How do you deal with baggage number limitations on budget airlines?

Am thinking of a trip with the flybe offer, guess I'd need a big hold-all to put 4 panniers etc in?

Feckers don't even have info about charges for bikes on the website! 😡

2 panniers – one hand luggage t'other and the bike as hold luggage. simples.

No need for 4 panniers. If you can't get it all in two you have too much kit

whatever

Al – if you want to distribute the weight around could you pack everything up including the other bags into two panniers for flying then repack on arrival?

Buy a large 60 Litre drybag with rucksack straps for £20 quid from Lomo. It'll end up paying for itself.

Put all the panniers & contents into dry bag when flying and pay for one piece of luggage. Put all possible heavy stuff in hand luggage, (not tent-pegs or sharp tools though!). Roll up drybag on arrival and keep on top of rear rack. Handy for storing stuff outside of the tent if it's rainy weather, which it always bloody is when I go cycle touring!
BTW I've got the Alpkit dry-dock rucksack but the Lomo one's similar but cheaper. I also place my unrolled sleeping mat around the inside of the bag to give the contents a bit more protection.

LOMO…..
http://www.ewetsuits.com/acatalog/Dry-Boxes-dry-bags-uk.html%5B/url%5D

Cheers slug – that's what I was thinking.

TJ – sounds like I take more kit than you. 4 panniers & h'bar bag 8)

Jeezo Al – you camping? Or just need all that space for your supply of posh frocks?

Even camping I can get all the kit in two panniers ( bulging full) and when packing on the bike redistribute it a bit. tent on the rack, poles along the frame etc

BTW cynic-al, I was recently going to take a flybe flight from Exeter to Geneva but on their website they stated that bikes can only be accepted on a standby basis so I went from Bristol with Easyjet instead. The Flybe planes were smaller propellor driven planes, presumably with smaller hold space. Sorry to add to your Flybe worries but it might be worth checking it out with them. Possibly they fly bigger planes from Scotland.

Well it's just an idea at present but considering a week camping in Sept, perhaps Norway.

Kind of agree with TJ. The only touring I've done was round NZ, and I started off with the full F+R+barbag. The front ones got dumped pretty quickly, and that was with camping kit.

ahem. 10 weeks. 🙂
http://pompinos.blogspot.com/

*tucks willy back into sock top*

Did 2 weeks in Sweden a couple of years back – in June though, so a bit warmer than September probably.

2 rear panniers, small Berghaus Airflow rucksack, and tent, etc on top of the rack…..plenty of space.

For flying I went to an army surplus place and bought a waterproof stuff sack – panniers, tent, etc went into that for the flight, so only 1 piece of luggage. Then when cycling the tent and sleeping bag went in it and were bungied to the top of the rack.

On the tandem (think about it) we always manage with just rear panniers, have done up to 10 days like that. Obviously not camping, but TJ already did that one. I suppose it depends on your attitude to touring – I'd rather put up with a limited selection of clothes and having to wash stuff than be crawling everywhere with a stupidly overloaded bike.

interesting. My main experiences touring were a 4 week trip in France (2 of us) and solo-ing the Colorado trail. I don't have compact or lightweight kit (my sleeping bag takes up most of one rear panned for instance), like to be prepared for cold and wet, and don't really feel the added weight slows me down. It's not a race and I'm fit enough to get reasonable miles in.