Flying with your bike

Riding in Rome can be pretty wild, it's not just the cars it's also the
pedestrians who can be crazy. I always use a flight box for my bike,
but it is a pain to store while you're in country. I've asked porters
in hotels to store it for me while I tour the countryside, I've been
traveling with an organised group who's arranged bike box storage or
I've been lucky enough to be visiting friends. If you're planning on
staying at various hotels during your stay then I'm guessing you'd be
booking somewhere near the airport or Rome for your first and last
nights. You could ask them, in advance, whether they would be willing
to store you bike boxes for you.

As your probably going to get charged excess baggage for your bikes
anyway you could look at renting a bike in Rome. I just found this
place http://www.randotrek.com/bikes_and_gear.htm , who seem pretty
good and you should be able to find more on the web.

If you really prefer to be on your own bike, don't forget to check with
your airline that they'll actualy carry your bike. With the hike in
fuel prices some airlines have reduced baggage allowance per passenger
and some at certain times of the year (usually peak months -- aka
summer) have a complete embargo on excess baggage.

Oh and another thing, late summer in Rome (August ish you'll have to
check) is vacation time so everybody heads to the coast. Rome is left
to the tourists which makes the streets a bit quiter, but also means
alot of the shops are shut.

Have a great trip to Italy.

Marz

"PK1952" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

My wife and I are planning to fly with our bikes to Rome this summer
and bike around the country. What's the best way for us to get our
steads there with us and in one piece? Should we use bike bags? or
boxes? If we use bags are we able to store them in a locker (post 9/11)?

I've done it both ways, with and without the box. The bag, imo, is the most
dangerous, the baggage manglers can't know what it is. The box allows you to
stuff in some extra stuff along with the panniers (I assume you're touring),
but is a pain in the ass to pack and unpack. Sans box, make sure they paste
"FRAGILE" lables in several places. The box will get tossed around like a
suitcase, the bike by itself will be rolled and a little more care given in
placement on baggage trolleys and the cargo hold. No promises though.

"PK1952" wrote ...

Quoted message said:

My wife and I are planning to fly with our bikes to Rome this summer
and bike around the country. What's the best way for us to get our
steads there with us and in one piece? Should we use bike bags? or
boxes? If we use bags are we able to store them in a locker (post 9/11)?

I flew to London last year with an unboxed bike, just wheeled it up to the
check in counter with the handlebars sideways and the pedals removed.
British Airways counted it as one of my two pieces of checked bags, so no
charge. The bike survived the round trip unscathed. Check your airline's
website to see what their policy is before you try this.

If you're staying at the same hotel the night you arrive and the night
before you depart, you might be able to get that hotel to store a bike box
or two. Storing a bike box at the airport left luggage facility could get
expensive.

There's a theory that bike bags and cardboard bike shop boxes get treated
roughly by baggage handlers because they can't see what's inside, but an
unboxed bike gets treated like the fragile object that it is. So far this
theory has worked for me, but I've only tried it on direct flights.
--
mark

dunno, but i heard they pull women off their bikes in Rome and rape the [censored]
outta them

"PK1952" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

My wife and I are planning to fly with our bikes to Rome this summer
and bike around the country. What's the best way for us to get our
steads there with us and in one piece? Should we use bike bags? or
boxes? If we use bags are we able to store them in a locker (post 9/11)?

PK1952 said:

My wife and I are planning to fly with our bikes to Rome this summer
and bike around the country. What's the best way for us to get our
steads there with us and in one piece? Should we use bike bags? or
boxes? If we use bags are we able to store them in a locker (post 9/11)?

Talk to your airline. Find out their policies regarding bikes.
Different airlines have different policies. Some won't carry bikes.
Some will carry them for an additional fee. Some require boxes, some
don't.

If you haven't booked your tickets yet, check with candidate airlines
before you book the tickets.

If they all want to charge you extra, check with UPS, Fedex, etc: they
may be able to ship the bikes to Italy for less than the airlines would.

Do not go by airlines' web sites: data on web sites tend not to be
binding nor are they necessarily current or accurate.

Jeff

On my trip to London in May, someone had shipped a bicycle on the
American Airlines flight with just bubble wrap around the chain gears,
the bars at 90 deg, and it looked like the bike had survived the trip
quite well. I was jealous and wished I'd brought mine along.

Dave

Marz said:

As your probably going to get charged excess baggage for your bikes
anyway you could look at renting a bike in Rome.

Actually, bikes travel free on all international flights.

Jasper

Jasper Janssen said:

Marz said:

As your probably going to get charged excess baggage for your bikes
anyway you could look at renting a bike in Rome.

Actually, bikes travel free on all international flights.

Jasper

Not true. Delta charges $75 on each leg of an International flight. It's
the reason I no longer fly Delta.

Jasper Janssen said:

Marz said:

As your probably going to get charged excess baggage for your bikes
anyway you could look at renting a bike in Rome.

Actually, bikes travel free on all international flights.

Jasper

Wrong, Continental charge $100 each way on some international flights
or do not carry bikes at all during excess baggage embaggos.

"Marz" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Actually, bikes travel free on all international flights.

Wrong, Continental charge $100 each way on some international flights
or do not carry bikes at all during excess baggage embaggos.

Notice that the wrong answer was prefaced with the word, "Actually". In
real life, this is often pronounced "Ox-shualllly" by someone who's trying
to act smarter than they are. It often prefaces a false statement.

Roger Houston said:

Notice that the wrong answer was prefaced with the word, "Actually". In
real life, this is often pronounced "Ox-shualllly" by someone who's trying
to act smarter than they are. It often prefaces a false statement.

OTOH, it often prefaces a true one.

- Frank Krygowski

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Roger Houston said:

Notice that the wrong answer was prefaced with the word, "Actually". In
real life, this is often pronounced "Ox-shualllly" by someone who's
trying
to act smarter than they are. It often prefaces a false statement.

OTOH, it often prefaces a true one.

- Frank Krygowski

Actually, Roger IS right on this one.

Tom

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Roger Houston said:

Notice that the wrong answer was prefaced with the word, "Actually". In
real life, this is often pronounced "" by someone who's trying
to act smarter than they are. It often prefaces a false statement.

OTOH, it often prefaces a true one.

Ox-shualllly, both statements may be correct.

Quoted message said:

- Frank Krygowski

Quoted message said:

If they all want to charge you extra, check with UPS, Fedex, etc: they
may be able to ship the bikes to Italy for less than the airlines would.

UPS, DHL and FedEx have all raised their fees tremendously; you'll find it
difficult to ship a bike to Europe for less than $240. It will absolutely,
positively be cheaper to bring it on the plane with you. I have never been
charged to bring my bike with me to France (via United), and even for those
airlines that do charge, I doubt it would be anything close to $200.

Quoted message said:

Do not go by airlines' web sites: data on web sites tend not to be
binding nor are they necessarily current or accurate.

Correct, but if you print it out and bring it with you, it can make a
difference. Even on domestic flights, the charges seem to be somewhat
arbitrary... smiling and a generally-pleasant disposition might go a long
ways with a check-in person. I know one guy who always checks his bike at
the curb, where he says he's never charged, and he gives the guy a $20 tip.
As if somehow the guy knows ahead of time that he's going to get a tip for
it.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

"Jeff Williams" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

PK1952 said:

My wife and I are planning to fly with our bikes to Rome this summer
and bike around the country. What's the best way for us to get our
steads there with us and in one piece? Should we use bike bags? or
boxes? If we use bags are we able to store them in a locker (post 9/11)?

Talk to your airline. Find out their policies regarding bikes. Different
airlines have different policies. Some won't carry bikes. Some will carry
them for an additional fee. Some require boxes, some don't.

If you haven't booked your tickets yet, check with candidate airlines
before you book the tickets.

If they all want to charge you extra, check with UPS, Fedex, etc: they
may be able to ship the bikes to Italy for less than the airlines would.

Do not go by airlines' web sites: data on web sites tend not to be
binding nor are they necessarily current or accurate.

Jeff

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

Quoted message said:

Do not go by airlines' web sites: data on web sites tend not to be
binding nor are they necessarily current or accurate.

Correct, but if you print it out and bring it with you, it can make a
difference. Even on domestic flights, the charges seem to be somewhat
arbitrary... smiling and a generally-pleasant disposition might go a long
ways with a check-in person. I know one guy who always checks his bike at
the curb, where he says he's never charged, and he gives the guy a $20 tip.
As if somehow the guy knows ahead of time that he's going to get a tip for
it.

So what about folding bikes?

ISTR reading somewhere that airlines will charge extra even if the bike
is folded to "normal luggage" size - because they can, I assume. Is
this true, or am I remembering wrong?

- Frank Krygowski

"mark" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"PK1952" wrote ...

Quoted message said:

My wife and I are planning to fly with our bikes to Rome this summer
and bike around the country. What's the best way for us to get our
steads there with us and in one piece? Should we use bike bags? or
boxes? If we use bags are we able to store them in a locker (post 9/11)?

I flew to London last year with an unboxed bike, just wheeled it up to the
check in counter with the handlebars sideways and the pedals removed.
British Airways counted it as one of my two pieces of checked bags, so no
charge. The bike survived the round trip unscathed. Check your airline's
website to see what their policy is before you try this.

If you're staying at the same hotel the night you arrive and the night
before you depart, you might be able to get that hotel to store a bike box
or two. Storing a bike box at the airport left luggage facility could get
expensive.

There's a theory that bike bags and cardboard bike shop boxes get treated
roughly by baggage handlers because they can't see what's inside, but an
unboxed bike gets treated like the fragile object that it is. So far this
theory has worked for me, but I've only tried it on direct flights.
--
mark

Yeah, for me also it was BA NCE-LHR, parked the bike at Left Luggage and the
next day, LHR-BWI, no box and it came through unscathed.

"Dave Smith" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

dunno, but i heard they pull women off their bikes in Rome and rape the
[censored]
outta them

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 +10dB
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TROLL-O-METER

My very first road bike was a lugged frame (steel?) Japanese
manufactured thing that I picked up at a recycling center in the US.

We were not supposed to be taking stuff with us, only dropping things
off, but the workers looked the other way for us.

I took that bike with me to China on a United flight in lieu of one of
my piece of checked luggage. I didn't get any kind of trouble or fuss
about it until I was making my domestic flight from Guangzhou to Haikou
(on, I think, China Southern Airlines). At that time I was charged
something like 400rmb excess baggage charges because, although I was
coming in from an international flight, I'd been in the country more
than 36 hours and wasn't making a direct transfer.

(It was stolen 6 weeks later.)

My current bike has flown twice. Once from Haikou to Shanghai, and
once from Shanghai to Haikou. The local shop dissassembled it for me
and put it in one of the cardboard boxes they recieve bikes in. The
shop that reassembled it for me in Shanghai (chosen fairly at random)
also packed it up for me two weeks later, but weren't as good at it
(and were, in fact, my prompt for wanting to learn how to fix things
myself).

You are allowed 20-30kg of checked luggage on a Chinese domestic
flights with no piece limit (just a weight limit). You can also share
your weight allowance with other passengers which, so far as I know, is
verboten on American flights.

At Meilan Airport in Haikou (flying on China Southern) I had a snitty
counter person who insisted that my box wasn't properly packed and that
I MUST pay for extra packaging services before they would check it in.
Then, they wouldn't let me check it in without signing a waiver for
fragile or incorrectly packaged items. (Don't get me started on the
Asian concept of face and why complaining about this made it worse.)

The shop in Shanghai had a distinct lack of packing tape so I gladly
paid the 20rmb at Pudong Airport for plastic straps.

There was no damage on either trip.

-M

Quoted message said:

So what about folding bikes?

ISTR reading somewhere that airlines will charge extra even if the bike
is folded to "normal luggage" size - because they can, I assume. Is
this true, or am I remembering wrong?

- Frank Krygowski

It's a crapshoot. The rules say they *will* charge for it (a folding bike)
because they charge for "bikes" without regard to how much space they take
up. Actually not entirely true; they can, if they wish, levy an oversize
designation and charge even more (haven't heard of that happening yet). But
it's really up to the person at the counter.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

Quoted message said:

Do not go by airlines' web sites: data on web sites tend not to be
binding nor are they necessarily current or accurate.

Correct, but if you print it out and bring it with you, it can make a
difference. Even on domestic flights, the charges seem to be somewhat
arbitrary... smiling and a generally-pleasant disposition might go a long
ways with a check-in person. I know one guy who always checks his bike at
the curb, where he says he's never charged, and he gives the guy a $20
tip.
As if somehow the guy knows ahead of time that he's going to get a tip
for
it.

So what about folding bikes?

ISTR reading somewhere that airlines will charge extra even if the bike
is folded to "normal luggage" size - because they can, I assume. Is
this true, or am I remembering wrong?

- Frank Krygowski