sydney to melb

Russell King said:

I am planning a ride next yeat from Sydney to Melbourne and am looking
for some advice getting 2 bikes with loaded BOB trailers from melb to
sydney.

The loaded BOB and bike will probably weigh in at around 40kg (15kg
for the bike, 5 and a bit for trailer and 20kg of gear)

The situation with excess baggage on the air lines seems to up in the
air (pun intended) at the moment and I am sure I would be over weight.

The other options I have considered but not yet investigated include;

1) bus

2 Train

3) courier bike and trailer to sydney and fly

Any help/suggestions greatly appreciated.
loose maps to reply

Just curious but why are you taking so much gear? We head for 6 weeks of touring in France and Austria next week.With our tent, bags, cooking gear and all we will be carrying about 20kg. Our tandem weighs about 18kg but this is for the two of us.
As there are two of you that means you are carrying 40kgs?? Ouch.

Cheers

Geoff

Fly VirginBlue

http://www.virginblue.com.au/helpInfo/travelInfo/atTheAirport/index.php?section=Baggage+Information

"Sporting Equipment counts towards guests’ free baggage allowance of 20 kgs.
Each Item of sporting equipment will individually represent 5 kgs of a guests
total baggage allowance, irrespective of the actual weight of the item.
For example, a bicycle that weighs 10 kgs will represent 5 kgs of the guests’
free baggage allowance, leaving 15 kgs for other items. "

So:
Pack up to 10 kg of the luggage into the bike box along with the bike as only
5kg of the TOTAL weight counts toward your 20 kg limit.

Separately pack the Bob into a bag large enough to hold the whole trailer
(wheel and towing hitch removed). As the bob is only 5 kg, you have room
for 10 kg of extra gear in the Bob's Bag.

Any extra luggage you can take in as carry-on as there is no limit.

I've traveled many times with Virgin Blue with an Xtracycle touring bike,
10 kg of luggage and carton of wine (result of my tour;-) without penalty.

Skewer.

Russell King said:

I am planning a ride next yeat from Sydney to Melbourne and am looking
for some advice getting 2 bikes with loaded BOB trailers from melb to
sydney.

The loaded BOB and bike will probably weigh in at around 40kg (15kg
for the bike, 5 and a bit for trailer and 20kg of gear)

The situation with excess baggage on the air lines seems to up in the
air (pun intended) at the moment and I am sure I would be over weight.

The other options I have considered but not yet investigated include;

1) bus

2 Train

3) courier bike and trailer to sydney and fly

Any help/suggestions greatly appreciated.
loose maps to reply

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

Quoted message said:

I am planning a ride next yeat from Sydney to Melbourne and am looking
for some advice getting 2 bikes with loaded BOB trailers from melb to
sydney.

The loaded BOB and bike will probably weigh in at around 40kg (15kg
for the bike, 5 and a bit for trailer and 20kg of gear)

The situation with excess baggage on the air lines seems to up in the
air (pun intended) at the moment and I am sure I would be over weight.

The other options I have considered but not yet investigated include;

1) bus

2 Train

3) courier bike and trailer to sydney and fly

Any help/suggestions greatly appreciated.

Panniers are not an option? The extra weight and bulk of a BOB trailer tends
to complicate the transport options. I really think that an air flight may
be your best option, unless the furniture van hitch-hiking can be made to
work. Load the bikes on, pay the excess and sit back.

Trains: the XPT will take a max of 2 bikes per train, as long as you book
it, and the bikes are boxed. Truly sucks. They'd probably have a coronary
over a BOB. But I did at least manage to load my bike without pulling out
the wheels (front wheel sticking out of taped up box end) despite all sorts
of dire prophecies by the freight officer at Murwillumbah.

Bus: you are totally at the whim of the "coach captain". If he likes you
there's often heaps of room. Good luck.

Courier: Do you want to help me pay off my home loan?

Cheers
Peter

geoffs said:

Just curious but why are you taking so much gear? We head for 6 weeks
of touring in France and Austria next week.

Umm, my guess is that Australia isn't France or Austria and they going
to need to carry a few days food.

quote='Terry Collins'geoffs said:

Just curious but why are you taking so much gear? We head for 6 weeks
of touring in France and Austria next week.

Umm, my guess is that Australia isn't France or Austria and they going
to need to carry a few days food.[/QUOTE]
I am not sure wether being de-cerebrated is a treatable condition Terry but I wish you all the best 🙂
I am sure that Russell wouldn't feel the need to ship a few days supply of food by air.
Sydney even has Coles and Woolworths and all sort of places to shop 😄

We were cycling around Victoria for most of December but never to far off the beaten track. We flew both ways via Virgin Blue and found them excellent to deal with. We rode to and from the airport relying on the bike boxes that were available from Virgin Blue. We use a tandem which takes to bike boxes taped together. Max weight allowable is 34kgs per box.