remove the wheels, seatpost, and pedals. place the bike down on the bottom piece of foam. secure with the straps in the box. place the seatpost, pedals helmet running shoes wetsuit around bike. make sure you have placed supports where the skewers go. Place a piece of foam over the bike. place wheels on the foam and cover with the other piece of foam. put on lid. clasp buckles push down firmly but gently on the case and tighten the straps. retighten if top lid is loose. Put on a couple of luggage tags and off you go. Good luck.
American has a bike charge of 75 or 80 and an overweight baggage charge of 25. I always tell them its overweight right off the bat and have not been charged for the bike. I'd rather pay 25 than 75. don't forget to smile use the counter persons name, complement her hair etc. often that gets it on for free. or slip them a folded $10 for free passage.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

awesome - thanks

any suggestions for the supports between the fork/dropouts? are they really at risk of being crushed inside a hard case?

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www.true-motion.com Triathlete Casual Wear since 2007
(Twitter/FB)

go to the LBS and ask them if yo can have the dropout supports that they get shipped with. A very very small chance but it will ruin your race. It takes 10secs to do. better safe than sorry

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Something to think about is getting some threaded rod,nuts,and washers and make your self some fork and dropout spacers,just in case the case thats a real hard hit, just cut some rod taking into account the washers,nuts on the outside of dropouts and then thread two nuts on the rod then two washers then put into the dropout adjust to light pressure against the inside of dropout, then washers and nuts on each side of dropout and tighten lightly,this will keep your frame and fork from damage,(just hope this makes sense) 5/16 of a inch is as big as you can go but 1/4 inch will work also