Has anyone got any inventive solutions to the quandary of flying into one airport and out of another airport with a bike bag when you're bike touring/bike packing?
Or are you resigned to dumping your "disposable" cardboard bike box at your first destination airport and hoping you can pick one up another box at the second airport?
Only solution I can think of is to return to initial airport, having, hopefully stored bike bag in left luggage or stayed in the same hotel on arrival and departure dates and storing bag at hotel...
Either require an out-and-back ride, or a loop rather than a point-to-point....
A long point-to-point to go between 2 airports...surely a loop would provide more scenery and options?
How many days is your trip?
Could you post it to a shop/ hotel near the departure airport?
A long point-to-point to go between 2 airports...surely a loop would provide more scenery and options?
A loop would compromise the scenery and, I think, the return section would likely involve busier roads. It would also double the length of time I'd have to find accommodation for (I'm likely credit card touring)
The airports aren't the destination! I could use one airport and one train station to accomplish something similar but I'd still have the same problem.
How many days is your trip?
Could you post it to a shop/ hotel near the departure airport?
Somewhere around a week. Posting may be an option. This is in Norway. Has anyone any experience doing this? What's the postal service or courier service like (besides probably expensive, like everything* in Norway!)
* Strangely, ferries appear to be relatively cheap assuming you're not taking a campervan 👍
We used cardboard boxes and contacted a local shop at our destination to confirm they would have boxes available.
Or are you resigned to dumping your "disposable" cardboard bike box at your first destination airport and hoping you can pick one up another box at the second airport?
A fair few airports (certainly the more enlightened continental ones) have bike boxes for sale (usually about 20 euros) allowing you to just roll up, box the bike and depart. Most bike shops near such airports are also well switched on to the financial possibilities of selling you a box and/or a bike boxing service.
A few years ago I was staying in a hostel type place in the Canaries (private bedroom & bathroom but with a communal kitchen / living area) and a guy arrived one evening with a bike box. He was doing a gravel / bikepacking tour of the Canaries and he'd arranged to leave his box at the hostel and collect it on his return a week or so later. Some hotels (again in the more enlightened areas used to cycle tourism) will offer such a service as well but obviously that requires you to return to the original starting point. If the public transport works out, you could always do a linear tour then get a train back to the starting point.
Or book your final destination hotel and get the box couriered to there from your arrival point. I imagine that would be expensive and you'd have to arrange with the hotel in advance for them to receive and store your bike box until you got there.
I’ve taken to riding home after dumping the box at the airport. Last year I started in Tallin, this year in Athens. But that’s as much to make sure I ride all the way rather than find an excuse to make my route shorter like I would do if I started from the uk.
I should point out that a cardboard box is a non-starter for me as I've got a drop bar bike with semi-integrated stem so the bars CANNOT be taken off and/or rotated enough to fit in a box (and it's also XL sized).
In fact, it won't even fit in my existing, used once, bike bag and I'm having to buy ANOTHER bike bag (one which does not require any stripping down of the cockpit 🙄)
Riding home isn't an option either unless I rode thru Russia across the frozen Bering Sea and all the way down Alaska! 😉
This is in Norway. Has anyone any experience doing this?
from where to where in norway.
we recycled our boxes at tromso and got new ones for return flight in oslo.
I should point out that a cardboard box is a non-starter for me as I've got a drop bar bike with semi-integrated stem so the bars CANNOT be taken off and/or rotated enough to fit in a box (and it's also XL sized).
In fact, it won't even fit in my existing, used once, bike bag and I'm having to buy ANOTHER bike bag (one which does not require any stripping down of the cockpit
)
Yeah, I sold my original generation Bike Box Alan and bought a new one to accommodate my new road bike with its integrated cockpit arrangement.
To be fair, I'd got the old box free, it was years old and had done dozens of trips so it didn't really owe me anything. But it wouldn't take a gravel bike or MTB, it wouldn't take big tyres and the bike required substantial disassembly to fit into it so overall, the new one is far better.
Check out some of the larger cardboard boxes. Shops specialising in e-bikes are normally pretty good for this, some of those boxes are massive.
can i also add. flying from manchester with SAS you didnt need a bike box. turn up at check in and they gave you a big huge plastic bag that takes a bike. pedals off, bike in bag, taped up. done.
Good to know Ton. SAS might be an option for me.
I'm potentially looking at Oslo to Tromso then Bodo to Oslo
I took rented bike boxes on holiday and Skedaddle said they would transfer them from the start hotel to the end hotel.
We thought they would use a taxi as per the daily bag transfers but at the end of the trip we realised they had used a parcel courier, just slapped a label on.
Good to know Ton. SAS might be an option for me.
I'm potentially looking at Oslo to Tromso then Bodo to Oslo
that is what we did.
bike shop in Bodo we used was this one. bike boxes were big ebike ones to fit my 60cm surly.
Sport 1 Sportshuset Sentrum Bodø
and let me add. the ride from Tromso to Reine or A for the ferry to Bodo is simply the best bike ride i have ever done in nearly 50 years of riding a bike. simply truly amazing.
I’ve got a Ground Effect Tardis which partially solves this problem by folding up to a reasonably compact size.
I used to take a CTC plastic bag with me for the return leg. It obviously didn't offer as much protection as a cardboard box but it was very convenient.
CTC no longer sell the bag and I haven't found an equivalent. I'm using a poly bag designed for a single mattress now. It's not quite as robust but it's OK.
flying from manchester with SAS you didnt need a bike box. turn up at check in and they gave you a big huge plastic bag that takes a bike. pedals off, bike in bag, taped up. done.
When was that?
Just curious because the times I've flown out of Manchester, the people at Oversize Baggage have been quite strict about bag sizes, packaging etc.
Problem with airports is you have the airline itself with its own baggage rules, then the baggage handlers (inc Oversize) and also Security. And the three don't always align in what they will / will not allow.
When was that?
it was 2019. i think i may give them a ring to ask about this. would be good to know if it is still as easy.
and let me add. the ride from Tromso to Reine or A for the ferry to Bodo is simply the best bike ride i have ever done in nearly 50 years of riding a bike. simply truly amazing.
It looks spectacular in all the YouTube videos I've been watching!
About bikes in plastic bags: that would be my option of last resort! My bike is probably not as robust as a Surly!