Author Topic: Boxing a bike for air travel  (Read 2386 times)

Matt2matt2002

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Boxing a bike for air travel
« on: February 05, 2018, 09:29:12 pm »
Advice sought on boxing my Raven for air flight.

Last time I unbolted the stem from the riser and taped the bars to the top tube. After the flight the gear and brake cables didn't look too happy. Too sharp a bend kinda thing.
Nothing broke but I recall thinking I should investigate a better way.

Anyone any suggestions?

Bike has to be boxed, so bag solutions not suitable.
Never drink and drive. You may hit a bump  and spill your drink

Danneaux

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Re: Boxing a bike for air travel
« Reply #1 on: February 05, 2018, 11:46:07 pm »
Matt,

John Saxby may be your best recent source on this, as he has just boxed his own Raven for air transport to Australia, where he is now. I expect he'll be 'round shortly with suggestions for you.

All the best,

Dan.

mickeg

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Re: Boxing a bike for air travel
« Reply #2 on: February 06, 2018, 03:00:36 am »
I am getting on a plane in April with a bike.  I have been considering taking a full size bike other than my S&S coupled Nomad, so I have been researching this too.  This was a pretty good video, but it does not play well with a slow internet connection.
https://www.bicycling.com/video/pack-bike-travel

If you use zip ties, a small side cutter or a toe nail cutter can cut those off easily.

The fork spacer they say in the video is to keep the fork from getting damaged, but it also is used to keep the fork from punching a hole in teh bottom of your box.

When I was in Iceland, I met two Italians that had bent front skewers, they had left their skewers in their front wheel for traveling and they got bent that way.

Some bike shops install pedals really tight on a bike.  It is not a bad idea to take the pedals off a few days in advance so you know that you can actually get them off without it creating a crisis at the last few minutes.

A luggage scale is your best friend.

Matt2matt2002

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Re: Boxing a bike for air travel
« Reply #3 on: February 06, 2018, 05:34:49 am »
Nice video. Thanks Mick.
Never drink and drive. You may hit a bump  and spill your drink