I want to build a travel bike and looked into S&S couplings. They are so nice but EXPENSIVE! Couplings on a Steamroller turns it into a $1000.00 frame....yike! I looked at the new Ritchie 'Breakaway' frame but it's about a grand and I don't see how their method would provide any lateral stiffness.

How much did the couplings cost installed?

Jim

Myself and three friends flew to Fort Lauderdale and back with our bikes. We broke them down and put them in cardboard picture frame boxes. No trouble at security and no fees. In Fort Lauderdale we put them together out on the sidewalk and then road to South Beach straight from the airport. We left the boxes in the airline's office. Later in Miami we put all the bikes and ourselves in a rented Mitsubishi Eclipse convertible and drove to Key West, then back, stopped at Business Cycles, then got our boxes, broke the bikes down again and came back to Chicago, where we put the bikes back together again on the floor next to the baggage claim at Midway and then rode home.

So I guess the answer is yes, you can take a bike with you on a flight. Sorry for the long post but the original question made me think about that trip and how much fun I had. And while I'm at it I will say that I was very weary of taking my bike apart and jamming it in a cardboard box, but the fun we had riding and everything else was worth it. Sometimes you have to put a nick in your paint in the name of travel and good times and whatnot..

Couplers were $500 dollars; the case another $300. Yeah, it's expensive but I figure every one way trip I fly with it I get $50 "back". Eight round trips and it payed for itself and I had my perfect bike with me each time. The bike is a Seven so the couplers were done by them when it was made. I'd like to get a cheaper model Bike Friday for quicky trips where I just want to have a bike in the place I'm visiting (versus a tour). I already have the case....

If something bad happens to the bike in transit and the airport/airline stonewalls you, does homeowners insurance do anything? I'm sentimental about my bikes but I fall in love again pretty easy.

Chuckie

So jealous right now.

Get the couplers installed on your "beater"...

Little did I know... I'd ever start showing concern for my ride

When I was a flight attendant we were in Amsterdam boarding the flight back to Oz. There I was trundling down the aisle when I catch a sight I'll never forget. Three very uncomfortable passengers, two of which were very unhappy with the other. You guessed it. The guy in the window seat had his bike with him. To this day I still don't know how he managed to get it so far. He'd got it through customs, immigration, the boarding gate, the flight attendant at the front door and so on - amazing stuff.

Clearly the two other passengers were relieved as hell when I said "Sorry, that bike must go in the hold". Well, the old clogger wasn't happy. I pointed out that it wasn't fair to the passenger right next to him who had part of the frame digging into his legs. No doubt this had been discussed earlier between those two. I also pointed out that neither of them could use their little fold down tables. I asked how he expected to get up and go to the toilet. He just kept saying he'd manage. In the end I pointed out that should there be the need for an evacuation that he'd unlikely survive and all his discomfort and the others would be for naught.

Finally I got the thing off him but he sulked all the way. Refused to eat or drink, he wouldn't even watch the movie. Poor bastard had a miserable trip that would have been totally avoided if he'd just packed his beloved bike properly in the first place.