Airline Baggage Regulation / Flying with Bikes

Anyone have any experience of bikes on ryanair?

Their website seems to be saying if you pay the fee it can weight 20 kilo on top of your normal baggage. Is that true? I don't put it past ryanair to change their conditions at a moments notice.

Also anyone got an idea how much a langster weighs? I can't imagine it's 20k.

Finally anyone got a recommendation on a good bike bag? I don't mind spending a bit if it's worth it, though I don't see myself using it more than once or twice a year.

I took a bike to Italy last week on Ryanair. £80 return with a 20kg limit. I used a bike bag from Chain Reaction (good quality but I wish it was a few inches taller - damn hard to close the zipper once it's loaded with wheelbags and all..) with some padded shorts, tools, shoes, day pack and a few other bits and bobs it came to 19kg. We watched the baggage handlers loading and unloading on both flights and they were fairly careful but it's always a gamble with these things. I bought a 7.5m roll of bubble wrap from Argos and went to town with it just in case.

PS: Don't know if it's been mentioned elsewhere but Luciano Cycles near Clapham Junction have some hardcases that they're renting out for £30/week (or buy for £200). I'll do that next time.