Originally Posted by
seajaye
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The packing sideways vs. packing vertically is something I didn't think about, so thank you for bringing that to my attention. I'm leaning towards the Co-Motion case now. I do appreciate your brain-dump, definitely things to think about. A rear dummy axle would be great assuming that I can thread it through whatever other parts are nestling into the rear triangle.
I think I want to try to bring fenders for this bike, but if the ones I want won't fit, I might have to get Raceblade Longs. I used to have them on a different bike and while they aren't as good as 'real' fenders, I think they would serve the purpose for PBP.
I also really like your idea of the old tube guard to protect the couplers from letting in grime. I'll have to borrow that one!
You could probably use a piece of threaded rod and four nuts with washers to reinforce your dropout spacing. (And of course, the right sized wrenches to remove it after your trip.)
Do not ship a bike with a skewer in wheels. Too easy to damage it. When I was in Iceland I met two Italians at the Reykjavik campground that had bent front skewers and were trying to figure out how to replace them on a Sunday in Reykjavic when a lot of businesses were closed.
When I pack up my folding bike into my S&S case, I remove the rear derailleur. I just do not see any upside to risking any damage to the replaceable dropout. I did a ACA week long trip last spring, I mentioned in the initial introductions that I had worked in a bike shop decades earlier, thus became the default mechanic. Out of about a dozen riders, I think three had bent hangers with poor shifting.
I assume your bike is 700c. I think some people take the tires off the rims to make the wheels fit better. My expedition bike is 26 inch wheel, thus smaller rims, I leave the tires on the rims.
If you know how to true up a wheel, it might come in handy to have a spoke wrench that fits your nipples just in case it gets handled roughly and needs a bit of truing. I have had to true up my expedition bike wheels after flights, but it was a very minor tweak to only a couple spokes.
Do not carry your tools in a carry on, security might think they are sufficient to sabotage an airplane and confiscate them. I carry my tools in a checked bag. And all of my lithium batteries are in a carry on.
I am not sure if I mentioned this above, bike shops sometimes put pedals on REALLY tight. A few days before you disassemble your bike, make sure that you can get your pedals off so if you can't you have time to deal with it.
You saw photos of my expedition bike loaded down above in post 44, the photo below was my luggage before I went to the airport on that trip. The black bag is the S&S backpack case, the olive green bag was my other checked luggage, the yellow Ortlieb duffle was my carry on and my handebar bag was my "personal item". I wore my helmet onto the plane to prevent it from getting damaged in a checked bag. Only one airline employee commented on the helmet, he said - the planes are pretty safe these days - with a smile on his face.
Good luck on your trip.