Flying with bikes

We flew with Ryanair from Stansted to Gothenburg, taking our bikes with us. It was incredibly difficult to find out what the rules were and as it seems that they change - and are different for each airline - I shan't detail weights or dimensions.

We dismantled the bikes to a certain extent. We:
removed the front wheels
turned the pedals in
put the saddles down
twisted the handlebars round.

We then wrapped old inner tubes round Ian's frame (mine's too battered to matter), and put Ian's shoes round my forks.






Next, we wrapped each bike in an enormous plastic bag. We got ours from our friendly local bed shop - the ones mattresses come in are made of thick, transparent plastic, and you can cut them down to the right size. Transparent is good - the airport handlers can see what's inside so are maybe less likely to bung it under a heap of cases, and are happier that it's not a weird-shaped weapon.






Finally, we carried a pannier each as hand luggage. And we put a pannier each in a giant laundry bag, along with the tent and Ian's roll mat, and checked this in.

The bikes emerged in one piece at the other end. My deraillier wasn't very happy, but it may not have been before it went on the plane.

Carrying the plastic bags and laundry bag during the trip was a bit of a pain - they went on the back of my pannier, using space that would have been handy for other things. You could get round this, we suspect, by booking yourself into a hotel for the first and last nights and asking them to keep your bags during the trip.


The CTC has some nice information about flying with bikes here. And some more experienced tourers share tips here. However, the CTC bags sell out so fast that you'll be lucky to get them - we tried - hence our recourse to mattress bags. And finally, here's a baggage handler talking about how to pack your bike - though he recommends a soft case, and I don't know how you're supposed to carry that on tour!

All photos on this blog (c) Ian Butler