Omiak

I posted a thread several months ago about flying with a Mezzo folding bike. Anyway, due to getting randomly assaulted in the street I never ended up taking that trip (I'm fine now). I am however now moving abroad and taking the bike with me. My dad and I built a box for the bike. I'm amazed that people are able to fly with 20" wheeled bikes and full size bikes with S&S couplers in checked luggage because even with 16" wheels this was a tight fit. As shown in the pictures the stempost is removed as well as the seat and both of the quick releases. It's not finished yet. I still need to create a system to keep the lid strapped on and attach a handle to one end. I'm also going to weld some little wheels to a piece of angle so that it can be rolled in the airport, and then the wheels can be put inside before it's checked. Might add some gussets for strength as well.











Anyway, I just thought I'd post this here for reference in case anyone was looking for information about flying with a Mezzo. I'll add more pictures once it's completely finished. Higher resolution images can be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/coreyon...7629219472607/

jur

Looking good! I just have some doubt whether the wooden sides wouldn't get stove in by the luggage gorillas.

BTW why didn't you go with say a Samsonite Flite?

BeerNuts

I went to Ross today and was looking at their cheap hard case luggage. I found one line of ugly british cases that were $98 and were bigger than the AirPorter Mini's specs from Dahon/Tern. Case is awesome and I hope it holds up, but if not hit up the discount stores.

Omiak

The masonite sides feel pretty sturdy, but I was thinking about cutting another piece of wood that could be placed through the spokes of the bike to reinforce it in that regard. I've also yet to reinforce the corners with more wood at 45 degree angles.

I guess I didn't buy a samsonite case because I hadn't heard of them, and if I had I don't know where I could have gone locally to double check the fit. This is also vastly less expensive.

jur

Yes, a piece through the spokes with flanges on both ends is commonly used in suitcases too. I made a few for my suitcases from plastic conduit piping and other bits for flanges.

Would be interesting to compare the final empty weight with say a Samsonite Flite. I'll measure mine when SWMBO gets back with it from a trip overseas.

Omiak

Yeah, I'll weigh it once it's finished.

Omiak

Okay, here's some more progress. I added wheels using a pair of cheap skateboard trucks. They're removable so that when checked they will be stowed inside the box. I also added a handles and a support that that crosses through the spokes to prevent any possible squishing in of the bigger sides.

snafu21

This is looking interesting. We have a few companies in the UK who make custom flight cases for performance gear, (at a huge price) they use 3mm+ ply for the sides, also one of our other Mezzo-ists flew a bike from UK to Oz return with the bike in a soft bag, packed with clothes. It survived, I believe.

Here's the latest British Airways commercial showing what happens to luggage once released into their grasp. You can see that there's no guarantee that the case will stay upright, and will have to survive automatic handling conveyors. No place for a laptop, methinks.