Flying with bikes

Tardis from Groundeffect

http://www.groundeffect.co.nz/product-detail-TAR-BAG.htm

I have used this a few time's now with no problems, France, Spain and Seattle. I went for a couple of weeks Snow Boarding at Mt Baker taking my Klein mtb for the off days when we cycled along the coast.

I just used some padding and have had no problems with baggage handlers.

I was reading in the CTC's awful magazine where this guy wrote in to say he just rotated the bars 90 degrees and let the air down on his tires. Said the baggage handlers had no choice but to put on top of everything else, could ride away from the airport and didn't get any damage.
Don't know if anyone else has tried that, but I was thinking of trying it on my NYE trip to berlin...

Back when I had a touring bike (and a pipe and some slippers) I did a trip to the French Alps where I flew with my bike from Stansted to Lyon. I cycled to the airport and basically did the same as the guy in the CTC magazine. The check in staff were a bit sniffy about it but I had no problems with damage.

I think there are two schools of thought on packaging a bike for air travel - the minimal school as above or the maximal school where you use a hard shell case and make it as bomb proof as possible.

Have fun in Seattle - I've got family out there - the NW is a beautiful place

Hmmm me too. Flying to Aus with one of my bikes in a box, the rest follow on a ship. Brixton cycles will give me the boxes and they are now collecting old hubs / axles I can fit to the rear dops. Virgin will only let you carry 1 bag up to 23 kg but sporting equipment goes free, up to 32kg.

I have flown to Berlin a couple of times now with air Berlin. Both times they have charged on the return flight for the bike. I had 7 weeks in morzin with all mountain sports. A chap arrived for a week with a big dh rig. In a bike bag that had worn away on the drive side half way up the rear triangle. So much so that the spokes had worn out of the hub. When the plane was being loaded he watched the bike bag being dragged behind the cart.

Sent from iPhone in ct lab

Having the same dilema - have to fly with 3 frames worth over £3k together... found a Dahon cardboard bike box, double wall, think it will do the job fine - well, i hope!

Seattle is heaven, with some great bike shops. Mt Baker hmmmm.... the snow !

I have used the trico iron case with no trouble. Cheers!

Does anyone have any experience with taking a bike on a plane, more specifically into Europe and even more specifically with Easyjet - but really any experience will be useful.

Trying to decide whether it's feasable to take bikes to Budapest in February and before I call Easyjet just thought I'd see if anyone had any success/epic fails?

Four of us took bikes in bike boxes to the Tour de France in 2006. When we booked our flights with EasyJet flying from Belfast to Geneva we paid to include the bikes in the sports equipment option. I think each bike cost £30 extra for the return flight. When checking in we just did as usual and then checked the bike boxes in the over-size luggage check-in. The baggage handlers must have been pretty rough with the boxes as they had quite a few marks on them after each flight. But we experienced no problems whatsoever - hope this is of some help.

Do a search. But it's very straightforward to take a bike on Easyjet although it'll cost you £30 to do so.

Does anyone have any experience with taking a bike on a plane, more specifically into Europe and even more specifically with Easyjet - but really any experience will be useful.?

it's easy i've done it loads. if you've got a bike you really really care about then buy a hard case, no question. get to the airport a bit earlier than normal, and make sure you pay for it when you buy your ticket with easyjet, otherwise you'll be waiting in another queue at the airport and may pay extra.

otherwise get a soft canvas bag - the kind you can roll up to the size of a tent. the bonus is you can actually carry your bike easily in it, its slings over yr shoulder. iv'e travelled everywhere in the world with one, sometime with a carbon bike i was racing. as long as you pack it right with enough clothes wrapped around the frame and plastic spacers for the dropouts to avoid terminal crushing damage you can be confident. if i've got time i'll pack properly with derailleur and cranks off and packaged separate. most of the time i'm biking down to the eurostar, bike in the bag in 3 mins, across to europe, put it back together on the train 3 mins, ride to where i'm going.

leaving rodin once, i checked in a team bike worth maybe 3K straight into baggage with the wheels held on with my shoelaces and spaced with a couple of tshirts to stop metal rubbing. arrived at stansted perfectly!!

I brought mine to Oz with me in Wayne's hard case, 30 hrs of travelling with Air NZ and it arrived in perfect condition at the other end... Piece of piss... I've put my guitar in the hold on EasyJet flights a bunch of times and that hasn't been a problem either...

BA did mine free over summer... not sure if they still do...

bike boxes are great but you have to look after them at the other end... a good trick is to buy pipe lagging from a hardware store and then go to a bike shop and get a box they get complete bikes delivered in with the dropout spacer for the front wheel and the caps for the rear axel... then pad the fame up and parcel tape the lot up tight with clothes so its all protected. you can do this and dump the box and get another when you leave. most bike shops lob loads of them out a week. i brought mine back from NY in a massive schwinn box this summer on virgin. they still ship one bike for free trans-atlantic. id only go cardboard box if your bike is sturdy (ie steel) wouldnt ship a carbon frame without using a propper box.

I've only done it once, it was with Easyjet Bristol to Geneva. I had a 'soft' case stripped my carbon bike of rear kit and took the saddle off. pack it well! I used loads of bubble wrap and had no problems at all.

I have never flown with that airline but flying from the US into the UK it cost me an arm and a leg ($200) apparently that won't be your case though. But I do advise a hardcase. I got one and thank fully it was all in one piece, but you could tell it had been through a beating, despite the fragile sign...or the fact they lost it for 2 days =( But yes. Hardcases all the way if you care a second for your bike.

Is it smart to travel with 2 bikes in one box? The person I'm traveling with says it's fine but it seems like it would be a bit cramped in there, and I suppose a few scratches here and there won't kill me.

shouldbe ok, just put lots of pipe laging and padding on the frames!

Of course, the thought of our bikes scraping...cringe Can't wait to make it out there.

wrap them well in pipe insulation and they should be fine.

Bob Jackson is building an S&S coupled bike for me. Not gonna shell out $400 for their hardcase though. I'll either find something in Chinatown or build a box that fits luggage regulations.

at school i did 3 europe cycletours, flying each way, bout 6-7 bikes in total. We just used pipe insulation, turned the bars 90degs, took off the pedals. No-one ever had a problem (apart from ba forgetting to load the bikes once). Odd scratch but nowt serious.
i did L'Eroica last year and flew with bike in DHB padded bag and found it a serious faff, so about to buy a tardis bag and reinforce it with non crush padding.