Hello,

Me and the bike will soon be taking an airplane ride halfway across the planet and am wondering on the advisability of removing the front brake rotor to prevent damage in transit. The bike will be shipped in a recycled bike shop cardboard box without any special OEM packaging. So the bike may be subject to shifting around in the box a bit and heaven only knows how TSA will repackage everything once they unpack everything for inspection.

Any thoughts, experiences, comments?

Thanks,
Steve

My front wheels have rim brakes so I can't comment on shipping disc brake wheels.

But I can say you want to avoid getting any oils on the rotor. If you remove it, I would suggest you not handle it with oily or greasy hands, or even hands with much sweat. Put it in a zip lock bag. The edge of the rotor can be quite sharp, if yours is sharp enough to cut plastic, perhaps putting it in a paper envelope inside a plastic bag for transport.

I do not have hydraulic brakes, so if yours are, you should ask someone that knows more than me how to prep a bike for transport if there is no rotor inside the disc brake unit. You do not want your pads to be too close together to get a rotor back into the unit when you reassemble the bike.

Park Tools videos on youtube are the best source of info on mechanical issues on bikes. Mechanical issues that come up, go there first.

Ask the bike shop that you get the box from if they have the other packing supplies, like the front wheel dropout plastic thingy that keeps the fork from puncturing the bottom of the box, etc.

Just a few days ago, I made a post with several comments on packing up a bike for air transport, that post is here:
Bike Bag vs Bike Box for Air travel?

You'll want to insert 1.) a guard or place holder that stands in for the rotor contact point between the brake pads, preventing the caliper pistons from coming out and 2.) a guard on the brake levers that prevents them from being actuated.

I have packed a disc bike in a bike box and in a bike bag to travel overseas. Both times, I kept the rotor on and packed the front wheel beside the crank with the rotor to the frame and the wheel tied to the frame with zipties. The rotor does not touch the frame and is protected from damage. The wheel is more likely to be damaged by very rough handling than the rotor. I have not had damage to the bke occur over 4 x 12000km return trips .

I have never taken off my front disk, but my front wheel is securely zip tied to my frame as in the photo, and the black plastic disk protector is securely held in place with tape.

As mentioned, even with mechanical brakes as I have, you want to insert some sort of spacer, clean folded paper, whatever inbetween the pads, and held in with tape, so that when, not if, the front brake lever is squeezed by accident, the pads are not pushed out past where they should be.
If you have hydros as mentioned, you have to very careful of this.
Read up on hydros and this occurance to find out the pitfalls.

bottom line, pack your bike like a new bike is packed when delivered from the factory. You do not want any movement in the box, or as little as possible, use foam bits and the 3 most important plastic pieces to protect fork dropout, rear derailleur and front disk.
I have mostly used panniers and can carry these three pieces with me if I need to get a new box for a return flight.

if you ask politely at a bike store and be there for their unboxing day, they will save all the foam and plastic protector bits along with the used box.
check out the other thread on "bag vs box" if you want more info, I'll add the same photos I did on that thread.

If you keep the disc on the wheel, ziptied to the frame, grab a block of styrofoam, cut appropriately into two sections trimmed to fit around the hub bolts, press it onto the disc and secure it. on asian flights, we can fill the box with gear, so this prevents stuff in the box from damaging the disc.

If you remove it, tape it to a thick square of cardboard first, then put it in a ziploc.

Steve,
No offence, but maybe you should have a bike shop pack it for you?
Putting a bike in a box so it can move around is asking for breakage, and there's a fair list of parts that I remove before getting to the disk; pedals, rear derailleur, wheels, etc. I do more disassembly than most folks, and more than you might need to, but it's a large bike and I get it within airline baggage size limits.
Yeah, I pull my discs, and the wheels go in semi-soft bags.

Good point. I have the OEM pad spacers that came with the calipers. Immobilizing the levers may be more problematic but may not be required with the pad spacers?

I've used pad spacers only, homemade ones, well secured, and not bothered with levers-- on at least 5 flights.

I'll have to see how everything fits in the box before making my final decision. I will be constrained by the Air New Zealand supplied box for the return trip which is "only" 56" x 31.5" x 12".

One potential issue is bottle cage interference if I put the rotor inboard for protection.

I have the OEM pad spacers which should be enough.

This is a supported tour but I will have to have them carry (with my luggage) all of the packing "bits" for the return trip packing at the end of the tour. I am planning on removing the RD and tying it to the frame so no possible damage. Chain will be off as well.

BTW, what is that black plastic piece in the upper right of your photo? RD protector? How does it fit?

Local REI has a big box of this stuff which I have already visited a couple of times.

FYI, this is ill advised on flights in and to the U.S (and possibly E.U.) TSA opens EVERY bike box for inspection and then usually makes ZERO attempt to put things back together the way it was found. Extra clothes and stuff really complicates their work, makes them angry, and even less likely to put things back together properly. The rule is to connect (zip tie) everything to the frame so that they only have to pull out 1 piece to inspect and hopefully put it back in the same way it came out.

While this would work on the way out there is no shop for the return trip so I need to learn to do this myself. I have done this several times before with my road bike but not with a bike with hydraulic discs.

I don't understand this. All (major) U.S. carriers have removed oversize charges and restrictions for properly packed bicycles. Properly packed bikes go as a piece of checked luggage. Usually all that is required is to remove the front wheel, turn remove handlebars and remove any other protruding bits.

So are you putting your frame in one bag and wheels in another for 2 total checked bags?

I mostly fly Delta and they still have size limits to avoid oversized fees. I now see that United is as you say - and good to know. Double check with your carrier.

I have a Orucase bike bag and the wheels have their own bags, and they go inside. The bag is overkill if not traveling regularly with a bike. (The Therapy Equipment tag was an amusing option)

Delta dropped the oversize fee for bicycles if over 62 inch (L + H + W) several years ago. Look at the bicycle specifications at this link.
https://www.delta.com/us/en/baggage/...ing-equipment?

The 115 inch criteria still remains, over that and your bike does not travel.

But your therapy equipment might still require an oversize fee. But, if you show them that it is a bicycle in the bag, they would have to comply with their bicycle size criteria.
https://www.delta.com/us/en/baggage/...weight-baggage

I dunno. When I spoke to Delta before flying to Europe last fall they said the bike would be subject to their Standard Baggage Allowance rules and pointed me to the same page, which links directly to the Baggage Policy page.
"Baggage size must not exceed 62 inches (158 cm) when you total LENGTH + WIDTH + HEIGHT"
https://www.delta.com/us/en/baggage/overview

For darn sure nobody got out a measuring tape in either airport. It was inspected by TSA on the way over, and pretty well repacked considering how much stuff I had in there. Also, I pulled the velcro'd label off before for tbe trip, it was a bit too...yeah.

So, you did not argue that it met the bicycle specification? There is no mention of the 62 inch criteria here. The only size cited is the upper limit of 115 inches.

Pasted:
.

• Standard baggage allowance and fees based on cabin and travel region apply
• Bicycles weighing over 50 lbs. will be charged the applicable excess weight fee
• If the outside linear dimensions (length + width + height) exceed 115 linear inches (292 cm) or exceeds 100 lbs, the item will not be accepted
• Items in excess of baggage allowance will be subject to additional or overweight baggage fees
• Non-motorized touring or single seat racing bicycles must be packed in a durable protective container designed specifically for bicycles.
• A limited liability release form must be signed by the passenger in the case that the bike is not properly packed
• If the bicycle is packaged in a hard shell case specifically designed for transporting bicycles, then a limited release form is not required
• If the bicycle is packaged in a soft sided travel bag or anything other than a hard shell case, a limited release form will need to be signed

.
Or, were you unaware of this bicycle rule?

I do not recall when they dropped the oversize fee for bicycles. If I recall, American was first, then weeks later Delta. Then months later United.

I did a google search, found it for American:
https://news.aa.com/news/news-detail...sic-Equipment/

It's an issue of redundancy. It turns on the question of whether you trust the caliper pad inserts to stay put and not be dislodged in transit.

Redundancy is usually a good thing. I was planning on taping the insert in place. I still need to check on immobilizing the lever.

It looks like a snow storm is coming for the next few days and cancel everything. I am going to try a complete packing fit since I won't be riding. :-(

The lever immobilizers are wedges that you insert at the base of the lever pivot. Shimano hydraulic levers come with them standard, and are molded in such as way that they catch when inserted.

My GRX equipped bike didn't come with these immobilizer wedges. From all of the other issues with the bike I should be thankful that it came with the caliper spacers. Do you have a Shimano part number or photo for these wedges? I am wondering if I can find some at my local LBS.

Another interesting question... Is the brake system likely to get air in it when the bars and the bike are turned every which way during transport?

This was my assumption for all flights domestic and international, until this summer. My bike box from Detroit Metro to Portland, OR, was definitely not opened. It was very light as there was only a 56cm road bike in there. It was opened by TSA from PDX to Omaha at RAGBRAI last July. I saw a couple bike boxes arriving with mine at Omaha, that were not wearing any TSA tape and appeared to be unmolested by the TSA.

Just realized you have brifters. The wedges in that case are the yellow piece.

Most, not all. Southwest Airlines is the worst on this. 62" combined girth or less, it gets checked free. Or if separated into two bags within that, free. They charge BIG oversize fee for anything 62-80", including bikes. Anything over 80" combined girth is a NO GO, you will need to ship the bike. I think if you separate the bike into two packages, you can get it to fit under 80", and possibly 62" each, but you'll need to try it out yourself. Again, this is not total of 2 boxes, just not over those values for each. I would think that the frame with no wheels and handlebars removed (usually with stem) and tied to frame, and both wheels in another package, might work. My guess as to SWA being like this is because they have a 100% narrow-body (6 across) plane fleet with smaller cargo holds, however other airlines that fly wide-bodies, also have some narrow-bodies.

What does the first bullet point say? Use Google if you can't parse it.

Next time I'll tell Delta "You're wrong, there's a guy online who remembers an announcement that conflicts with what you say about shipping a bike, and what your current written baggage policy says."
.
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but I won't, because I'm not a moron.

Just keep paying the fees then, it is obvious that you prefer that.