Originally Posted by
Rowan
Here's something else you guys might like to look at. The airline conundrum.
The one area where touring ultralight really comes into its own is overseas. Many of the airlines have now imposed very tight restrictions on checked luggage -- for example, some of the airlines we are using at the moment allow you one checked bag at 20kg maximum weight.
Now, that works out to 44lbs, and around 6lbs of that is accounted for if you use a cardboard bike box. So that leaves you a net of 38lbs if you want to avoid checking an extra bag, and want to take on board only a few minor items. The current carry-on limit for most flights we have been on is 7kg or around 15.2lbs.
Those figures would seem to me to be a good starting point, and oddly, nun's little spreadsheet isn't too far form the mark.
And yes I also vote "yes" that bike has to be included in an arbitrary line-drawing on the difference between L, UL and SUL. Because of the airline travel requirements.
Yes I ran into the "airline conundrum" flying to London and Iceland. I looked at hard sided cases and they just ate up too much of the baggage allowance. I got around it by using a soft sided bike bag that weighed 3lbs. I put as many items into my carryon Ortlieb bag as possible to make sure my bike bag was below the 20kg weight limit and use the remaining gear as padding for my bike. The airline didn't charge me anything for the bag and I don't think they even realized it was a bike. The bike bag packs down to the size of a phone book so it's easy to leave at a hotel, in a luggage locker or post to yourself at you final destination.