Advice on air travel with bikes.

By Andy B - 20/07/2006

Sound advice on this topic tends to change on a regular basis and accurate advice varies from airline to airline, route to route and is moderated by how busy the route is, how busy it is that day, how much you smile and what sort of mood the check in staff are in. The best advice would seem to be to check with the airline… but then you will be told the policy for worst case scenario… which is (almost?) never applied.

In my experience, the most crucial factor is whether you are traveling East or West.

If you are traveling to, or via the States, using any airline, the luggage allowance you get, on international flights, is “2 pieces of luggage, neither of which may weigh more than 32Kg”. This seems too good to be true and, in practice it is! You get the weight allowance OK but there are size restrictions… the W + +L + H measurement must not exceed 62” (1575mm). This size can be achieved with S+S couplings (on all but the largest of frames) and the certain removal of bars, wheels, carriers and pedals; the removal of a crank and the fork is often necessary too.
Once you have done all this; the international part of the journey is a breeze… but beware the (often necessary) internal flights can really sting you with excess baggage. Any hard case weighs several kilos and you have to do something with the case(s) when you arrive. We have used cut-down cardboard boxes, which we try and keep somewhere but do not cost much (apart from time) if we loose them.

If you are traveling East the luggage allowance is very small, often 20Kg plus 5kg hand baggage… in practice you can always stretch this to 30Kg total, usually 32Kg… with every airline I know of (Emirates didn’t bat an eyelid at 35Kg on our flight to Perth)… especially if you smile at the check in staff. If the air port has a multiple queue system, try and make eye contact with the staff before you get to the counter… try and avoid being in the queue of anyone who appears in a grump!
A good cardboard bike box can weigh more than 5Kg… some airlines charge as much as £25 for every Kg of excess baggage, if you have big panniers and a tent, sleeping bags, cooking equipment and spares, and a suitable bike to carry it… it is unlikely that you can afford the luxury of a cardboard box at perhaps £150.
If you ask for information you will be told that you must have a cardboard box… in practice this is not the case. We protect the frame with some lagging and turn the bars and bind them to the top tube…we cover the chain too (Rohloff hubs are such a help in this respect)… we have never had any problems, because it is obvious that we have taken some care to protect, not just our own goods but also those of our fellow passengers.

Letting down tyres.
It is not necessary to deflate the tyres… but do it anyway! Some airport baggage staff still believe that it is essential to deflate the tyres and they will let them down for you…when you are not there to show them how. We have been told that it was unnecessary at the check in and then had our bikes arrive without any air in the tyres at all… remember that some air is required to protect the rims! I would suggest that you let enough air out to make them appear soft to the “thumb test” of even the weakest hand.

Hand baggage (cabin baggage).
Pre 9/11 this used to be easy… we would carry pedals, tools and all heavy things onto the ‘plane ourselves. Now we compress heavy clothes to take weight without too much bulk.
Although you should only have one piece of luggage I always take my camera bag and wear it. As well as our hand baggage we also have a carrier bag, containing waterproofs and more heavy clothes… which we could immediately put on, if we wished. We always wear our heaviest shoes on the flight. (We tend to cycle tour with a pair of “proper” cycling shoes and some “proper” walking shoes/boots).
If you employ these tactics you will get another 4 or 5Kg free.

Australia and New Zealand have very strict regulations to prevent possible stock/crop contamination. They will always check your tyres before you are allowed to leave the international arrivals building.
If you have dirty tyres, they will then check out your boots, groundsheet, tent pegs etc.

Traveling with cookers.
Don’t ever take any fuel on board… wash out any fuel containers and stoves and place them where they can easily be reached

X-ray machines.
On a recent trip (which was to Chile via USA… so we could take S+S bikes and cardboard boxes) I was able to watch the boxes being X-rayed… the bikes showed up OK, then the operator turned up the power and looked inside the tubes, I could clearly see the springs and valves inside our Fox suspension forks!
All the same, never put a travel alarm clock in close proximity to your water or fuel bottles.