Handlebars and boxing a bike

Derek said:

I'm looking at taking my road bike on a plane and have got a bike box
from the LBS. All the packing tips I've read mention turning the
handlebars 90 degrees but I can't seem to make them fit. The box is not
very wide (190 mm) but even the standard Qantas box (300 mm) wouldn't
fit handlebars that are still attached to the bike (even when rotated).
What else do I need to do?

Derek

As well as rotating bars by 90 deg, loosen the stem
were it attaches to the bars and rotate the bars there
as well. I've done this a couple of times. Basically,
the brake hoods end up pointing at the ground, one side
of the drops may end up hooking under the top tube. I
won't try an "ascii art" this! Be careful of any cables
and wires as you do this.

DeF

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Looks like I'll need a bigger box then. I tried this yesterday and it
was still quite wide. Bit of a squeeze getting the drops under the top
tube too...

If you have a quill stem, you might need to pull it out of the head
tube.

quote='DeF'Derek said:

I'm looking at taking my road bike on a plane and have got a bike box
from the LBS. All the packing tips I've read mention turning the
handlebars 90 degrees but I can't seem to make them fit. The box is not
very wide (190 mm) but even the standard Qantas box (300 mm) wouldn't
fit handlebars that are still attached to the bike (even when rotated).
What else do I need to do?

Derek

As well as rotating bars by 90 deg, loosen the stem
were it attaches to the bars and rotate the bars there
as well. I've done this a couple of times. Basically,
the brake hoods end up pointing at the ground, one side
of the drops may end up hooking under the top tube. I
won't try an "ascii art" this! Be careful of any cables
and wires as you do this.

DeF

--
e-mail: [email hidden]
To reply, you'll have to remove finger.[/QUOTE]

While you're at it, loosen the shift/brake levers as well. One thing I've learned with air travel is that if you don't loosen something, it will get bent.

Ritch

ritcho said:

DeF said:

Derek said:

I'm looking at taking my road bike on a plane and have got a bike

box

Quoted message said:

from the LBS. All the packing tips I've read mention turning the
handlebars 90 degrees but I can't seem to make them fit. The box is

not

Quoted message said:

very wide (190 mm) but even the standard Qantas box (300 mm)

wouldn't

Quoted message said:

fit handlebars that are still attached to the bike (even when

rotated).

Quoted message said:

What else do I need to do?

Derek

As well as rotating bars by 90 deg, loosen the stem
were it attaches to the bars and rotate the bars there
as well. I've done this a couple of times. Basically,
the brake hoods end up pointing at the ground, one side
of the drops may end up hooking under the top tube. I
won't try an "ascii art" this! Be careful of any cables
and wires as you do this.

DeF

--
e-mail: [email hidden]
To reply, you'll have to remove finger.

While you're at it, loosen the shift/brake levers as well. One thing
I've learned with air travel is that if you don't loosen something, it
will get bent.

Ritch

Agreed, indeed, you should loosen them a bit anyway in case your
bike falls over or you have an off. Better the levers twist a bit
than bend or snap. One advantage of twisting the bars down is the
levers end up in the middle of the package, well away from any
exterior knocks.

DeF.

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--
Frank
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"Derek" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm looking at taking my road bike on a plane and have got a bike box
from the LBS. All the packing tips I've read mention turning the
handlebars 90 degrees but I can't seem to make them fit. The box is not
very wide (190 mm) but even the standard Qantas box (300 mm) wouldn't
fit handlebars that are still attached to the bike (even when rotated).
What else do I need to do?

Derek

I had similar hassles using a bike bag a few months ago. I just removed the
stem and bars as a unit and put the lot into the middle of the frame - the
cables were just long enough. Only took a couple of minutes extra to
reassemble when I got to Frankfurt. Use plenty of padding, by the way. I put
my cycling clothes, T shirts and so-on in the bike bag and used bubble wrap
for other exposed bits. Worth dropping the derailleur off too.

One thing I reckon was worth doing is hang about until you're one of the
last to check in. I watched my bag, being bigger, heavier and clumsier than
the other passenger's, being put on top of the rest of the baggage, so my
bike didn't get crushed. Worked in Perth and Frankfurt...

Cheers,

Frank

Cheers,

Frank

Derek said:

I'm looking at taking my road bike on a plane

And don't carry any tools in your carry-on luggage. You may have them
confiscated.

quote='Evan'Derek said:

I'm looking at taking my road bike on a plane

And don't carry any tools in your carry-on luggage. You may have them
confiscated.[/QUOTE]
And don't leave your mobile phone - switched on - in the saddle bag 🙄 They really don't like that!

(no, it wasn't me...)

Ali

On 2005-12-02, Evan (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

Derek said:

I'm looking at taking my road bike on a plane

And don't carry any tools in your carry-on luggage. You may have them
confiscated.

I just heard on the news that America has seen that the security
screenings for scissors and ball-point pens are useless, and have just
stopped doing such screenings.

Australia are not going to follow suit, unfortunately.

--
TimC
"It took people a long time to figure out which machine was [mooing],
and even longer to figure out how. But for some reason it didn't take
them any time at all to figure that I'd done it." -- Paul Tomblin on ASR

I've found the Qantas boxes to be great. They are pretty robust and I've never even seen a scratch on the box after unloading from the plane. There's heaps of room to add some extra gear in the box to use as padding. My road bike is a 61cm frame with 44cm bars - had no trouble getting it in the box. The other advantage of these "throw away" boxes is you don't have the hassle of carting the thing around with you at the other end. Those hard plastic or aluminium bike cases are great in theory but difficult to cart around. I think the baggage handlers do take a bit of care with them and probably pack them last irrespective of your check-in time cause they seem to come out the door for oversized baggage even before the other luggage starts to arrive.

Be warned Jokestar airlines will charge excess baggage and won't take any argument. Qantas and Virgin Blue are usually a bit more accomodating.