Has anyone done this?

Idle musings around the topic of airlines attempting to claw back their lost billions any way they can, is there a way of getting a modern enduro type bike into a no excess baggage fee hard case?

My thoughts are:

Wheels off (29ers might be pushing at the 750mm height limit)
Rear triangle unbolted and slid forwards so it kind of sits within the front triangle
Bars off and laid alongside the frame
Fork off*? without the rear triangle, the front triangle and fork are kind of square in silhouette.
Pedals off, cranks off**? will need to undo to take the frame apart anyway.

All sitting in some sort of custom cut open cell foam cradle, within a hard plastic suitcase.

And with a 16kg bike, can this be done and hit a 20, 21, 23kg weight limit?

* and ** my bike would need a massive allen key and a cassette tool (race face cranks and EDC headset) to acheive this, so probably allow for those tools in the weight limit.

Any issues with them xraying it and discovering its a bike in there?

£45 for 32KG bike bag on easyjet each way. not sure its worth the hassle.

£45 for 32KG bike bag on easyjet each way. not sure its worth the hassle.

That.
In my experience airlines don’t charge extra because it is a bike. You are just paying for an extra bag.

That.
In my experience airlines don’t charge extra because it is a bike. You are just paying for an extra bag.

So far I’ve yet to pay with my obviously a bike CRC bag, but its been my only hold bag.

But it is never going to meet the 23kg weight as those bags weigh a tonne – which has been commented on but never charged for by BA.

I was wondering if they would be as nice post-covid. I think turning up hoping to get it for free, trying and failing would cost me a bit more than £45.