Sincitycycler

How do you take your ride on vacation? Any special flight cartons available?

RiPHRaPH

get a bike box from your LBS. If they can get bikes safely flown to them then its good enough for me. I use a bike box, go to home depot and get some insulation that you put on your pipes in the basement so they don't sweat, throw everything in there.... get a rolling frame for luggage that you see stewardesses use, bunge it to the wheels and presto, you're wheeling your ride towards the gate.

p.s. go to US Cycling website and join to get cheap vouchers for airlines.

catatonic

I reccomend getting a hard carrier and paying the oversized cargo penalty.

After having my beloved motobecane practically ***** by continental airlines (it was in a cardboard bike box..they just chose to slam it around), I pretty much decided to have a hard carrier for future flights. PerformanceBike has one for less than $250. It seems pricey, but if you got a bike worth more than that, and travel fairly often...it's well worth it.

In my case, I suspect that my brifter failure was a delayed effect of Continental's bad handling....those things cost me $200....that travel case would have almost payed itself off

HigherGround

I tried using the cardboard bike boxes from a LBS. The bike was fine on the flight out. I got another box for the return flight, and it was less successful. When I went to claim the bike, there was a hole in the side of the box and part of my brake was laying on the floor beside it. Miraculously, that was the only thing wrong and I was able to reassemble the bike without any problems.

Since then I have invested in the "Ironcase" made by Trico Sports. On the very first flight, the box was damaged by the airlines. It didn't even make it to the destination intact! I got the runaround from the airline and the manufacturer. Fortunately Colorado Cyclist was kind enough to issue a UPS call tag so I could return the defective / damaged box without having to pay shipping, and they sent out a new one to me at no charge. I have used the new box on multiple trips since then without any problems. If you have invested a lot in your bike, and you plan to fly several times with it, I'd plunk down the two or three hundred dollars for a bike case. Consider it a form of insurance. If nothing else, it helps to reassure you that you did the best to protect your bike while flying.

DinoShepherd

When I was in college, me and some of my buddies did a tour of the CA coast. San Fran to San Diego. We put out bikes in cardboard cartons. (we worked at a shop at the time) tipped the baggage guy $20 and off we went. We had no other checked bags.

Onto the plane we went with our gear (hipsack, bedroll, etc...) We got into SFO, no problem. Get our bikes. Put them together in the baggage claim area. Leave a mound of cardboard, packing junk and grease behind. And ride away.

My one and only experience. No problems.

-Z

p.s. for those wondering...7 days.

cyclezealot

One flight on BA...Had the bike in a bike box...Surrounding the bike's wheelsets were sleeping bags and small throw pilows..... Arrived in Nice..Big holes about the box where the wheels were... Before the ride, I had to have several spokes replaced on both back and front and the handlebars straightened..The shifters on the hoods were smashed inwards.. Luckily,they were workable.
Talked to baggage claim people, they did not choose to speak English and were totally disinterested....When we got to our start point, lost a day's ride because bike shops were too busy...Caught up the the group the next day.

ajst2duk

nice thread, I am off to Singapore shortly and want to take my bike for a ride up through Malaysia. I will wander down to my LBS and asj them for some advice.

Matt Gaunt

I always wondered how people got on with taking their bike on planes. I've never done it but am planning a trip to San Remo soon to ride, and wondered about the large hard cases.

On average, how much extra does it cost to take a bike? I know golf clubs in a hard case cost around £50 extra to your flight (dependent on class of course).

RiPHRaPH

$80 each way for a bike. what a ripoff.

Hipcycler

...and if you are 'mechanically-challenged' like me, here's an idea....

Just take your bike to your LBS, have them professionally pack it up and ship it to an LBS near where you are going. Then they'll put it together for you. Reverse that coming home. Pretty easy to do in this day and age of e-mail, you can find a shop in your destination area and set this up ahead of time.

cyclezealot

Can't help but get a little off topic here..Singapore Airlines is one of the best run airlines in the world..Sure they will take care of you..
But about riding in Singapore...Singapore is very busy with few bike lanes...did see some commuter types there. .Guess can't be any worse than riding in LA....But Malyasia...saw lots of bike racks on cars but few bikes , bike lanes or cyclistst...don't know where they all rode.....Malyasia is really hot a sultry in the lowlands...Did see a couple cyclist riding the hills up to the highlands...Pretty nice country and even somewhat cool...the climbs were pretty impressive...bring the mosquito repellant.

2manybikes

In many of the shipments that come to my LBS some of the bikes in the cardboard boxes are damaged when they arrive. Usually at least some minor damage to one bike in every shipment. I open some of those boxes, the hits must be pretty hard sometimes. I strongly suggest the hard case.

Machka 

I've recently come across this site, International Bicycle Fund:
https://www.ibike.org/index.htm
Which has some very interesting articles, links, and things on it related to various aspects of cycling.

It also has this article: Airline Baggage Regulation for Bikes
https://www.ibike.org/encouragement/travel/bagregs.htm
which provides the information for how much it will cost to transport your bicycle and other details, like how they want it packaged, etc.


Oh, and yes, I have packed my bicycle on a plane ... several times.

mrwizard

Well I will put in my two cents to hopefully help out in this situation. I flew to Europe(and am still here) very recently, just over two weeks ago. I don't have the most expensive bike in the world, but it is my pride and joy so I decided it was worth protecting. I had to drive a full day back and forth to Cincinnati in order to pick up a Trico Ironman Case and payed about $300 for it. Kind of pricey at first, but well worth the investment if it protects the bike.

Now I was flying United and they told me that if I check just one suitcase and my bicycle as my second suitcase then it will fly free. I was a little skeptical as you always get lied to on these customer support conversations, but whenever I made it to the airport I had no problems whatsoever checking it. Only problem that occured is that the bike arrived a day late at the location because it was left in Chicago. Luckily I was not touring, just on a long(3 month) vacation so the one day missed was not a big deal. United delivered it to the house where I was staying which was over 2 hours from the airport. I assembled the bike the next morning and there was no damage to the bike at all and just minor scratches to the case with no structural damage whatsoever. I would recommend this case to anybody and if anybody happens to purchase one and needs tips on packing it feel free to PM me and I will go into more detail on my trip preparation.