Aeroplanes and bikes

Hey Im probably being real ignorant, but my girlfiriend needs to take her bike (its a brompton) on a few planes.. She has a travel case but whats the deal with air pressure or whatever, does she need to de-flate her tires? any advice would be great...
Harry

Deflate the tires... pump the up at the other end. That's basically it if you already have a case/bag for the bike sorted and don't have to worry about removing pedals or anything.

Yeah deflate tires, that is all I think. You can get some nice hard cases for bromptons too to stop them getting smashed up.

You don't need to deflate the tyres - the pressure differential isn't enough to make much of a difference.

It's worth having them pumped-up as it adds a bit of impact protection.

I've flown a Brompton to/from the US in the relevant hard case)

the plane doesn't deflate it's tyres when it flies does it ;)

On a serious note there's no chance of plane tyres popping because they're at such low pressure. If she's worried about them popping I'd say deflate them. If she's a care-free adventurous type just leave them and if she's a boring conservative type why doesn't she take a walk on the wild side and leave them.

As above there's not a huge pressure change as the hold is pressurised, so generally no need to let down the tyres - as long as you don't have them pumped up almost to bursting point.

Thanks everyone...

do not deflate the tyres, they protect your rims

I fly a lot and never deflate my tyres. You're supposed to but they never check.

I vote for partial deflate. Protection plus no pressure issues. It's what I do.

my neighbor deflates his tyres to hang his bike up in his garage... I asked him about it once and he gave me a very very very long convoluted answer about prolonging tyre life. i dont deflate mine unless im changing a puncture.

I vote for partial deflate. Protection plus no pressure issues. It's what I do.

Roxy, tyre diplomat!

:)

Sorry for crashing this thread with my ignorance...
My old chap( my dad, not my pecker) has just retired to St Emilion in France(woohoo) and I was hoping to take my fixed over, but am unsure as to the best way to get the bike there in one bit- do I actually need to buy a case, how much should i be looking to pay and is the train better/safer for the bike?
Thanking you muchly for any relevant info.
Tragic Dan

The train will be a million times nicer, and only a little slower ad more expensive. And Eurostar will now guarantee that your bike goes on the same train.

That way, you don't need to pack it into a box and can ride to/from the station.