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I have a long awaited two week holiday coming up and for £50 I can take a bike on plane.
I have a second hand massive paddded soft bag with battle scars/rips and two wheel bags from UK trips and muddy bikes in clean Travel Lodge situations.
What is the best way to pack and protect a bike in your experience. Probably going to be road bike to keep under weight allowance, but might be a Full Suss.
Are pressurised air forks , tyres, rear shocks an issue?
Thinking about making DIY wheel blocks with wood and spare QR. 22mm pipe insulation around stays....
Make sure the bag makes it inside the size limits for the airline - some don't. My old soft bag would not make it within the limits on some airlines now if they bothered to check. Rear mech off and zip tied up inside the seat stays. A pair of those plastic fork and frame braces in the dropouts. Pipe lagging on all the tubes. They don't like CO2 cannisters in there.
When packing the bike think about "if someone was to drop or stand-on my bag, how well protected is the bike?" This means things like drop-out spacers, remove chainrings, remove the bars (still connected). Remove chain, unscrew rear mech and strap to rear drop-out spacer inside triangle. Anything that could be be knocked needs padding. Leave enough air in the tyres for them to stay inflated - cargo holds are pressurised. If easy, I'll also remove chainring / drive side crank - chainring bend easily. I put everything loose, tools etc inside a pouch and make sure its firmly strapped to the bike / can't fall out the bike bag.
Also don't try taking any tools shockpump/ multitool in carry on, get it all in the bike bag or checked luggage.
Caught me out last year as thought they were innocuous, but Bristol security thought otherwise.
Was fine to by a knife in gift shops once through security however
If you have co2 canisters, make sure they aren’t in your hand luggage (probably hold luggage too to be fair) airport security really don’t have a sense of humour about that if you clumsily left one in there...
as for padding, i use riding kit as it’s a shame not to use the space, I remove disc rotors and rear mech, but not chainring.
thats in an evoc bag
Convert, you are right, my soft bag is too tall, by some 15cm.
I guess I could fold over the top and strap up to the 75cm height allowed.
190cmx75cmx65cm is allowed size, this is not very tall at all.
https://www.caa.co.uk/Passengers/Before-you-fly/Baggage/Items-that-are-allowed-in-baggage/
CO2 is fine, up to 4 are allowed.
Never had an issue with an evoc at 80cm, never seen an oversized baggage lane with a tape measure either
[i]dovebiker wrote:[/i]
Leave enough air in the tyres for them to stay inflated – cargo holds are pressurised.
Or just leave all the air in and lie when they ask you.
very well packed so you are comfortable with 30 bags being on top if
IMHO start with a hard case - not necessarily a flight case and solid but not just material with a hint of pading. Me rear mech off, spacers in drop outs, seatpost off , bars off pedals off all clothes used to fill spaces til bike wont move, Some more padding
Good advice above. I have in the past used part of an old bike box (from the LBS) to help add some rigidity to my bike bag, which has soft sides. Arguably not essential but I thought it added protection.
Never removed chain ring, but perhaps on reflection I should have. Bars, mech, rotors, pedals always off though. Try and take your full susser and just make sure you are prepared for the airport/airline weight restrictions. I have often seen advice saying take a copy of the airline's sports equipment/bike bag policy, as the staff don't always know.