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Old 11-17-05, 04:14 PM
  #23  
valygrl
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Boulder, CO
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UPS taco'd the rear wheel on my mountain bike, which was packed by a bike shop. Luckily this was not on a tour.

Another time I had a bike packed at a shop at the end of a tour and shipped home UPS, that was fine.

All the (4 or 5?) other times I have packed it myself in a cardboard box, checked it as luggage, and it came through fine. I always acquired the box and did the packing at either home or a hostel, and then got a shuttle to the airport, either a private bus shuttle or the hostel's shuttle service. The shuttle cost a few $, but not enough to bother me. I haven't disassembled/packed in the airport (yet) but I have unpacked/assembled there, and that's fine too.

You want to leave plenty of extra time if you are bringing the bike on the plane -- not only for the obvious reasons, but also, you and the agent will be much more relaxed at checkin time, and that really helps if you have to deal with something unexpected.

What you pay and the checked luggage limits are completely dependant on the airline. You have to do specific homework for the actual flight you are going to take - helps to talk to a real person instead of booking flights on line.

My upcoming trip is to Australia, and the shipping to there is prohibitively expensive, so I'll be taking the bike on the plane.

Either way, it's a pain and expensive, and most of all it's scary before you do it the first time. But any of these ways work, I don't think there's a "best" way for all situations.

Funny, i was so stressed about this on my first trip, but now... it's just part of the bike-tour experience, meaning you have to learn to deal with the unexpected, figure stuff out on the fly, roll with the punches, and still keep a smile on your face.

Luckily, a few weeks on the bike will really help!

Cheers mates!
Anna
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