tireheb

so im a road rider from southamerica, ride alone,group rides and occasional races (not much cause i have a thing with my perpheric vision). but in short its 100-180km rides, on a race oriented setup. im a lightweight climber. so im planning a trip to europe this summer (yep, pretty soon). the main goal of the trip is to visit friends in south france / netherlands and spain, maybe north italy. of course im thinking on taking the bike and riding, these oportunities dont come around all the time, i mean, ill already be there. i have no clue about the logistics of it though, so wanted to ask for advice, anything helps.

is it so simple as buying a transport box, getting there and then looking for cool near rides? i could travel around a bit to find classics like mont ventoux.

about the transport box: im looking at some hard case thule ones, obviously nervous about shipping my carbon bike, but oh well. hard ones are bit pricey but im sure it must be worthy, do soft ones work?

ok im pretty clueless with all this, and its happening fast, so thanks in advance.

dabac

The times I’ve toured, the big drawback to hard cases is where to store them while riding. Far from all hotels will be willing to hold it for you. But if you’re visiting friends, maybe they can hold it for you.
Soft bags IME gives 1/3 probability of the bike arriving damaged.
If I were to tour again, I’d probably ask around at bike shops at home for a discarded bike box, and use that for the outbound journey.
Then leave myself some time before the homebound journey to pick up another bike box from the local shops to pack the bike in.

msu2001la

Every time I think about bringing a bike on a trip like this, I always get stuck on the ground transportation aspect.

If you're planning on driving in Europe, fitting a hard bike box into a normal Euro rental car is something you'll probably need to consider. Conversely, dragging a bike box around on public transit and trains is also not without challenges.

Depending on where you want to ride, renting a bike once you get over there is probably an option worth considering. I'm sure the famous climbs all have nearby rental options that cater to tourists and offer high-end bikes.

indyfabz

I know plenty of people who have flown to Europe with carbon bikes. Only one got trashed. Looked as if a baggage handler pieced the box and frame with a forklift. As noted above, how you get around with the bike and box is a different story.

Carbonfiberboy 

We flew with an uncoupled tandem in a home-made plywood hard case. By the time we got back home, the hard case had a few holes punched in it, but the bike was undamaged. We watched from the plane's window as baggage handlers threw a series of bikes about 10' onto a carrier, one atop the others, some in plastic bags. They threw our box on top of a couple of bagged bikes. I suspect that some of those bikes were damaged. We arranged for a van taxi from and to the airport. We arranged ahead of time with the hotel to keep our bike box. We stayed there before and after our tour. We tipped well. Our box was quite large. A regular single bike hard case should fit in the back seat of a taxi quite easily. I would never use a soft case.

Iride01 

Just buy a bike over there. Or rent.

tempocyclist

I've flown interstate and overseas with my bike. I've always used a BikeBoxAlan hard case (other brands available).

https://www.bikeboxalan.com/

Sure, it's still nerve-inducing, but I'm glad of the additional protection (it's got some big scrapes on it, but always kept the contents intact). Going on 6 years old now. With the hard case it can be a bit of a pain if you have to travel around a lot at the other end. I'm usually just staying in one or two hotels, so I know it will be fine. Getting it in a taxi is interesting. One taxi wanted to charge me an extra $15 because he needed to put the seats down! It fits in most medium cars and easily in an SUV, some even with seats up. If you're staying in a tiny European hotel room, space can be an issue as it doesn't pack down.

Yes you can fly with a soft case, yes they can be fine. I'm paranoid though so wouldn't trust one. Hard case every time.

All of that said, if you can rent a quality road bike over there I'd recommend that. It can be SO much easier. Livelo do worldwide road bike rentals and can deliver to your hotel if needed.

https://www.livelo.cc/

I've used them a few times and have been given some sweet bikes!