Not exactly touring, but is this practical?

[mattt]

On May 31 I'm leaving on a hostelling trip to the UK where I'll be travelling around until June 17. Arriving and departing from London, my first destination (at the day of arrival) is Scotland, then I plan on working my way down back to London for my departing flight.

I don't have a touring bike, as my main purpose in biking is to train and race on my road bike (2003 Trek 2300). I've gone hostelling (backpacking) once before, in Denmark, two years ago, and it was great. The best part about the trip was roaming the countryside on a rented MTB, so naturally I'd like to bring that aspect of my last trip to this one. Only this time I want to bring my own bike, simply because I like riding it and don't want to ride on a crappy, old MTB that are often used as rentals, as well as to save me the hassle of having to rent/return it and that whole ordeal (save some money too).

From what I know, in this particular case, my only real option is to get this bag from Nashbar:
http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?...and=&sku=10244&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename=

I want this bag so I can take my bike where I want it without having to roll it around everywhere and chain it up outside during my hostel stays. I plan on getting to a destination, getting settled (4 days per destination I'm thinking), and taking out my bike to go for some rides around the surrounding areas, then packing it up again for when I travel to my next destination.

So my question is, how practical is this? The bag weighs (so the site says) 5lbs, and my 2300 weighs in at around 17lbs, so put that weight on top of my backpack which will weigh in at around 25-30lbs, I've got a possible 50lbs+ to be carrying around with me during travel time.

The problems I see with this are:
1) Taking it on the plane - would a bag like that be safe to put a bike in? I'm guessing I'd have to take some safety measures into consideration and pack it with some packing material to hopefully prevent some damage.
2) Too much weight to be carrying around?

That's all I can think of, but if there are any other things that seem questionable, then please, chime in at any time !

Thanks,

-Matt

 

[ovenchips]

As for the bag i've no idea, never seen one. I know you can get specially made bike boxes over here or you can use one of the big cardboard boxes they use to transport bikes in the back of lorries. But even in a box i believe it has to be partly disassembled with the pedals removed & handlebars turned so no bits are sticking out. And the tyres need deflating.

Have you checked with the airline as to their policy on carriage of cycles ? ...... You may find it'd be weighed along with your other luggage and with 50lb+ my guess is you'd have to pay excess weight charges.

As for carrying it all around, well only you know what is practicable for yourself, but seems to me it's not a particularly easy way of doing thngs.

Personally i'd look into hiring a bike locally i think.


Good luck, whatever you do.