Flying, hire cars & bike boxes. Too much Hastle?

[alp1950]

Planning our next holiday to Spain. Had thought that I might invest in a rigid bike box & take the best bike with me. But will it be just too much hastle?

I had a look at a Thule bike box. Very big & heavy. Even if bike + box can meet the airline's weight limit, there is no way that it will fit in a typical hire car boot. Even if we get an oversize car, it will still be difficult fitting bike + luggage for family of 4.

Assemble & ride the bike away from the airport? Maybe an option, but how to secure & store the box at airport?

Ultimately, perhaps it would be easier to simply go for the bike hire option.

Would be interested to know of other people's experiences flying with (not on) their bikes.

 

[spiro]

You could consider buying an inflatable roof rack (no I'm not taking the p**s) which you could then use to the airport in the UK and again in Spain. You could probably pack it in the box with the bike. Also depending on what part of Spain how about taking the ferry from UK to Spain?

 

[alp1950]

Thanks spiro. Amazing what you can learn. The inflatable roof rack might well be a solution. Any experience with it for bike or bike box carriage?

 

[spiro]

Afraid not but you can find more info here http://www.handirackuk.com/?gclid=CNXthOSA-JwCFdYB4wodPEyTbw Site claims it will carry 80kg subject to car limits.

 

[ASC1951]

I fly to Spain regularly and always take my 'best bike' with me. I have avoided rigid bike boxes for the very reasons you give and use a well-padded soft bike bag. The only real precaution I take is to remove the rear derailleur and put rigid spacers in the dropouts and I am happy to say I have never had any damage to it in over 20 years of flying with the bike. OK, it's not a £5000 carbon lust object, but it is a reasonable quality Ti/Campag assembly which is usually worth more than my car. A bike that is too precious to fly with isn't much use as a bike.

When I'm on my own I don't bother with a car and have never had a problem finding a taxi to take the bag - all the taxi ranks have some estate cars or hatchbacks.

With a group, the bike isn't a problem either. You just need the right hire car, which doesn't need to be huge: just not a saloon. On Gran Canaria we got four adults each with a bike bag and a large rucksac, plus other luggage, into a Renault Kangoo. It was a bit of a squash for the journey at each end of the holiday but perfectly manageable.

Our preferred hire car is a Citroen Berlingo, which is marginally bigger. Hire fleets usually have plenty of both. If you can't get one soft bike bag and the rest of your family's stuff into something like that, what on earth are you taking?

 

[alp1950]

Thanks for that. Now to learn how to remove & refit the rear derailleur.