Flying with Claire? Worth the hassle?

[Suze]

I've flown 3 times to France with my bike Papillon packed in a cardboard box. It's easy to do: twist handlebars, drop or remove seat, remove pedals and front wheel. Smaller boxes would require you to remove back wheel also. My bike shop saves a cardboard box for me and showed me how to pack ... actually did it with me, until I understood, no charge. I used other stuff ... once my sleeping bag (you could use bubble wrap) to add some packing around derailleur. I haven't had any damage worth reporting, but ... it is a risk. Have to admit, it would be too much stress and worry about damage for me to take my bike for only a few days. Insurance might help, I don't know.


The biggest hassle was hauling the box around outside the airport, which if inlaws are meeting you might not be an issue.

[Dizzie]

Could you pick up a reasonably priced second hand bike there?. We have various sites selling second hand stuff so one can look by area but don't know if that is just UK. Maybe you could ask your in-laws to look for you. It would always be there ready next time and something older and heavier means more effort for less miles.

[Amira]

Also, I know that on Southwest bikes fly free as your 1st or 2nd bag. Skis too.

Actually, having just flown Southwest the week before last with my bike, they charge you $50 each way, even if you are only checking the bike and one other bag. It's because it's oversized (mine actually weighed in at 49 lbs, the case being heavier than the bike). I'll have to look at Frontier for some future planned bike travel, although I can't complain about SW's fee (compared to trying American or some other options). If I was flying with my bike, I'd definitely get a case for it instead of a cardboard box. For one thing, not having wheels to get it to/from baggage check and baggage claim would be a deal breaker for me. Second, the SW desk agent who checked me in said that although they don't sell extra insurance anymore, they will cover either loss or damage (it was one of those, but now I forget which) if it was in a hard case, not a soft case. I was fortunately to have a friend with a very nice, new hard case who loaned his to me, but now I'm going to have to consider buying one of my own. You do have to remove the pedals, wheels, seat/seat post (use electrical tape on the seat post to mark the height and it's a lot easier to get it all back together the way you want) and handlebars (lesson learned - put another piece of electrical tape with a mark where your handlebars line up with the groove in the stem or you'll be messing with them for awhile to get them back to normal). Electrical tape doesn't leave a sticky film like duct tape and it's easy to mark on to show your handlebar positioning. My frame was small enough that I didn't have to take my derailler off to fit in the case, but my brother-in-law did on his bike (same exact case). That added a LOT of time to packing/unpacking for him.

I can so relate to wanting your bike when you visit your inlaws. While I love mine and they are wonderful people, they live in a rural setting, where EVERYONE is sedentary and unhealthily overweight and there's not much to do. I would dearly love to escape for a few hours during the day instead of sitting in the living room watching mindless TV, but they wouldn't understand at all. I think they think we are crazy when we go out for a long walk in the evening when we are there.

[OakLeaf]

I don't know why r/r your brother-in-law's RD took so long. The most time-consuming part of that is securing the chain so it doesn't flop around and scratch stuff, and even that only takes a few minutes, some foam rubber and some tape or string. Couple of turns of a 5 mm Allen wrench either way, and I've never needed to so much as re-adjust the cable.

I do it for added security regardless. Even though my bike is small enough that my long cage RD will fit, it's just another thing sticking out to potentially transmit an impact to the chainstays.

[soprano]

Agreed that the derailleur shouldn't take more than a minute, tops. Next time take a good photo before detaching it so you know how it goes back on. Even if the frame fits into the box OK with the derailleur attached, it really should come off in case the bike shifts in the case (because no matter how tight you strap it down, something WILL shift). Leaving it on is asking for a bent derailleur hanger and an extra trip to the bike shop.

[Amira]

Thanks for the advice about the derailler. I expect it took my brother-in-law longer than it should have on his because he'd never done it before. I will learn how to detach mine as well, as I certainly don't want to damage it and I expect plenty more trips with bike are in store in my future. Great idea to snap a picture of it to refer to.