urbanescapee

Wifey and I are planning a trip to Mexico City this November. We like to bring our folding bikes on our travels when it seems like they can enhance our experience and it’s not too inconvenient. So far it seems like Mexico City has some pretty good bike infrastructure and public transit (both better than the average US city). So I’m leaning towards bringing the bikes. My concerns are, naturally, with so much sightseeing, how likely are our bikes to be stolen if they’re locked up with a decent u-lock for a few hours at a tourist destination/market/restaurant? Also, has anyone else traveled to CDMX and found that having bikes either improved or detracted from the visit? For reference, I’m not a day-long endurance rider who goes for a long ride just for the sake of riding. I ride the bike to get places and see/do things in ways you can’t using other modes of transport. I understand bike shares and rentals are probably an option but I hate dealing with those (always thinking about how much the ride is costing, when and where to pick up and return, and poorly maintained poor quality bikes are no fun to ride).

urbanescapee

Just wanted to close the loop on this since I didn’t get any responses. We ended up bringing our Brompton bikes. We hadn’t travelled by plane internationally with them yet (domestically, we’ve been getting away with them as carry-on items). This time we rolled the dice on checking them without cases. That’s right, we checked two brompton bicycles from Salt Lake City to Mexico City without any cases. The only thing we did differently was remove the clamps for the hinges and added one strap to each bike that would ensure it would not inadvertently unfold during transit. Going to Mexico, we didn’t even let air out of the tires. Coming back, the Mexican airport officials required that all the air be let out of the tires or they would cut them open (presumably to see if there were drugs inside). We were both amazed that the bikes passed as regular luggage, no up-charge for checking a bike (this has happened with other folding bikes in Europe, even when they were packed in regular shaped boxes) and that they made the round trip unscathed, I accepted that they may get scratched up or even dented a bit, but there was virtually no damage of any kind. Of course each airline has different policies and, even within that, it’s ultimately up to whoever is checking in your luggage as to weather or not they will allow it and not charge you extra. Maybe we just got lucky with the bikes not being damaged, but it went so smoothly this time that we’d have no hesitation to do it again.

As far as bike-ability of Mexico City goes, it was really great. Better than I could have ever expected. Bike culture is pretty strong, and there are many bikes lanes or quite streets that can be used to get around. They even shut down an extensive network of some of the city’s busiest streets once a week for a ciclavia-type event. Both of us felt very safe riding around; vehicle operators gave us pleanty of space and we had no issues feeling uncomfortable except for one time that we basically accidentally ended up on a highway (our fault). I actually felt more safe riding there than I do in my own city. We didn’t use the bikes every day, but they were really great to have for wandering around the city’s parks and just seeing the city in the way we like to do. I do recommend if you have brompton to take them to Mexico City with you.