While out in california i bought a few parts to build the Circle A, namely a Chris King headset and Thomson seat post. Being that these parts were expensive, I planned on bringing them in my carry on as opposed to sticking them in Michele's bag that was going to be checked. I thought it might be a problem but hoped it wouldn't be.

Of course it was. I put my bag on the x-ray machine and it went through once. I saw it come out uneventfully and was stoked, but then the machine was thrown in reverse and it was quickly sucked back into the abyss. A superviser was called over to consult, and the bag came out. He asked whose bag it was and I said it was mine. He said he was going to run it through the machine again and I said ok. It went through again and came out, and was quickly grabbed up by an agent who told me to follow him. We went over to a table and he asked me if there was anything fragile or hazardous and I said no. My hands were in my pockets and he asked me to take them out and to not reach for anything while he examined my bag.

He wiped one of those clothes over it that picks up residue and ran it through a machine to see if any explosive residue was on my bag. The he started digging. I had an allen key set in one of the front pockets that I had forgotten to take out and he called someone over to consult. They decided that it was fine and kept digging. They dug through my whole bag but never even pulled out the seatpost, which was in a nifty little bag it came in, which i'm sure was the reason for suspicion in the first place. Test results came bag negitive so I'm sure that comforted them enough and they let me go on my way.

Did your film with the pictures of that nitto frame get erased?

ahhhh, the friendly skies. At least they didn't jack your Sh1t up.

wow. holy wow.

Oh, and on a related note, I've had a set of alan wrenches taken from me at the airport.
As if a blunt alan wrench is any more dangerous than my finger.

Welcome back

I was very afraid that the story was going to end with "And they had to cut my seatpost and headset in half, right in front of me."

I once flew with a bike light (heavy lead-acid battery and electronics), and a gps unit (more dense stuff with electronics). That got the red flag in Fargo pretty quick, but was also let through. In Philadelphia they didn't even bat an eye.

They did the whole "I'm going to have to run this through again", scanned my bag 4 times, then opened it and went through it. It contained a magazine, some fruit bars, and a book.

Last week I left a pocket knife and a multi tool in my chrome bag when I flew to Edmonton.
Sure enough, they took the knife, but left me the multitool.

I could do a lot more damage to the plane with a multitool, vs. a 1.5" blade.

I don't know... the average person could do more damage to another average person with a knife than a multitool on an airplane. remember box cutters took down a couple planes and two towers. If you can do that with a multitool, make sure i'm never on a plane with you

That's pretty standard procedure and happens routinely. I had a couple packs of 9V batteries in my bag that resulted in the same treatment. It seems harsh, but it's just standard procudure for those guys/gals. They all take their jobs way too seriously, but that's a different story.

I actually got a box cutter through one time, it was a box cutter that looked like a pocket knife which must've been even worse. I didn't ever realize I had it in the bag in one of the smaller pocket till I got to my destination. One the return trip home I removed the razor blade part and sure enough, they opened my bag and looked at it till they saw that it didn't have a blade.

fruit bars probably looked like explosives.

high fiber fruit bars can be...

My multitool has a 1.5" blade, screwdrivers enough to take apart almost anything, and a toothpick for stabbing out eyes.

once way back in a pre-9/11, but post-columbine age, i was coming home for xmas and i made a present for my friend back home out of a bunch of crap i found around the train tracks: a gauge of some sort, several uniform plastic sticks, all held together with a bunch of multicolored wires that were attached to the gauge and to the sticks in various important looking places, etc. and i carried it on.

when the security screener asked me what it was, i was like "it's a bomb...but it's not a REAL bomb," at which she smiled and told me to have a good day.

Word....

...right. I hope everyone in the airport is taking their job too seriously as opposed to not serious enough next time I fly.

^ what he said . and this post is not a pipebomb.

It's mostly just a dog 'n' pony show so that we FEEL safer.

We aren't

https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11863165/

i was once stopped and searched because i was wearing a belt buckle with an uzi engraved on it. A BELT BUCKLE.

It takes time and money. We'd be a lot less safe if there was less or no security. And a lot of that dog and pony show is what prevents people from attempting to smuggle stuff aboard an airplane. Just ask Richard Reid (ditched triggering mechanism inside airport so he wouldn't get caught).

I flew last week. I knew I'd be fixing a bike at my destination, so I considered bringing my allen key set, crank extractor, spoke wrench, etc.

But I decided against it. I'd hate to lose $50+ in tools because someone thinks I could, I dunno, stab somone with a hex key. Puh-leeze.

Time, money, AND a competent government
Did you even read the link?
What could be less safe than unsafe?
Do we even need to talk about our unprotected ports, or unsecured nuclear weapons in frmr Soviet Union?

Take that, America!