Flying With Your Bike
Flying With Your Bike
Heading off to a training camp? While there are plenty of bike hire options at most cycling destinations, it's nice to have your own familiar bike and gear. If you're taking your bike on the plane, you're going to want to use a dedicated bike box. Sure, you can ask for a spare cardboard bike box and hope for the best, but it might not survive both journeys. Airport baggage handlers are notoriously careless, and many a delicate carbon frame has been broken at the bottom of a stack of heavy suitcases. There are two main options for bike boxes: Hard Cases (Bike Boxes) and Soft Cases (Bike Bags).
Hard Cases
If you're serious about keeping your bike in one piece, then hard cases are the best option. While they are quite impractically big and heavy, they allow you to transport your bike with minimal disassembly. The size also means you can carry all of your clothing and accessories inside the box. This is beneficial in two ways: there's no need to take an additional suitcase, as everything should fit inside your bike box; and filling the box with soft clothing helps add some additional padding and protection if the box gets flung around. Some boxes such as the Thule Roundtrip Transition come with an integrated workstand, allowing you to easily dismantle and rebuild the bike for travel, and keep it tuned up while you're away.
Hard cases will require you to drop the wheels out of the bike. As for other disassembly work, the larger the bike, the more work will be required. Larger riders will likely need to drop the seatpost, and remove (or at least rotate) the handlebars. This can be tricky if your bike has a fully integrated handlebar and stem setup with internally routed cables. There's usually enough slack in the brake hoses to lift the stem off the steerer tube and tuck the handlebars down against the frame, but try this before you buy a case that you can't use. If you're a tall rider and your bike has an integrated seatpost (eg Giant Advanced SL Series TCR or Propel) then you might want to check the maximum height of the box to make sure your bike fits.
Most newer bike boxes will work with a variety of axle standards, but if you're buying an older one second hand or hiring one, make sure you check that it will actually fit your bike first, or that adaptors are available. A thru axle bike won't fit in a quick release case.
If you plan to travel around a lot once you reach your destination, then it might be better to consider a soft case – they pack away much more neatly, and are much easier to fit into a small car, or take on public transport. If you're taking a mountain bike other than a cross-country hardtail, soft cases are pretty much your only choice.
Soft Cases
While they don't offer quite the same level of protection as a hard case, they're still much better than a cardboard box, offering far more protection, trip after trip. If you're going to be travelling around between different locations once you're off the plane, then a soft case will be much easier to live with – particularly if you're going to be lugging the bike onto public transport, or using taxis. They're smaller, lighter and more flexible. When not in use, soft cases generally pack away to about the size of a large duffle bag; worth considering if your accomodation doesn't have much storage space.
Most soft cases feature a reinforced tub at the bottom, usually with wheels. Some like the evoc Road Bike Bag Pro below also have a reinforced top section, shaped to protect your handlebars. Packing all of your clothes around the bike in soft bags is a particularly good idea with soft cases, adding some extra padding in case the baggage handlers decide to stack your case at the bottom of the pile.
Make sure you choose a bag which will work with the types of bike you want to transport – MTBs often have a much longer wheelbase, larger tyres, different axle standards and of course massive handlebars. Most cases feature padded wheel bags, which may not be big enough to fit MTB tyres. Choose an MTB-specific case such as the Thule Roundtrip MTB or evoc Mountain Bike Bag Pro.
Bike Box Hire
If you're planning a one-off trip, consider hiring a bike box instead of buying one. It's cheaper than hiring a bike, and cheaper than buying your own case if you don't plan to use it regularly. We have a fleet of Thule Roundtrip Transition wheely hard cases for hire, which fit most Road, Gravel, Track and Tri bikes, with adaptors to suit QR and Thru Axle wheels. Give us a call or email us to discuss your trip. Hire is £50 per week, with a refundable £100 deposit. We will also help you to pack your bike, so you know how everything goes together.
Some Other Things To Think About
Travelling by plan involves some extra thought. Your bike will be going into the hold, not the pressurised cabin. As such, normal rules around batteries apply. If your bike has electronic shifting, bring the batteries with you into the cabin. If you have wireless electronic shifting, this is easy – just unclip the batteries et voila. If you have wired electronic shifting, you'll need to fish the battery out of the frame. Check the manufacturer's recommendations if you're not sure: some early electronic shifting systems were quite sensitive and temperamental (original 10-speed Shimano Di2 or Campagnolo EPS V1/2/3) and are best left alone now that they are getting older. Make sure to remove any other battery-operated equipment while you're at it – bike computers, lights etc.
Most airlines refuse to take any batteries larger than 160 Wh. As such, travelling with an ebike most likely won't be possible; at least, not with the battery. Check with your airline before travelling. Even if you can arrange to hire a battery for your ebike on the other side, you may still find that your ebike is too heavy to fly, and its probably just not worth the hassle versus simply hiring a bike. Check here for the Civil Aviation Authority advice on what you can take with you.
Bike boxes are big, and can get quite heavy once all of your gear is loaded up. Make sure your airline will accept the box before turning up at the airport, and check the weight before flying. While it is a very good idea to store your clothing in the box, go easy on the tools – these can add a lot of weight quite quickly. Again, be careful packing tools in hand luggage, you may not be allowed through security with a bag full of spanners.
Tyre pressures are another thing to consider. Let your tyres down to a low pressure before you fly, particularly if you're running tubeless. This reduces the risk of any high altitude explosions, and saves you the joy of trying to wash dried tubeless sealant out of all your clothes.
On that note, it probably goes without saying, but clean your bike before you travel, and make sure everything is in good working order. Make sure you know how to put it back in the box yourself, as you'll need to do this before you come back. Some cable ties and velcro straps can be useful, both for field bodge repairs and also to secure your bike and gear inside the box. Make sure you have all the necessary tools to put your bike back together. If you have to take your pedals off, make sure you have a way to put them back on again. Consider taking a compact torque wrench such as one of these:
