It is perfectly feasible to take your bikes on most airlines, the rules and regulations do vary from carrier to carrier. Most airlines require you now to bag or box your bike, very few just allow you to remove the pedals, deflate tyres and turn the handle bars around. You will need to check with the airline that you intend to use well before booking as if you turn up with an un-bagged bike the airline may refuse to handle it!. Most of the airlines include the weight of you bike in you luggage allowance, so be warned you could incur excess baggage charges!!

Our first experience of taking our bikes on planes was on our 2000 tour of Finland when we flew with Buzz from Stansted to Helsinki. Their regulations then were that the bikes should have both wheels and pedals removed, tyres deflated and handle bars turned around. We decided that as they required both wheels removed we would pack the bikes in bike bags.

We purchased two bike bags from St Johns cycles in Bridgewater as they seemed the biggest in size to cope with our large touring bikes and the best value. We then had the problem of how to get to the airport, we decided on the outward to go by train as Stansted has it's own terminus.

This meant that we could pack the bike bags at home saving the hassle of having to take them to pieces in the airport concourse (this was the right decision as Stansted was heaving with people that day) We found the bags reasonably easy to carry although it helps to be tall! On our return journey we were picked up at the airport by mother in law with our car and the bike rack. This did involve rebuilding the bikes in the car park but then there was not the pressure of meeting flight departure times.

Although our bikes did suffer some minor damage on the outward journey (a broken bottle cage and a crack in the plastic chain guard), we think this was mainly due to them being opened by customs in order to have their wheels sprayed against 'Foot & Mouth' and then not being repacked properly.

Our second flight with the bikes was with Norwegian Airlines to Norway in 2006, again we used the bike bags and had no real problems, although the bike bags did suffered a bit of scuffing and rips but the bikes were un-damaged.

Frank adding the last bits of tape to secure the bike bags.

Our next flight with the bikes was in 2008 on our trip to Iceland. We decided that as the bike bags had got scuffed a lot and ripped a bit the previous year that may be we had had been lucky. It also took a lot of time taking the bikes to pieces and then having to reassemble them, it also meant that we couldn't easily ride straight out of the airport. We decided to try using the big 'see through' plastic bags available from the CTC. We were working on the principle that if the baggage handlers could see it was a bike it may get better treatment. It also meant that we didn't have to completely dismantle the bikes as we previously had to with the bike bags and we wouldn't have to worry about having to find a place to leave the bike bags.

We simply removed the pedals, lowered the seats, lowered and rotated the handle bars before deflating the tyres a bit and then slid them into the plastic bags and taped them up. We did try cutting slits for the bottom of the wheels to poke through so you could roll them but this didn't really work very well. That year we had no damage both on the outward and return flights between Stansted and Keflavík. The baggage handlers at both airports obviously did a good job.

On our flights out to Iceland in 2009 we used the CTC bags again and had no problems on the outward journey, however after our return flight Frank noticed that her gears were not changing correctly. On taking her bike to our LBS they told us that the derailleur arm was out of true, we suspect that it may have taken a knock on the flight. It is obviously the one vulnerable part of the bike and thus when we packed our bikes for our flight to Krakow in 2010 we removed the derailleur arm and wrapped it in a plastic bag and taped it to the chainstay.

Friedel and Andrew of the 'Travelling two' site have had the same success with using the CTC plastic bags and have found a novel and neat place to store the CTC bags whilst on tour.

Removing pedals

To remove the pedals:

• The left pedal comes off clockwise and goes on anti-clockwise.
  
  
• The right pedal comes off anti-clockwise and goes on clockwise.

If you are going by plane remember to add a pedal spanner to you packing list. If you do forget generally most pedals need a thin section 15mm spanner. We also suggest that you have a practice removal before you leave home, as some bike shops tend to over tighten the pedals. A little bearing grease smeared onto the threads can help with easy removal.

To use bike bags or not to use bike bags?

These are our thoughts about whether to use cardboard boxes, plastic bags, soft bike bags or hard cases, perhaps you have other experiences in which case we would interested to know.

In answer to one of the disadvantages of bike bags or cases 'What do you do with them when you are touring', (they are too bulky to contemplate carrying them). When we flew to Helsinki we stayed our first and last nights at an airport hotel which we had booked in advance. When I booked I managed to negotiate that we could leave our bike bags at the hotel, this they kindly agreed to at no extra charge (they were stored in a locked room usually set aside for luggage).

Which ever way you chose there is one thing that you should do if you do use a bike bag and remove any of the wheels is to reinforce the dropouts. One of the main strengths of a frame is the fact that the axles hold the forks and rear frame in tension. Without the axles there is a chance that if some thing heavy were dropped on the frame or forks they could be bent. By putting some reinforcement between the front and rear dropouts you can help prevent too much damage.

How we packed our first bike bags

A good site for further information on taking bikes on planes is 'Travel with Bicycles' and there is also some good advice on this page of the CTC site.