What type of damage have you experienced flying your bike
 

We travel with padded bags. Considering unpadded. Wondering how much protection a rugged steel touring bike needs.

If you've experienced damages, I'd be curious to learn what it was (bent frame, damaged wheel, damaged RD, etc.). And if it was serious enough to warrant a visit to a repair shop or modifying you travel plans.

Thanks

With a padded EVOC bag, I got a slight bend in my front disc brake (largely because at the time I didn't have the center lock tool to remove it - I had removed the rear disc). A few minutes with a pair of pliers, surprisingly, fixed it - surprisingly because I had no idea of the correct way of doing it, but beginners luck and all that.

Broken shift lever. I witnessed the bike come literally tumbling down on to baggage carousel when it should have been taken to oversize luggage. :( Good thing I was coming back from a trip.

The bike was in a box.

No protection most times, sometimes use an airline supplied plastic bag, only twice used a bike box. After almost twenty years and about 40 flights I've never experienced any damage.

1 bike stolen after checked with a now defunct airline. My boxed bike was never found. I borrowed a bike from the friend whose home I was intending to ride to at the beginning of the tour.

1 wheel pretzeled. Bike was in a plastic bag supplied by the airline. Fortunately, it happened at the end of the tour. I built a new wheel after I got home.

1 downtube bashed and indented, looking as though it had been done intentionally with a hammer. Hasn't affected rideability, fortunately. Bike was unboxed.

Since I bought my Bike Friday, a folder which packs into a hard-sided suitcase, I have had no problems and paid no bike fees.

Broken spoke, drive side rear of course, so I had to visit a bike shop to pull the freewheel (yes, it was a while ago).

one flight with a plastic wrap'
bent derailleur hanger on my old 95 mt bike
had to borrow an adjustable wrench to fix the non replaceable derailleur hanger
glad I removed the rear derailleur for the flight

lots of trips with coupled bike in hard case
small scratch in paint

they lost my U lock.

touch wood touch wood touch wood touch wood touch wood touch wood touch wood touch wood touch wood touch wood touchwood

what, me superstitious? No....

Dublin to Spain the bas...ds broke my skicon bike box how they managed to break it i'll never know but i can sure guess.

In two trips, nothing beyond the front hub scratching the hell out of my downtube, because I was dumb enough to let them rub against one another

After flying quite a few times, I have had very little damage.

I did have one shift adjuster broken off in the lug on the down tube. A shop I stopped in tried to get the piece out with a screw extractor, but failed. I adjusted the cable by using the adjuster on the shifter and have never bothered to fix the broken adjuster on the down tube.

The only other issue was that they opened the little under seat tool bag, ripped out the lining and left the tools and spares rattling around in the box. If I remember correctly that was on the same trip.

If there were ever any dings, dents, or scratches they were minor enough that I either didn't notice or have forgotten them by now.

After many trips, I have only had a headset cap smooshed. Really can't figure out how that happened. I pad my bike with HVAC pipe insulation (inexpensive) and zip tie so nothing moves around and/or lost.

Twas but a scratch. Other people’s stories always scare me, though. I feel like I should pack the bike Really well and just pay whatever oversize fees come with it. Just try not to fly airlines from US companies and at least the fees won’t be As bad.

Slightly out of true rear wheel flying from Spain to the U.S. (three separate flights) with the bike in a plastic bag. Bike in CrateWorks plastic box=0 damage.

S&S coupled bike in a hard case, had a few issues.


Multiple times TSA opened the box and sat on it to re-close it. Results: wheels out of true, bulges in the case where the axles tried to poke through, some scratches where they didn't put the frame padding back in place.


Related to above: kinked a shift cable and cracked a cable connector. (They couldn't be bothered to put the cables back in the case!?!) Missed that when I got home, had to do an emergency cable replacement before the next ride.


Bashed the case hard enough to shatter plastic ring inside a bar-end shifter.

You know, in a lot of ways, the TSA is a bigger problem with respect to luggage than are the airlines. I'm willing to bet that a lot of times the airlines get blamed for damage the TSA either directly caused or indirectly by repacking incorrectly.

J>

bent sprocket and wheel out of true for me. Bike was in a bag.

2 flights with S&S soft case, bike's been fine but case fabric got small tear. Seems like it would take a lot of force to squash a Trucker frame esp w fork removed.

I never had any damage because ET was in my front basket

(just reread the thread title).

I knew a guy who made the mistake of taking a high-end bike through an airport in a nice hard case.
TSA broke the CF frame, and lost a bag of small parts that had been in the case with the bike.:mad:

We've had different 'small' damages, scratches, bent stuff, once a broken brake handle.
The worst however was when they managed to jam the rear wheel cassette so hard
into the steel tubing of the frame they actually created holes.
And that was just the worst damage of that flight, there was multiple other damage.

(to be sure I understand)

The rear wheel had been removed and stored with the cassette facing the frame, I assume. The bike was packed in an unpadded travel bag? A box?

(I read somewhere that one of the downside of packing in boxes is that bike boxes are often laid flat on the floor with other pieces of luggage piling on. That would be consistent with the incident to which you refer.)

Gauvins,
yes that was the case. the bike was packed in a bikebox, like they sell at Schiphol Airport (our closest main airport).
Fortunately it was on the way home.

I have flown a bunch of times with my bicycle, sometimes in a box, other times in a plastic bag provided by the airline.

The bicycle held up fine on every flight – except once.

By happenstance, I was a witness to the damage. While sitting in my seat in the airplane, I glanced out the window, and watched the baggage handler aggressively throw my bicycle overhead into the hold.

The main damage: one of the wheels went out of true, which necessitated a trip to a bicycle shop.

I wrote the airline to ask for compensation (about $50 for the tuneup). I also asked the airline to reprimand the baggage handler for his shoddy treatment of my bicycle. (The airline eventually sent me a cheque, but did not acknowledge that one of their employees mishandled my luggage.)