Dumb question, but is tsa only in the United States?
in all the times flying from Canada to other countries, with my bike in a cardboard box, I've had the box opened and inspected at the oversize baggage place, but they just look inside box, then give me tape to retape the top of the box.
In Montreal, the oversize baggage x-ray machine isn't big enough for a bike box ( hence the need for a visual inspection) but I suspect they do in some European airports I've gone through, they haven't opened the box to inspect, so they must have extra large x-ray machines.
I expect most parts of the world will want to inspect a bike box ... and other oversized bags, years ago, my kid was a competitive snowboarder and the board bag always had the TSA note in it when we unpacked. I just wish they'd inspect the bag with me available to repack the bag to protect the bike. Leaving MSP and DEN, I checked the bike bag with the Delta agent and didn't see it again until I got to my destination.
After unpacking my bag and assembled my bike, everything is good. But the one take away I have,
pack only the bike in your bike bag. I had some leftover snacks in a box in the bike bag (Kind bars, Jelly Belly, etc), the snack box was opened and all the snacks were spread throughout the bike bag. I was flying out of Denver, and I
think TSA was looking for 'edibles'. Funny side story, TSA did not inspect my checked rollbag with tools, bottles, and some other snacks.
I watched a couple YouTubes about packing a bike for air travel and reading some posts in this thread and it seems the inspectors will dig a lot deeper if they see something that is not just the bike. I'll test this theory early next year when I fly to Hawai'i with my bike.
I'd be interested to see my posts about protecting your bike from excessive TSA searching and mishandling.
Edit/afterthought: on business travel, I had my carry-on opened and inspected many times over a number of trips. I finally asked why, the agent explained that my box of business cards near my laptop was a red flag on X-ray ... an explosive device could appear the same with the X-ray. Since hearing this, I've packed business cards in my roller bag and laptop in my carry-on, and never had my carry-on inspected since.