redbagsrambler

I just pack my empty panniers and gear into a single large duffel. Sometimes I take the duffel as my carry-on item and sometimes I check it usually depending on airline policy for international flights. I always use my handlebar bag with all the valuable as my personal cabin item. During my tour, I roll the duffel up with a couple of shirts and a pair of long pants inside. The rolling helps reduce wrinkling. Then I strap the duffel on top of the rack.

That said, I've never taken camping gear on an international tour. On domestic tours when I have taken camping gear, I pack the bulkier but lighter items as well as any pointy things into the box with the bike and usually FedEx that to my destination.

Doug64

My wife and I have used this method many times for air (international and domestic) and rail travel:

We each a have large lightweight duffel bag (approximately 8 oz; mine is yellow and her's is black. The contents of my 4 panniers, and the contents of her 2 panniers fit in our duffel bags. The empty panniers go in the bike boxes, providing addition protection for the bikes. The duffel bags go as checked baggage. On tour the bags are rolled and carried in the bottom of our panniers.

The more fragile items (notebook, chargers, etc.), along with clothes, are packed in the red and yellow rackpacks, and are carried on along with our bar bags.

My wife can easily handle all her gear in airports and train stations.







This is all our gear for a 3 month tour, including camping/cooking equipment.

Maelochs

If you have time, this is an option. No idea what freight cost or time to Australia might be (six weeks on a ship?) or whether your stuff would get more or less banged up ... But worst case scenario in my mind is I am at the airport and cannot bring some essential piece of gear because of weight or size limitations. Not sure if the airline will always allow overweight/oversized just because you offer them money .... But I have seen people at the luggage check-in scale repacking multiple bags to try to get the weight low enough in all of them .... I am assuming that one was so heavy that even with overweight fee it couldn't fly.

Ship ahead ... or buy online and have stuff shipped to an address at your destination (hostel/tour leader/friend.) I have done that on a tour--mail-ordered gear I didn't want to pack (bike parts and tools for instance (and a case of Powerbars---very dense)) which I had shipped to a person associated with the tour.

On that tour several people did that .... and also several people did a gear run to pick up some readily available camping stuff at the departure city instead of packing and shipping it.

jefnvk

As a general rule, anything over 32kg is verboten regardless of how much you want to spend and must fly cargo (OSHA-type worker health rules), although there are some limited exceptions. As always, the best rule is to know your airlines policies, and have them printed out.

I've played the pack and repack game before, made weight in kilogram measurement but was a few ounces over in pounds measurement in America when I had to recheck my bags after customs. It was either that, or pay a $50 charge, why wouldn't I move a couple shirts from my checked bag into my carryon

If you ever want to see some fun check-in counter arguments, watch the check-in counter for some of the African flights, where people only go home once a year or less and are trying to bring stuff back for their families. Watched one lady trying to fly with a 75kg regular sized suitcase, I still wonder what she had packed in there

Tourist in MSN

I carry a luggage scale. And I set it for the units that the airport is using, pounds or kg. I assume that their scale is off to benefit them a bit and I assume that my scale is off because I am really cheap and buy the cheapest scale. Thus, I aim for 49 pounds if the limit is 50 and aim for 22.5 kg when the limit is 23. I have a few luggage scales, all read almost exactly the same (within a few tenths of a percent). But half the time I find that my 49 pound bag is 50 pounds on the airline scale.

Some heavy stuff that is small, like pedals I often put in my carry on to take weight out of the checked bag or bike case/box.

My expedition bike and the S&S case combined are over 50 pounds, so I have to carry a few bike parts in other bags to get the packed bike lower in weight.

Tourist in MSN

Those duffel bags look very fragile to me. How has this system worked out for you as far as the duffel bags go?

I used the same system as you on Amtrak, but my luggage on Amtrak never gets beat up that much so I trusted my lightweight duffels with them. But I have been too nervous to try that on airlines.

In post number 2 of this thread (above) the second photo shows an olive green canvas bag I used for the same purpose as your duffels, but my bag was much heavier and took up enough volume that I did not want to carry it on my trip.

Doug64

Those bags have been on 10 flights and dozens of train rides, and are still in good shape. I'm getting ready to make 2 more like my yellow one for our daughters who are joining us on a long tour this summer. I didn't make the black REI bag, but I made the yellow one. The material is a lot tougher than it looks.

Rob_E

The REI duffel I use is very sturdy and packs down, but it doesn't pack down super small. I carried it with me on a trip last year, and it was a pain figuring out what to do with it. I knew I'd be needing the duffel to hold my gear when I boarded a train at the end of the trip. Otherwise I would have found a way to send it home. But it remains a decent way to take my gear on plane. @Doug64's method looks like it packs a lot better, though.

Tourist in MSN

Thanks. I might have to watch for a ripstop pack cloth duffel or maybe a source for that kind of material. I have not sewn any camping gear for several years, but used to when I was a college student and could not afford the good stuff.

The black mesh bags in the photo, one with red end and one with blue end I took on Amtrak. Those are light and small enough to leave in the bottom of a pannier, that is exactly where they were for my Pacific Coast trip. One is 340 grams, the other 410 grams. But, I would be afraid of using those on an airline.

Doug64

I'm wondering if the bags' "fragile" appearance is incentive for the baggage handlers to treat a little more gently

Doug64

We try to box our bikes so that it is easy for TSA to inspect them. I tape 3 sides very well, and lightly tape the side I want them to open. I also talk to with the TSA folks as they go through the inspection.

I've had a couple of the TSA people tell me they will tape it up better than I did we have also had really good luck flying with our bikes.



These boxes went on 4 different flights getting to Lisbon: Portland-> Seattle-> Keflavik->Amsterdam-> Lisbon. Boxes look a little rough, but no damage to the bikes.

52telecaster

awesome pic of a man enjoying life!

Tourist in MSN

Possibly. The Co-Motion people have suggested that the soft S&S cases usually come through airlines in good shape while the hard cases appear to have been abused by baggage handlers that thought they were indestructible.

I am getting on a plane in April with a bike, there is about a 90 percent chance it will be in my S&S backpack case which is a soft case. I have had to glue some nylon cordura patches on it from where airline baggage handlers apparently dragged it on rough concrete as if it had wheels, which is does not. But otherwise it held up well.

cyclezealot

Once I was on BA flight to Nice. That was the time my bike was beat upon by who knows who. A bunch of Italians noticed my beat upon bike. They asked did I fly in from Heathrow. ? I bought four panniers by Bike Packer made of polyster fabric. Two of those will suffice as my luggage on my flight to Australia along with a backpack.

PB7

More reasons to pare down the stuff. Minimizing weight and bulk can be a very useful, eye opening practice. It makes for better riding and lifting and transport, and doesn't have to involve sacrificing on comfort or real essentials. Most experienced travelers who have switched to traveling light are glad they did. There's good support and information for the approach online.