Hi Everyone,
So I’m going to be doing my first full distance triathlon later this year overseas and basically want to ship my bike with me by plane. I was wondering how others who’ve had to take their bike with them do it, tips etc. I tried searching the forum but couldn’t find anything.
The main concern is about making sure the bike is insured in transit between handing it away at the oversize baggage to getting it back on the flip-side as from what I see the airlines have nothing to do with the baggage side of things so it looks like your ticket doesn’t handle insurance of such expensive items, so I assume people just make sure it’s adequately covered on the contents insurance??
Beyond that:-
Rent a tough, hard bike box
Ensure contents + bike box doesn’t go over any weight/dimension limits
Pack everything correctly, (learn how to detach/reattach the aero bars on bike, do the pedals, deflate tyres completely, put the tyre skewers back in both forks to ensure bike doesn’t get damaged, wheel cover bags for nice aero rims as/when I get them)
Do you lock the bike box or not? I assume not eh? in the case an official scans and wants to poke around a bit?
Hi Everyone,
So I’m going to be doing my first full distance triathlon later this year overseas and basically want to ship my bike with me by plane. I was wondering how others who’ve had to take their bike with them do it, tips etc. I tried searching the forum but couldn’t find anything.
The main concern is about making sure the bike is insured in transit between handing it away at the oversize baggage to getting it back on the flip-side as from what I see the airlines have nothing to do with the baggage side of things so it looks like your ticket doesn’t handle insurance of such expensive items, so I assume people just make sure it’s adequately covered on the contents insurance??
Beyond that:-
Rent a tough, hard bike box
Ensure contents + bike box doesn’t go over any weight/dimension limits
Pack everything correctly, (learn how to detach/reattach the aero bars on bike, do the pedals, deflate tyres completely, put the tyre skewers back in both forks to ensure bike doesn’t get damaged, wheel cover bags for nice aero rims as/when I get them)
Do you lock the bike box or not? I assume not eh? in the case an official scans and wants to poke around a bit?
Pray at baggage reclaim upon arriving.
Am I forgetting anything?
-Hard shell bike box is a good idea.
-Found that they don’t charge more for being overweight if they’re charging you for the bike box.
-Instead of putting skewers back in go to your LBS and get the little plastic clips that snap in dropouts when shipped new (they should be free), wheel bags aren’t necessary if you get a good bike box.
-Forget the locks or get TSA approved locks and consider yourself lucky if they 're still on when you get your box back.
i flew overseas - italy (during the volcano eruption!), spain, israel - several times with my cervelo in a regular disposable cardboard box (that bikes are shipped in to dealers) - no issues. it usualy waited for me in the “oversize” luggage compartment at the destination.
The fees could very well be same amount but be country specific. Flew to Italy for duathlon worlds a few years ago, bike was 250 dollars on the way out and 250 Euros on the way back. Ouch, at the time that was circa 350 dollars.
