I think most bike insurance plans cover damage from travel, whether damage related to car travel or if you're flying with the bike. Though some airlines that charge the extra 'bike bag' fee includes insurance if your bike is damaged during transport. My cycling club has flown with bikes all over the US and never once has there been damage if the bike is packed properly, but I still have bike insurance (Velosurance) for risk of crashing during races.

Read the policy . . . this isn't an"opinion" question. Also, get a new agent, and fast! That answer was completely unhelpful, inappropriate, and confirms they don't know what they are doing.

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

Odds are extremely low of anything happening. Must problems happen due to bad packing strategy, not bad baggage handlers. Life is a game of chances and the insurance industry preys on your fear of bad things happening. It is very rare that bad things happen in transit on airlines caused by the baggage guys. Almost all the problems I have seen from peers is because of screwing up the packing. For what it is worth, I have probably flown >500 flight legs over 30 years using a soft case and never had anything damaged ever flying all around North America, Asia, Europe and Africa.

Your best insurance is packing properly, and I know someone is going to get on here in a millisecond after this posting and share their horror story, tell everyone I am wrong and get everyone worried. It's like the stalker in the playground about to assault your kids. Everyone lives in fear of those guys too so there are no kids in the playground anymore.

Dev's right. Pack properly. Travel smart. And the chances of anything happening are low. I'm not in Dev's realm for miles/times traveled with a bike, but now that I think of it, in 25+ years, and having the multplier of many times traveling with my wife, it may be over 100x with a bike and never a problem!

In fact, I am right now about to start up the process of packing up my wife's bike, for a trip she is making to San Diego for a cycling training camp! :) Sadly I'm sitting this trip out. :(

There is a new offering that is under-wraps right now, that unfortunately, I can't talk more about due to an NDA I am under, that should be helpful for this, in the extreme event something does happen. Stay tuned! :)

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Steve, i was counting flight legs since there is a load and unload. Pretty well every trip I take is 4 flight legs, sometimes 6 or 8.....500/4 = 125 trips, 125/25 is around 5 trips per year where my bike came along. Most years a few more, some years a bit less. What counts is flight legs because that's the number of times the baggage can be destroyed. The distance of the flight is not important.

In terms of reducing risk, I bought a hard bike case with locks (Scicon) and then I zip tie the thing shut at 3 points. Inside the bike gets tied down and padded, wheels get soft covered. All of this padding is supplied with the box.

For insurance, I spoke to my insurance company and they were able to include the bike on to the house insurance policy and they cover the bike while it is at home, away from home, during transit etc. The exclusions are when racing and if the bike is not secure (eg, leave it outside a shop while inside shopping). The additional cost was minimal

As said previously said, check specifically with your own policy as you may also be able to do this. Alternatively, there is bike specific insurance, but this is expensive.

If you zip-tie the box, that's practically an open invitation for them to open it - depending on where you travel to / from they'd just cut the zip ties as they're entitled to search your stuff

I've flown long haul probably once every 5 weeks for the last 5.5 years on which bikes make it perhaps 15% of the time, nothing has ever happened to my stuff - knock on wood.

I do however have insurance for when it does though

Not sure what you're talking about. They've never opened the box, they just Xray it. The box is locked anyway, the zip ties secure the catches.

They do open bike bags on occasion. I took my bike to europe last year in a soft scicon bag. The bag got opened on all 3 legs of the trip. I could tell because they never re-attached the strap that goes over the top tube and helps hold the sides of the bag together. They also forgot to close the lock on the zipper in London so when I got to Brussels the bag had no lock.

You do the best you can to pack everything carefully, but there are no guarantees that everyone else will do the same. The rear derailleur barrel adjuster got cross threaded on that trip I have no idea if its my fault or TSA/airport security.

They can and do open boxes - they do not just x-ray them - and if its locked, zip tied or otherwise they will simply break it open if they want to, and I am pretty certain that its done at your risk and expense as its different from damage through handling i.e. you prevented security screening access rather than they ran it over with a fork truck.

ok, well, the box still gets zipp tied shut to keep it shut rather than bursting open when mishandled. If they want to open it, then good on them. But I would still recommend that if people want their bike to arrive undamaged, then box it up, pad it up and secure it shut as best as possible. If others prefer to close their bags with minimal methods because someone may want to look in it, then good luck to them also. :)

I don't think I suggested anywhere it shouldn't be packed, or padded or minimally secured - the point was if they can access my bag without disturbing the contents its more likely to arrive in once piece than if they have to force parts of it open and I run the risk of them not closing it properly.

I guess I fly 100-150 legs / year and I'm between 200-400k miles / year for 5 years (Dec - March this year will be 90k so far) and probably close to a million for the family and the only bag / item we've had damaged in the last 5 years is a stroller so i think i might be doing something right. where as I've seen bags opened, unpacked, not repacked properly and stuff arrive messed up, broken, damaged so thinking that locking it or securing it makes it a better bet is not necessarily the case..........so you can take that for whats its worth

They are zip ties..... it's really not that hard to open a zip tie for them. For the extra security for your bike box staying closed, its no extra effort for them if they want to open it.