Folding Bikes

[Jaclyn]

Thanks, Deb, for sharing your packing times.

For the Bike Friday, I remove the front wheel, stem, handlebars, seatpost, and pedals. I use foam pipe insulation to protect the frame and the skewer for the fork. There's usually a bit of struggle to figure out how to arrange everything in the travel case. It takes me about 20 minutes if I've done it recently, and 30 minutes if it has been awhile. Reassembling goes a faster but then there's a lot of fiddling and adjustments the first ride or two.

For the tandem, we have to separate cables (we use cable splitters) - including a drag brake cable, remove (and deflate) both wheels, two handlebars, two seatposts, four pedals, one derailleur, one crank, and misc. accessories. We use a lot of pipe insulation, too. We work together and it takes at least an hour. We allow two hours, minimum, because it is stressful if we are rushed.

I'm having Bilenky retrofit the S&S couplers to my Carl Strong ti bike. I guess I thought it would pack in only 30 minutes, but based on your experience it sounds like it will take much longer than the Bike Friday. That's good to know!

There's been a discussion about traveling with tandems over on the Hobbes list. In my experience, the airlines are increasingly weighing (50 lbs max) and measuring (62 inches width x height x depth max) luggage. At LiveStrong Austin last fall I was very disappointed to see my fellow fundraisers charged as much as $350 to travel with their bicycles. The large number of bikes that weekend (both Livestrong and a Triathlon in Austin) resulted in a huge amount of oversize luggage fees. Other people report that they don't get charged; I don't like to worry about not enjoying my bicycling vacation due to problems checking in my bike(s).

[Thorn]

30 for a BF, yep...that's what I was seeing, but I'm with Deb in the 1-2 hours. However, I don't disassemble quite as much. I don't take off the crank or the front derrailleur, but I do take the fork out. We pack DH's teeny little bike the same way--not that he needs quite that much disassembly but just for consistency.

As for flying, you're not carrying a bike, but "sports equipement" or "mechanical parts" Some of the airlines will charge you even if you're within size and within weight if they know the box contains a bike (as apparently they did in Austin). My next flight is Southwest where they actually state that Bike Friday's and S&S bikes are standard luggage if less than 50 pounds. I've never flown them before but their bike policy (and pricing) had me switch this time.

[Tri Girl]

Apparently American Airlines will accept a bike as a checked back if it's 50 lbs or less and not oversized. That's what I heard from 2 friends (of friends) who just flew to Europe. Don't know firsthand if that's true or not...