[Closed] Flying with bikes in cardboard boxes...

Some lads I know took their road bikes to Iceland in plastic bags

On the plus side they're £300 cheaper and more impact resistant than a fancy holdall.

Shuttles, trailers, rain = Papier Mache

He said, watching the box dissolve in the trailer between Chamonix and Geneva....

Lol its not more impact resistant. It's jamming all the bits together and needs loads of extra material to stop them damaging each have other.

what price getting to MTB/road holiday with a broken bike? No bike no holiday or forking out for crap hire bike. I use evoc all the time. Far easier to pull around as well. If you travel multi times a year its a no brainer

EVOC bag here - more than happy to use a cardboard box 🙂

Fancy bag that ends up on a trolly like a box anyway.

Yep only reason it's not is in was collecting a bike and getting to the airport with an empty evoc from work was going to be a major pain. Hopefully it's nice handling all the way.

I take my bike on Longhaul flights with me 2 or 3 times a month in a velovault - no issues over the last 4 years.

velovault

you get an MTB in there?

Long haul is probably better as it will all be packed in the crates. At least it's stopped raining. The tas to nz trip over 3 767's gets them scuffed a bit

I always use a cardboard box as every flight damaged bike I've seen was in a soft case (but I appreciate the evoc is supposedly better than a basic soft bag). Yes it does take more careful packing but its not too tricky. That said I've not flown for ages as we tend to drive these days, or hire if going further afield.

... def cardboard companion here...if i travelled loads with my bike I'd prob get a bag for ease...but once or twice a year doesn't make it worth the outlay...and i don't think they offer any more protection....done trips with groups with both and had as much unlucky damage with both bag and box..also if you keep the box your bike arrived in it should offer good protection its been shipped from the factory in brand new state in it after all....Joe Barnes headed off to verbier last week with a cardboard box..keepin it real..

and i don't think they offer any more protection

I've built bikes out of shipped boxes and they are normally pinned in place with heaps of excess cardboard and packing materials.

Using a random bike box, remove front wheel, leave the back wheel in place and empty rear shock to compress. Front wheel alongside front triangle with disk removed, bars other side of front triangle zip tied in place, spare tyre padding for handlebar side and tape a tube of cardboard across the width of the box behind the seat tube to provide support. Free and works a treat.

I got two boxes, cut up one to reinforce the bottom and have two large dividers between wheels, bars and forks. 1 roll of cheap duct tape later, I had a water resistant cardboard box that was plenty tough enough. There was plenty of spare card from the other one, so I made two rolled up spigots of card to stop the centre of the box crushing down, but taping them on the inside as cross braces.

I did miss wheels and a strap though, although it was perfectly good for occasional use.

Pawsey B - yes, specifically designed to hold a 29er wheel with tyres still on. I mainly take a road bike though.

I travel once or twice a year with the road bike. For the past 8 years I used a cardboard box without any problems. The lack of wheels being the only issue.

Treated myself to a rather snazzy Thule Proride case this year. The bike hooks into an internal aluminium frame using the frame/fork dropouts. The wheels themselves go in padded bags down the side. Very impressed..... until I got home. The bag's frame had snapped and allowed the wheel to crush against the broken bit. Ding in the wheel.

Just sayin, like.

Cardboard boxes stand up nicely though and can be waterproofed with gaffa tape of your chosen colour.

"I've built bikes out of shipped boxes and they are normally pinned in place with heaps of excess cardboard and packing materials."

Not from giant, Scott, merida , Dawes

I had some Moore large kids bikes once that were mind.

Bikes travel in boxes all over the world .

Just get the right size and remember how they were actually packed - axles and disk out of front wheel . Rear wheel stays in frame , pedals off handle bars off pipe lagging on down tube and top tube cable tie handle bars to down tube andseat out cable tie to bottom half of front wheel spokes then cable tie front wheel to down tube.

Loads of extra material is 2 bits of pipe lagging and a hand full of zip ties

Pedals , rotor and axle in bag and secured in place.

First time travelling with tyres of the tubeless variety in a couple of weeks - what pressure should i put them at for flying as we will be cycling from the airport & I don't want to be faced with an unseated tyre on arrival.

Cardboard boxes from lbs with donation to their charity box for the record.

whatever pressure you run them at, I leave mine mid 20's. When asked you did deflate them etc.

whatever pressure you run them at, I leave mine mid 20's. When asked you did deflate them etc.

thanks much appreciated 🙂

Well my bike is now all packed up in a cardboard box ready for it's trip to Canada. I've got it packed so that nothing moves, wheels in wheel bags, pipe lagged where I can, hopefully she'll make it there no problems.
I think you're in the lap of the gods when it comes to the crew that load/unload the plane though. Lots of 'fragile' tape to hold it together might help?

Aircraft cabins/holds are pressurised to 8000 FT max. If you cycled to the top of an 8000' hill, would you expect your tyres to explode? There is a small change - look at a packet of crisps next time you fly, but for a design built to withstand pressure changes, it's minimal.

The actual aircraft tyres on the landing gear are outside the pressure hull, so get to an altitude of 40000'. I can assure you we don't deflate our tyres as we climb!

This policy demonstrates how risk averse airlines are - not a bad thing!!

I've taken a road bike on a plane in a giant plastic bag (from Wiggle) a couple of times now with no problems. My son has done the same.

Steel frame, it's been fine. The baggage handler guy at SFO did complain that his machine would certainly mangle the bike and it was totally irresponsible of me. But it was fine.

In fact last time, the baggage handlers put a rather nice pedal spanner into the bag with the bike so that I could put the pedals back on (totally needlessly). If you're reading this, thanks!

No it demonstrates what idiotic jobsworths airport and airline staff are. Mind you, society has learned from experience that it's probably better not to allow idiots to make judgements.

Mind you, society has learned from experience that it's probably better not to allow idiots to make judgements.

[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/eu_referendum/results ]Perhaps[/url].

Well my bike is now all packed up in a cardboard box ready for it's trip to Canada. I've got it packed so that nothing moves, wheels in wheel bags, pipe lagged where I can, hopefully she'll make it there no problems.
I think you're in the lap of the gods when it comes to the crew that load/unload the plane though. Lots of 'fragile' tape to hold it together might help?

I've flown with bikes in boxes once... there was definitely no space inside these boxes to leave the wheels in. Load of packing, nothing rubbing.

One bike had spacers between the forks and frame, the other didn't. We ended up with one broken mech hanger and one broken frame. Must have had a hell of a lot of weight on it to crush the frame.

No idea if any other sort of box would have been better anyway and my Mrs bought herself a new bike to replace it.

Aircraft cabins/holds are pressurised to 8000 FT max

That might be so but I once had a bottle of shower gel explode in my washbag that was in a suitcase in the hold. 😯

I've also pumped up road bike tyres to their max in the morning, put the bike in the car, drove down to the coast in increasingly hot weather until *BANG* one of them just blew up!!

So, dropping the tyre pressure to 20 sounds like good advice to me 🙂

there was definitely no space inside these boxes to leave the wheels in. Load of packing, nothing rubbing.

Yeah that box was the wrong size for the job .

Bit like blaming the 13mm spanner for not being able to get yer pedals off really

I've also pumped up road bike tyres to their max in the morning, put the bike in the car, drove down to the coast in increasingly hot weather until *BANG* one of them just blew up!!

Outer space would add 15psi to pressures. Tyre makers will allow some margin of error. So for anyone who doesn't run their tyres at max pressure there is no need to deflate.

This example could be pump reading wrong pressure, damaged tyre, etc. Sounds like dodging a bullet the tyre blowing when the bike wasn't being used.

As for flying, I'm in the cardboard box camp. But then I always fly back from a different airport so a case isn't an option. The only damaged bike I've seen was a plastic bag packed recumbent in several pieces at Vancouver airport.