charbucks

After reading all sorts of horror stories, my fears started to centre over the idea of my bike going on the bottom of a pile of other luggage. I'm borrowing a soft case with a hefty amount of padding, but I worry about rear triangle crushing potential. I looked around the house for something lightweight (I'm dangerously close to the 50 lb limit) but strong... fortunately, we seem to acquire a lot of whiskey bottles in nice cardboard tubes!



The result seems significantly more likely to withstand a crushing load.

Here's Little Miss Surly all disassembled and ready to go in the bag. The rear derailleur is wrapped in newspaper and tucked in to the rear triangle, and the wheels are in separate padded bags. I've decided against the pipe insulation thing, as I don't really have the weight to spare and the bag itself is just as well padded.

RaleighBikeGuy

Why not find a long bolt with 4 nuts and washers and install it as though it were the rear axle?

LeeG

same with front fork

seeker333

OP - they make a plastic gizmo expressly for the purpose of protecting dropouts, they weigh very little. Your LBS has some, he probably throws them in the trash every day after unboxing the latest bike.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiw6EV_8adg

Save some of the whisky for the aiport/flight, you'll need it.

Machka 

+1

We've got several of them around the house.

charbucks

I actually checked that first, but they only had front ones kicking around. I wasn't sure if it was necessary since the front fork is rotated 90 degrees and thus has much less crushage risk, but I've put one in just in case.

Noted . The best part about international flights is the "free" booze!

As to the long bolt idea, that might work if I wasn't as concerned about weight. It would also require a trip to the hardware store, and I'm lazy.

Doug64

You have more confidence in airport baggage handlers than I do.

Almost ready to go into a heavy duty cardboard bike box.

Cyclebum

PVC pipe works too. But that also requires a trip to the hardware store.

I take the rear dérailleur off.

charbucks

I don't necessarily have more confidence, but I think I've got more padding and puncture-resistancy than a cardboard box. Not shown in my picture are the padded wheel bags that go between the bike and the edges of the padded case. I don't think there's much chance of the steel of the frame getting dented - my main concern is for more drastic damage that I don't think pipe insulation will protect against anyways.

My hypothesis, which is completely unfounded, is that the soft and somewhat lumpy bag won't be as attractive to stack things on top of as a cardboard bike box. It's unfortunate that hard shell cases (the only ones that Air Canada will "guarantee") add so much weight that I couldn't come close to the weight limit!

Cyclebum - when you say you take the rear derailleur off, do you mean you detach the cabling entirely? I've unbolted mine and taped it to the inside of the rear triangle, but the cables are still connected.

Cyclebum

What you do.

JimF22003

The last time I flew with my bike, it was in a heavy duty hardshell Thule case. I used the plastic spacer on the rear dropouts. It came out of the box bent into a "V" shape. Fortunately the bike was OK.