bringing a bike on a plane

On 23 Mar 2005 12:12:46 -0800 in rec.bicycles.misc, "Maggie"
wrote:

If you bring a bicycle on a plane, don't expect to get it back in good
condition unless you put it in cast iron and then put the cast iron in
cement. Do you see how things are handled and stored on a plane?

have you ever flown with your bike? i thought not.

please don't pontificate about travelling with a bike unless
you've done it. i have. it costs extra. to me it's worth it
when i do it. my bikes have never been damaged or lost, though
baggage handlers at the international terminal at SEA are
incredibly, stupidly slow (the next time i *will* take it on the
damn train!).

you need to check the rules of the airline you're flying. alaska
unfortunately charges $50 each way.

: "Pat" wrote: (clip) What do you do with the Dahon after you ride back to
the
: festival?
: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
: I'm glad you asked. Depends on the event. At the state fair in
Sacramento,
: I kept it with me, and used it whenever I had to go back to the car, for
: food, etc. At the Scottish Games in Pleasanton, I cabled it to a post,
: within sight of a security guard. At an indoor concert, I fold it and
take
: it inside. One time I stashed it in the aisle of a university classroom.
: Sometimes, at a flea market I'll bungee a carton to the rack, and use it
as
: my shopping cart.

Now, I'm really envious! How is it riding such small wheels? A friend of
mine let me ride his Bike Friday once, but it was larger than the Dahon, I
believe.

Pat
:
:

wrote
We've traveled overseas, taking our bikes on flights. We didn't rent
or buy, because for a long bike tour, we wanted to use our own nice
touring bikes.

We got standard bike cartons - the ones new bikes arrive in - from our
LBS. Disassembly and reassembly were a bit tedious (what with racks,
fenders, etc. for touring).

The bikes survived, despite astonishingly bad treatment. We witnessed
our "This End UP!" bike cartons laid on their side on the roof of a
luggage truck. We watched as the "Fragile!" cartons were pushed from
that height directly to the ground. Pack well!

If I had it to do over again with those bikes, I'd add wheels or
casters to one corner of the box; the cartons are large and unwieldy.

For a couple day trip with little riding, I'd consider borrowing,
renting or buying a junker. (You say Vegas is "home." Do you have
friends there who can scare up a bike for you?)

If I made such trips frequently, I'd get a folding bike.

I've flown overseas and back with a bike 3 times in 5 years for the same
reason. I used a cardboard box twice, and checked the bike unboxed once. I'm
convinced that when baggage handlers see a cardboard box they treat it like
a cardboard box, and just throw it around with no thought as to what's
inside. After all, if all you can afford is a cardboard box to put your
belongings in, how expensive can the belongings inside be? When they see a
large touring bike with racks and fenders that may or may not fit into a
suitcase they tend to treat it with a little more care.

FWIW, when I checked an unboxed bike British Airways treated the bike quite
carefully, and it arrived unscathed. I've concluded that the best way to
bring a bike by air is to put it into a very high quality hardshell travel
case, second best is to hand them an unboxed bike and hope they will
recognize that they are handling an object that is a bit more vulnerable
than most of the luggage that they handle. A cardboard box would be third
best, and pack the bike very carefully.

My advice to the OP is to buy a clunker when he gets to Vegas, and invest in
a folder with a good travel case if he wants to do a lot of this kind of
thing.
--
mark

mark wrote:

I've flown overseas and back with a bike 3 times in 5 years for the
same
reason. I used a cardboard box twice, and checked the bike unboxed
once. I'm
convinced that when baggage handlers see a cardboard box they treat
it like
a cardboard box, and just throw it around with no thought as to
what's
inside. ...

FWIW, when I checked an unboxed bike British Airways treated the bike
quite
carefully, and it arrived unscathed.

That's been my exact experience. The first time we went overseas, in
1976, it was on British Airways, and they said "No box necessary; just
remove pedals and turn handlebars sideways." They treated the bikes
perfectly.

The second time was on a charter flight. They said "Bikes must be
boxed." It was _much_ more hassle and, as I described, quite scary to
watch the way they were treated.

Does British Airways still allow unboxed bikes? If so, I'd fly them
next time.

"Maggie" wrote in
ups.com:


If you bring a bicycle on a plane, don't expect to get it back in
good condition unless you put it in cast iron and then put the
cast iron in cement.

Maggie I go over to France ever other year to ride and have used Air
France, Air Canada, Canadian (before it went bankrupt) and KLM. All I
ever do is put pipe insulators over all of the tubes and the fork and
put it in one of the airline plastic bags. It has never suffered any
damage, perhaps because it can be readily identified as a bike plus I
can easily fold the bag and stick it in the car when we use that.

On 2005-03-24, wrote:
The bikes survived, despite astonishingly bad treatment. We witnessed
our "This End UP!" bike cartons laid on their side on the roof of a
luggage truck. We watched as the "Fragile!" cartons were pushed from
that height directly to the ground. Pack well!

If I had it to do over again with those bikes, I'd add wheels or
casters to one corner of the box; the cartons are large and unwieldy.

I believe the fact that the cartons are large and unwieldy, not only
for you but for the baggage handlers, is precisely the reason why they
seem to attract so much abuse. Even a bare bike is easier to handle.

I took my S&S-coupled bike on 18 flights last year. While I have a hard
case I almost exclusively used the canvas bag to carry it since it requires
less disassembly to get the bike to fit. The canvas case is not so
tough that I would expect the bike to survive the hard treatment you
describe undamaged, yet the worst that ever happened to my bike was
a wheel getting a wee bit bent out-of-true, something easily corrected
with a trip to a bike shop at the destination. And, in fact, even that
problem may have been primarily self-inflicted since more care in packing
during the latter half of the year (coupled with an apparent lessening
of interest by the TSA in openning the bag?) seemed to prevent it
entirely.

I don't think normal-sized baggage attracts anywhere near the abuse of
the oversized, hard-to-handle stuff. On some Asian flights I have taken
a substantial fraction of the normal-sized baggage is cardboard
(balikbayan) cartons which come out on the luggage carrousel appearing
entirely unscathed even though the few large, awkward cartons off the
same flight in the oversize area (including mine) looked like they'd been
through a war.

If the bike's case is hard for you to handle it is also hard for the
baggage handlers to handle, and the latter is an invitation for hard
handling. I really, really like S&S coupled bikes for travel.

Dennis Ferguson

"Pat" wrote: (clip)How is it riding such small wheels? (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I have a model with 20" wheels, and it handles reasonably well. I used to
have a Dahon with 16" wheels, and the handling was somewhat squirrelly, but
I am not sure how much was due to the wheel size, and how much to the frame
geometry. Since I have other bikes, the folder is never my choice for real
riding.

BTW, I nevlected to mention that the folder is extremely handy when I have
to leave the car for service.

Pat wrote:
:
: I guess we owe that to the days of traveling by ship where you
: embarked and debarked or even disembarked. Merriam-Webster OnLine
: believes embark and debark are appropriate for air travel although
: travel agents apparently like the specific term "plane" never
having
: gotten on a sailing ship for travel.
:
:

And, that debarked probably came from the ship called a Barque.....


In Patrick O'Brian's great "Aubrey and Maturin" series of novels (aka
"Master and Commander"), Capt. Aubrey refers to any ship he's in as
'the barky'.

Dennis Ferguson wrote:
On 2005-03-24, wrote:
The bikes survived, despite astonishingly bad treatment. We
witnessed our "This End UP!" bike cartons laid on their side on the
roof of a luggage truck. We watched as the "Fragile!" cartons were
pushed from that height directly to the ground. Pack well!

If I had it to do over again with those bikes, I'd add wheels or
casters to one corner of the box; the cartons are large and unwieldy.

I believe the fact that the cartons are large and unwieldy, not only
for you but for the baggage handlers, is precisely the reason why they
seem to attract so much abuse. Even a bare bike is easier to handle.

I took my S&S-coupled bike on 18 flights last year. While I have a
hard case I almost exclusively used the canvas bag to carry it since
it requires less disassembly to get the bike to fit. The canvas case
is not so
tough that I would expect the bike to survive the hard treatment you
describe undamaged, yet the worst that ever happened to my bike was
a wheel getting a wee bit bent out-of-true, something easily corrected
with a trip to a bike shop at the destination. And, in fact, even
that problem may have been primarily self-inflicted since more care
in packing during the latter half of the year (coupled with an
apparent lessening
of interest by the TSA in openning the bag?) seemed to prevent it
entirely.

I don't think normal-sized baggage attracts anywhere near the abuse of
the oversized, hard-to-handle stuff. On some Asian flights I have
taken
a substantial fraction of the normal-sized baggage is cardboard
(balikbayan) cartons which come out on the luggage carrousel appearing
entirely unscathed even though the few large, awkward cartons off the
same flight in the oversize area (including mine) looked like they'd
been through a war.

If the bike's case is hard for you to handle it is also hard for the
baggage handlers to handle, and the latter is an invitation for hard
handling. I really, really like S&S coupled bikes for travel.

I agree about soft luggage in general. It can absorb shock very well too --
I've had great luck with canvas camera and computer bags.

Which bag do you have, exactly?

I'm trying to find out everything I can, because I'll probably invest in one of
these bikes in the near future. Not only would flying with my bike be easier,
but putting it in *any* car as well.

Matt O.

wrote
That's been my exact experience. The first time we went overseas, in
1976, it was on British Airways, and they said "No box necessary; just
remove pedals and turn handlebars sideways." They treated the bikes
perfectly.

The second time was on a charter flight. They said "Bikes must be
boxed." It was _much_ more hassle and, as I described, quite scary to
watch the way they were treated.

From what I've heard, charter airlines and discount airlines tend to treat
all baggage more roughly than major airlines. My guess is that they don't
pay as well as the major airlines, and they tend to allow less time for
loading and unloading aircraft to save labor costs and other costs. This is
just a guess, any airline industry people care to comment?

I've always arrived quite early for my flights, I think this gives the
baggage handlers a little more time to cope with what is, after all, a more
cumbersome piece of luggage than most. I suspect that if I were to show up
at the last minute with an unboxed bike it would be treated a little less
carefully by any airline.

Does British Airways still allow unboxed bikes? If so, I'd fly them
next time.

They do allow unboxed bikes, but the website shows some fairly stringent
size limits for their Airbus aircraft. Not a problem between the US and the
UK, but for a flight within Europe you might want to find out what aircraft
you'll be flying on and check the size restrictions. I believe these size
restrictions are due to the design of the aircraft cargo hold. I've used
their Denver-London service twice and thought they ran a very good
operation.
--
mark