Easyjet broke my bike!

Should have gone mental....

Bike was in a soft case, same as it's gone the last 10 or so trips..... off to find an ally welder this morning.

Hijacking the thread slightly, has anyone ever done the London to Brighton and used the 'official' transport back? What I want to know is, can I trust them to handle my equipment with due care?

Ride back, It is easier and safer. This is not an option for scherrit.

bad luck, scherrit. :(

Hijacking the thread slightly, has anyone ever done the London to Brighton and used the 'official' transport back? What I want to know is, can I trust them to handle my equipment with due care?

yes - i have and had no issues, would not want to risk anything carbon though.

Good old easyjet. Back in 2008 they threw my partner' bike out of a plane after a cycling trip to France. It trashed the rear mech hanger, the chainring and the front forks. Our first response was to claim that we were due to ride our bikes to a friends house about 20 miles away as the onward part of our journey. As this was impossible and late at night we insisted on and received a voucher for a taxi and stung them for the trip all the way from Gatwick to Peckham.

We then got a quote for the replacement frame and bits nicely padded to around £600 by the friendly LBS. Time passed and the claim wasn't paid so toys were thrown out of the pram. They paid within a week, which we thought surprisingly good and then we were paid again. The second payment was held onto for a reasonable amount of time for Easyjet to ask for it back and then squandered on fun things and my partner now owns a lovely Mercian touring frame.

Thanks easyjet, your auditing and adminstrative standards are mercifully as lax as your care for other people's belongings.

Seldom, that's put a smile on my dial!

If they broke your 'spok, PM ASM Quickly, he has the last few available!

Lynx is now the importer of Aerospoke tech in to the UK

Seldom, that's put a smile on my dial!

Bring the pain.

Argh ... that sucks, hope the ally welder can work some magic.

Scherrit would have fixed it already if he had his dremel and a spare alu billet...

If I ever take my bike anywhere, it's gonna be a hardcase box!!! Let's hope you get it fixed.

Not everyone can afford to ignore budget airlines unfortunately.

oh, it was only a road bike..

Never mind Scherrit

haha.. harsh

expensive airlines don't have better baggage handlers.

expensive airlines don't have better baggage handlers.

True. But Emirates have a special cage for bikes and mark them fragile and stuff.
So your bike might be busted by the unloading monkies but not the loading monkies.
Short-haul flights probably don't get this kind of thing.

True. But Emirates have a special cage for bikes and mark them fragile and stuff.
So your bike might be busted by the unloading monkies but not the loading monkies.
Short-haul flights probably don't get this kind of thing.

Interesting point.

I've only flow with my bike once (short haul) and I used my parents local tin pot airport (terminal building are a series of potra cabins), at a guess I would think you might get more care at a smaller airport.

I don't think Easyjet's outsourcing of baggage handling absolves them of responsibility, otherwise you may we well contract with the baggage handlers yourself. It's a service they offer and the contract you have is with them.

You may want to take legal advice or at least Citizen's Advice If you are self employed and belong to the FSB there is free legal advice there.

To damage a derallieur hanger in the way you describe takes significant force - you may find your frame is now also out of alignment, the cost of stripping it down to check, then fixing it, and putting it all back together again could mean it's a write off and you'll have to have a new frame.

I wouldn't get it repaired where you are otherwise you will blow your case.

OK, so we had a go at straightening the hanger and it popped off- not so good!

So we go to the bike shop and the nice man says, no problem, there is a good welder in Acudia, so I rent a taxi to Alcudia.... the shop of the welder is closed and the sign says (well the taxi driver translates, actually) this welder has an excellent work-life balance and he takes 2 hours for lunch- excellent, we salute his approach and get back in the taxi to the hotel. Back after lunch and it's kinda open (windows open and music coming out), but no actual people. Hang around for 10min and friendly cleaning lady says, no, Guima garage is no longer here, they have gone to Pollensa, no she doesn't know where. I debate sitting on the pavement for a little cry, decide the taxi driver is unready for that kind of stuff, so ask him to take me to the bike shop again.

Bike shop guy says, no other reliable welders that he knows, so suggests I continue riding the hire bike. Well, is there no one else, well he says, try Le Emcruir, but they just send stuff out to Guima usually, well I say, perhaps he know where Guima is now? Ah he says, great idea, and draws me a map I can't understand. Excellent, I go outside and debate sitting on the pavement for a little cry again, but start walking again...... 20min later, find Le Emcruir.... Oh yes he says, those guys are just at pollegon, and draws a map that I can understand, and more important that the taxi driver can, too.

Find the nice welder man, taxi driver translates that yup, no problem, come back Thurs a.m. and all will be well.

On the bright side it is sunny, did some sprints this a.m. on the hire bike and no tears all day- excellent!

man that sounds awesome ^ i mean the prospect of getting it fixed and ridable and all the adventure'n shit. sad bout it happened in the first place though. good luck with the forth coming of 'The Repair'.

How do you know I can? You have no idea when I last took a flight! Seriously, I rarely travel... I can afford to pay a proper price for a proper service every year... if I was happy to be treated like a cunt by my airline maybe I'd go away twice as much.

Seriously though it's a bit like buying a £100 dual suspension MTB from Halfords. You might not be able to afford a decent dual suspension MTB, but that does not mean you should buy the £100 Halfords one. You should look for other options - second hand, front suspension only, go without for a year and save up some more money - whatever it takes really to avoid the cheap and crap option.

Jeez, literally. Where did I mention you? I said 'not everyone can afford to ignore budget airlines' - is this true or not? Exactly.
My gf's family can't afford to fly anything other than Ryanair. I can.
I was comparing myself and having the luxury of choosing my airline to them, not you.

Where was I? Oh that's right. Not everyone can afford to ignore budget airlines, unfortunately.

At least you have a hire bike you can smash to bits, right? Go do some hill sprints or something. :)

Si,
I never ride plastic bike before- this one is called Giant TCR C2. Haven't broken anything on it yet.... Bars are kinda wide, cranks are kinda long, seat angle is kinda slack and the indexing needs a little, ahem, attention. Apart from that it's fine. Oh yeah, the saddle is horrible- it says Massi on it-anyone heard of them?

We did seated starts today so less opportunity for really kicking it!

Personally I would never fly

Well said.