Airline Baggage Regulation / Flying with Bikes

take the ferry. They usually take bikes for free or almost nothing. and you get to get drunk for two days, watching people have stag and hen parties. And there is a giant chess board on the deck.

take the ferry. They usually take bikes for free or almost nothing. and you get to get drunk for two days, watching people have stag and hen parties. And there is a giant chess board on the deck.

and i thought the 1hr dover-calais ferry crossing was bad!

I actually had a good time. Me and my mate Trevor just bought our booze from the duty free shop, went up to the deck, played giant chess and got pretty drunk.

flew malaysian airlines. as usual it is pretty annoying travelling with a bike.

the baggage limit is 25kg so when you travel with a bike it takes up nearly all your bag allowance. so i had to carry all my stuff onboard. i hadn't come across this limit before as normally they allow you hand luggage as well.

one loop-hole i found was that - in the case of the airport that i travelled from - you had to take luggage to 'oversized items section' on the walk to this area i managed to put all my stuff back in my bag.

Easyjet + Principia = Giant TCR2?

Virgin are one of the few carriers that still allow sports equipment foc. Just for reference. Also anyone going to the states, they still alow you 2x 23kg of checked luggage.

God Bless Branson...

If Flying Virgin to Newark from Heathrow - not the morning flight is a code share and operated by Continental who have different rules on bikes to Virgin :(

http://consumerist.com/2010/06/delta-smashed-my-bike-and-wont-even-refund-the-baggage-fee.html

pretty awful really.

Delta says, "We will be contacting the customer and working to resolve the issue with the customer. The cause he supports is a extremely important one and we want to be sure he is able to continue his work."

not that awful.

Golden rule of air travel with bikes/surfboards/anything fragile, irrespective of carrier, assume it will be manhandled violently with little or no regard to the contents or value of the item so pack it ready for an explosion and insure it well. The standard response from airlines appears to be that the item is inadequately packed so you have to claim on your own insurance. If it does arrive bollocksed, pack the replacement better next time.

(Learned the hard way from travelling with surfboards over many years)

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.

A friend of mine wants to take his charge plug to India.
Is this bag ok for that?

Does anyone have international airline experience with bikes?

Also is that bag accepted in coaches in UK as part of the luggage?

Theres quite a bit of info in this thread about flying with a bike. No idea about specific coach companies, but I'd have thought as long as it looks more like an item of luggage then a bike you'd be ok.

yea i read that but nothing specifically about any airlines that go to india, except virgin which is damn expensive. I just wanted to know if that bag is acceptable as part of luggage so if the actual luggage allowance is 35KG and the bike with bag weighs 15KH then he can just take 20KG luggage with him if that bag is accepted in airlines as part of the luggage.

You need to check with the airline you are using.

and.. merge.

hows that bag anyway?

See that 'Search' button up there ^^ and Google over there >> ?

http://www.lfgss.com/thread13489.html

I just got back from a tour with even more damage to my bike. Insurance won't cover it and airline is unlikely to pay out.

I'm writing an article on how to fly with a bike to minimise the chances of damage and hassle. Does anyone have any good tips?

Everyone I've spoken to so far who has flown a bike has some sort of horror story...

Syphilitic whore-mongers, the lot of them! I'd say use a hard case (freaking heavy, and that may result in eye-watering charges with some airlines, some of the time, depending on the phase of the moon....) but TSA unpacked my hard case and re-packed it with even less than average care, so the frame got scraped on the cogs. Soooooo- I'd say hard case AND zip tie all the packaging/padding to the item AND tie everything together so it's one inseparable item.

There's also this earlier thread..
http://www.lfgss.com/thread1068.html

Does anyone have any good tips?

It's been said elsewhere on this thread/forum but it bears repeating: whatever type of case you're using, coat every inch of your bike in pipe insulation and, for awkward bits such as the rear mech, loads of bubble wrap. Pipe insulation costs and weighs next to nothing, and is reusable from trip to trip. If you wrap pretty much all your bike in it, tape or zip-tie it all in place, and then tape or zip-tie everything together so -- as scherrit says -- the bike is one item without any semi-detached bits (eg handlebars) hanging off it, your bike stands as good a chance as any of surviving even the most violent checks if airport security staff decide to take it out of its case.

Also, try to avoid keeping any hard loose parts in the bike bag (eg pedals, which Sod's law dictates will fall out of the bike bag's internal pocket and scratch something in the process); use wheel bags, even within the bike case; and don't forget spacers for the front forks and rear dropouts.

Pipe lagging is your friend

http://www.wickes.co.uk/Economy-Pipe-Insulation/invt/210451

I flew down to Marseille from Manchester (via Gatwick) with BA in April. Turned up at the airport all smug that I'd packaged my bike really well in a cardboard bike box and got hit with a £30 charge because it weighed 24 kg (limit was 23kg) - that made me angry.

Luckily my bike arrived in perfect condition, I would have been really mad to have paid extra for the priviledge of letting them break my bike.

A thumb up to well padded cardboard boxes from me and a thumb down to the guy at the BA check in desk in Manchester!

http://blog.condorcycles.com/2010/06/packing-bike-bag.html

how to pack a bike bag, from condor cycles.