The things you should take when travel with your bike

Tag : Food Packing Box

Once these bits are bubble wrapped and packed in it's a matter offitting anything else that's light and compact into the spaces sothere are no voids left. In go the bike shoes, helmet in a pod,trainers, bags of energy food and all the bottles. Once the caselooks like the picture on the right a sheet of corrugated cardboardcut from an old bike box acts as a separator between the frame andthe wheels and the case gets closed up.
One thing that you don't put in the box are CO2 canisters - notunless you want to be unpacking your box at the airport.Technically the regulation is nonsense - the risk of a CO2 canisterexploding is about as likely as you winning the lottery - and someflights will let you get away with it but all it takes is oneofficious inspector and its bits and pieces all over the floor asthey make you take the whole thing to bits.
After some experience with boxes going abroad I now secure ourswith heavy duty zip ties - I have drilled holes through the handlesto take extra ones. While using the combination locks or padlockswill give an illusion of security - if someone wants to get in theywill rip these off anyway, wrecking the box in the process - if youare flying to the USA you should use the new approved ones that theinspectors can open or they will cut them off anyway! You shouldalso use duct tape over the catches as these are the mostvulnerable parts and early Sci-Cons did tend to get them whackedoff it they weren't protected. Wheels are the other vulnerable area- you can tell a rental fleet Sci-Con by the fact that it hasgenerally lost a wheel or two... ...that's why airports providebaggage trolleys!
If you do detect any damage to the case when you arrive you shouldimmediately photograph it and report it to the baggage handlingpeople. Once you are out of the baggage hall you won't have a hopeof putting in a claim so better to start the process and then dropit than not start it at all. If the frame is packed out well withsoft material between it and the case the risk of damage inside issmall - and this is where bags can let you down as you often cannotdetect any damage to the outer which might alert you to the cargoinside being compromised. That said, in the main, baggage handlersseem to be aware that bikes are a) delicate and b) expensive and solikely to cause them more hassle than they need if they damagethem. A horde of angry triathletes is a fearsome prospect at thebest of times. And, after all, you did insure the thing......didn't you? Remember that if you hired the bike box you areresponsible for it and given that the good ones run to severalhundred pounds a pop it's worth making sure that it's covered.