Nigeyy
Legendary Member
- Location
- Massachusetts, USA
I know many people here probably know not to do some of these things, but I thought I'd share some of my learning experiences from my recent tour. I flew British Airways transatlantic, with BA taking my bike for free. The caveat? I didn't have a hard shell case, so put my bike into a bike bag. Because I wasn't convinced a bike bag is that protective (always previously used cardboad boxes that bikes come in from a bike shop) I took my secondary touring bike -a bike frame I picked up from a scrapyard for a couple of quid that has been built up by me. Call me vain, but I couldn't bear the thought of my very best touring bike being dinged or worse.
I used plenty of old rags and some packing tape as ties, and I did remove the rear derailleur, wrapped some old cloth around it and taped it to the middle of the rear triangle out of the way. I reinforced the front and rear dropout with wood and taped the pieces of wood in place. Wheels went in pockets either side of the frame, the quill stem and handlebars were removed as one piece and tied to the side of the frame, the seatpost was at its lowest position with the saddle. Pedals were removed and then loosely screwed in the inboard side of the crank arms. Anything that could be reattached to the bike was (e.g. all bolts that kept the rack attached were screwed firmly -but not tightly -in place -with the rack resting on the top of the top tube).
But I think here is where I made a mistake; I put the frame right side up in the bag -with the chainring at the bottom. Both on the flight to the UK and on the flight to the USA the large and middle chainrings got bent -less so on the way to the UK, more so on the way back -to the point it looks like I might have to get new chainrings or a new crank, even after a concerted effort to bend the chainrings back.
Oh well, but on reflection it might have been better to either have put the frame in upside down with the chainrings close to the handle, or else protected the chainrings somehow -you live and learn. I hope this post might save someone the aggravation.
Otherwise, the bike packing was perfect.
I used plenty of old rags and some packing tape as ties, and I did remove the rear derailleur, wrapped some old cloth around it and taped it to the middle of the rear triangle out of the way. I reinforced the front and rear dropout with wood and taped the pieces of wood in place. Wheels went in pockets either side of the frame, the quill stem and handlebars were removed as one piece and tied to the side of the frame, the seatpost was at its lowest position with the saddle. Pedals were removed and then loosely screwed in the inboard side of the crank arms. Anything that could be reattached to the bike was (e.g. all bolts that kept the rack attached were screwed firmly -but not tightly -in place -with the rack resting on the top of the top tube).
But I think here is where I made a mistake; I put the frame right side up in the bag -with the chainring at the bottom. Both on the flight to the UK and on the flight to the USA the large and middle chainrings got bent -less so on the way to the UK, more so on the way back -to the point it looks like I might have to get new chainrings or a new crank, even after a concerted effort to bend the chainrings back.
Oh well, but on reflection it might have been better to either have put the frame in upside down with the chainrings close to the handle, or else protected the chainrings somehow -you live and learn. I hope this post might save someone the aggravation.
Otherwise, the bike packing was perfect.
