to move around than just a box so I'm thinking it gets handled a bit better. the one time I just used a box, the rear mech hanger bent.

We went to Spain with Switchback. Followed there very good instructions, no problems with any of the 4 bikes.

How to pack your bike.

Qué flying with your bike. Pedal your lazy git 😉

I've flown dozens of times with a bike in a bag, and never had a problem. This has been carbon road bikes, burly full-sussers, lightweight hardtails.

I use a couple of normal foam camping mats for extra padding inside the bag for extra padding.

Don't even bother with removing disks these days, just make sure they're pointing in rather than out. Pedals and wheels off, and generally stick a carrier bag around the oily bits, but that's just to keep the bag a bit cleaner.

I'm sure I'll have my bike completely trashed on my next flight having said this though!

Cheers, Rich

someone on here said that they packed their bike using expanding foam,
just wrap every thing in plastic bin bags or cling film i suppose,
place in big suitcase (which i suppose is lined as well,

this seems a great way to pack a bike as it's supported and wont move around
with it also be protected from knocks.

just dont forget to pack something

I'm presuming with a name like Brumsgrove that you live in Bromsgrove, Worcs.

Speeds your LBS has some bike bags that they lend to regular customers (well they did a few years ago). If you don't frequent Speeds, shame on you, but they might rent you one if you leave them a deposit.

I once took a short airbourne journey with my bike and did not use any padding at all…. The bike came off better than I did as i was not expecting this 4' rise of gravel to be as short as it was…. Within a second I was suddenly 8' off the ground and it all went a little squiffy! Lets just say that the bike came off better than I did.

Some of the bike companies refuse bikes that are not in boxes or bags. Best to check with airline as it´s no fun running around an airport looking for emergency bike box. It happened to one of our clients who had to drag his wife out of bed to bring a box to the airport!
http://www.sierracycling.com/packing has information on how to pack your bike.

I fly with my bike a bit and am totally paraniod about it. I use a padded bag, pipe insulation and some bubble wrap equivilant but strip it down a bit more than the above guides.If you want to see how I pack my bike for flying here it is.. I agree it's probably a bit overkill but I'd rather spend 10 mins more and have one less thing to worry about when I have to go in the dreaded airplanes…
I use a CRC bike and wheel bag. My bike weights 16.5kg's at the moment and all packed up it was 22kg's so I needed to do some flirting with the Ryan Air check in lady to get through.