First time traveling with at triathlon bike. Going from Calgary to Ottawa (Air Canada) for Ironman Canada.
What is the easiest thing to do? Buy/rent a bike case? pre-ship it to an address/bike store etc?
I have a Canyon SpeedMax and found the assembly difficult. How much needs to be disassembled and re-assembled? It is hard to get a bike service in the city pre-ironman for assembly? What about post-race?
What about fitting into a rental car?
Thanks for the help!
If you’re planning on doing it multiple times I’d buy a bike case and fly with it. There’s plenty of videos that describe pretty well how you’d need to disassemble the bike to get it into a specific case. Once you’ve done it a few times it’s not too difficult. You just need to know how to reassemble to get your correct fit. If I were you I would try and take it apart and put it back together before you fly with it or ship it.
A lot of times bike shops will be swamped with other people coming into town needing work right before an ironman, so get there early if you’re worried.
A case will fit into any hatchback or small SUV.
Are you flying with a road bike or a triathlon bike?
tri bike, canyon speed max
Flying is generally cheapest but the biggest pain in the rear. It’s annoying for TT bikes, even with a good bike box. You have to rent a car big enough to hold the box (most are, though) and it can be annoying as heck if you have to take an airport shuttle to the rental car and its busy, as you’ll have the bike box squeezed in with you, but it’s doable. I have a big hard bike box and it fits easily into small SUVs even - but I wouldn’t risk a compact, and it won’t fit into the trunk of a midsize car (even with the rear seats down, it won’t fit into the trunk opening.) My case actually does fit into the 2nd row seat of a passenger size car but just getting the SUV is safest.
Preshipping to a bike store is pricier but can be more convenient travelwise. Shipping has gotten surprisingly expensive nowadays though, it’s often kinda nuts how much you’ll have to pay. If you have a integrated TT headset that’s annoying to reassemble, I’d recommend either practicing a lot before you do it yourself, or have the bike store do it for a fee which is much less stressful. You can price it out beforehand with bikeflights or UPS (bikeflights uses UPS I believe, but is discounted.)
I would call a bike shop at the destination and pay to have them assemble it if I were not comfortable doing it and then ship it directly to the shop in advance
Check the Ironman race page as well. Most have an ‘official’ mechanic for the race, and they’ll most likely have packages for assembling/dis-assembling the bike before and after. I’m sure this comes at a rather inflated price though, so best to learn how to do it yourself imo.
Sign up with Pirateship and create UPS shipping labels to get the commercial base discount and take control of your own shipping.
That’s pretty much what bikeflights does.
By using Pirateship, you control the shipment, not Bikeflights.
You can also create USPS shipping labels and get the commercial base pricing with Pirateship.
Chiming in to note that with Air Canada, you can check your bike box as regular luggage, provided that its below the threshold for weight (which I believe is 70lbs for them). If you’re going somewhere where there’s a lot of other people also flying with bikes, its best to call ahead and have them reserve you a spot as each plane only has so many slots for bikes / oversized.
Notably, the 70lb limit is quite generous. I’ve flown both them and Westjet (50 lbs) and its the difference between using the bike box as extra storage (wetsuit, etc.) and putting my pedals in carry on to save a few grams.
This is one of those things that made me so nervous the first time I did it but now I don’t find it a big deal at all. That said, it is kind of a pain in the ass. First thing I would do actually is maybe just ask around and see if anyone near you has a box you can borrow if you aren’t sure this is something you will be doing regularly enough to need your own. I have loaned mine out and my first flight I borrowed from a friend. Bike shops sometimes rent them out too. Then either check out YouTube or even just go to your bike shop and either have them show you how to do it or just let them handle it. I had others pack and rebuild mine at first until I learned to do it myself and again it isn’t really that bad. Though it does depend on the bike as some are more complicated than others.
As for a rental car it depends a lot on whether or not you will be traveling with other people. I often fly by myself and my big bike box fits easily across the back seat of a mid size sedan. Small or mid size SUV is fine too but unless you need space for more than 1 other person and/or a ton of extra luggage you shouldn’t need a massive car.
It really does not need to be any more complex than that.
I have never had an issue 1) with damage 2) with onward transport 3) with unexpected airline costs.
I was scared silly doing this for IM Cozumel as I’m not mechanically inclined, but it was easy. I borrowed a case from a friend and my bike mechanic dissembled it into the case and I took pictures. This was awhile(2009) ago otherwise I would’ve taken a video. Reassembly in the hotel room was pretty easy, although I put the aero pads on backwards, but discovered that quickly after doing a test ride. Definitely arrive early so you can do some test rides vs. discovering problems on raceday.
Disassembly was challenging as I naturally cram-pack which is something you don’t want to do. I actually was forced to pack the bike again as the federales wanted to verify my carbon fiber frame didn’t have cocaine inside when stopped near Calakmul Mayan site.
I’d still warn while it usually goes no problem on the reassembly, in CAN go south very quickly, and you’ll be scrambling like mad to make the fix.
I’ve only flown my bike a few times, but the random stuff that I’ve run into:
Mentally prepare for some mishaps and at least have some sort of rough backup plan with LBS etc if you run into them. You’ll have a rental car so you can make the most of it.
This. Last year I forgot to take my seatpost clamp out when I removed my saddle. When it came time to put my bike back together I heard a rattling somewhere deep in the frame and only when I put my seatpost back in did I realize what had happened. I managed to hop, bop, and shake the thing out eventually but not before I was panicking somewhat.
I also just purchase a single co2 canister from the IM village or LBS and if I don’t use it I just give it back to them after. Worth the few $ to avoid having to travel with extra stuff.
My advice is you need to give yourself plenty of time and a calm environment before putting your bike together. Pre-race is already stressful enough (especially when you’re traveling to a race), so having to last minute rush to put your bike together is not the strat.
As far as I can tell - at least 3 of the 4 issues you experienced were self inflicted and probably avoidable with a bit of care.
The big risk (at least with a soft bag) is damage to derailleur/ hanger. Some people remove the derailleur as a precaution. I’ve never bothered as I think it can be de-risked with 1) careful packing 2) a spare hanger.
Almost ALL the issues one will experience from bike shipping WILL be self-inflicted, because we suck at doing this infrequent task. Especially if you are dealing with loose parts like cockpit disassembly and seatpost pieces.
I haven’t flown much, but the airlines handling of my bike box has not been a problem. (They do open it and leave that TSA inspection note in there, so be ready for that.)
@kings0408 You might change the thread title to ‘tribike’ from ‘road bike’ as many road bike cases will not fit a tribike (or not well / without extensive disassembly). I’ve flown my (road) bike dozens of times using a few cases, but most recently a Bike Box Alan (BBA). As others have said - you will need the tools, know-how and confidence to take some parts of the bike apart and reassemble upon arrival. Things will sometimes go wrong so a knack for adaptability and problem solving under pressure is a plus. A small SUV is likely to work, but not smaller. If you choose to pack and fly the bike, practice with someone who has done it well before the big day. If you park in a lot with co-workers, you might test fit your case in some small SUVs…tribike-specific cases can be larger than road bike boxes. I find it useful to have pics of the assembled bike and the bike in the box. I like a printed step-by-step list. Use ziplock bags to hold small parts/tools. Pack disposable gloves for reassembly to minimize cleanup before you hit the post race bar…or the airport. I find water pipe insulation slit along the length to be a useful cushion for tubes/forks/etc. Label it inside and out. Include a picture of the packed bike in the case for the TSA agent to ignore. There is always BikeFlights if they serve your event.
That’s why I asked what type of bike.