Traveling with Your Bike

I have traveled all over creation with my bike. To races, to fun rides, and even on vacation! Most of the time I have to fly to get to the race and at first I hated packing my bike. Well, let’s be honest…I still don’t like packing my bike. However I have done it for so long now that I have a system that works well for me and takes me about 15 minutes per bike. Not bad considering in the beginning it used to take me nearly an hour! I think the reason it took me so long is because I didn’t have a system and I would do things in the wrong order, which would slow the process down. So I am going to take you through the steps so that packing your bike won’t be quite as daunting as it sounds.

The first thing you need is a box to put your mountain or road bike in. You can call your local bike shop and ask if they have any spare boxes lying around. They usually put bikes together on a certain day and then put all the boxes out by their dumpster.

I used to have a BikePro bike case. You can either buy a BikePro made for one bike or two. The sides of it are soft and the bottom is hard and has wheels so you can roll it. The problem is that if you have a double-wide (2 bikes) like I did you tend to then throw in your pads, shoes, tools, etc. and then the case feels like your hauling around a small family! And without a doubt the airline would not only charge me a fee for the bike, but another excess weight fee. No bueno! Besides the way those baggage handlers somehow fling your 300 lb. bike case around your wheels on the bottom get bent easily. So in the past few years I just used regular cardboard bike boxes and they have worked well.

When I get the bike box the first thing I do is use duct tape and tape up the bottom corners really good. In the beginning I didn’t do that and I’d get all they way to Vermont and be missing a shoe because the box got wet and the corner had a hole in it. :( Once you inspect the box and tape the corners you are ready to start packing.

Here is a picture of some of the things you will need when packing your bike properly. And just to remind you these are the tools I need for my Shimano parts. You may need a different disc brake tool if you use Hayes or Avid brakes.



Tools:

1. The first sets of tools on your left are a set of Allen wrenches or hex tool. The most commonly used are the 4mm, 5mm, and 6mm.
2. The metal tool that is big on top and has a thin long metal point is a Shimano lock ring tool. You will need this to take off your rotor. This is only if you have disc brakes.
3. At the top is duct tape. You can NEVER have enough of it!
4. The two round plastic things are to put over your bike hub once you take the wheel out. It is to protect everything else in your bike box from getting scratched.
5. On the far right is a skewer that you will take out of your front wheel.
6. The orange funny plastic thing is to place between your brake pads so that if something pushes against your brake lever while in transit your brake pads won’t move and change the feel of your brakes. Be sure once you remove a wheel from your forks you do not pull your brake lever back.
7. The yellow plastic thing is for your seat tube. Sometimes you can leave your seat and post in and the box will still close, but if not you should put this plastic piece in it’s place so that no foreign objects fall inside your seat tube. If so then you might have something rattling in there forever!
8. Towards the bottom the long black plastic thing is to insert at the bottom of your front forks. Once you take your front wheel out this piece fits nice and snug into your forks and protects your forks from being bent if something heavy is placed on the box while in transit.
9. The last thing is a 15 mm pedal wrench. You may not need this is you can take your pedals of and on with an Allen key.
10. Not in the picture – A wrench and either bubble wrap or some kind of padding for your frame.


Whew! Okay now how to take your bike apart. I’ll try to break it down as easily as possible in steps.

Step 1 – First shift your gear in the back and put it all the way to the smallest cog. You want to do this so your chain doesn’t have any extra stress on it for the long travel.
Step 2 – Take your pedals off. An easy way to do this is to have your 15 mm pedal wrench and be looking down at your pedal as though you were going to ride your bike. Put the wrench on and push down. Remember righty tighty lefty loosy.
Step 3– Take the front wheel off by loosening your skewer.
Step 4 – Take the skewer completely out of the wheel and set aside. Right after that take your Shimano lock ring tool and a wrench and place the long part of the tool into the hub on the disc brake side. Use the wrench to loosen the disc. Take the disc off, but place the extra ring back on and tighten just a little.
Step 5 – I usually put my bike in the bike rack now. I place the orange plastic thing between my brake pads in front and I put the black plastic thing on my forks where my skewer was. Then I start taping bubble wrap all around my frame so that it doesn’t get scratched. I bubble wrap my forks as well.
Step 6 – Now I take the bike out of the rack and take the seat post out and insert the yellow plastic thing in my seat tube. Then I put the black round plastic things over my hubs on both my front wheel which is off of my bike AND my back wheel, which I leave ON my bike.
Step 7 – I take the correct size Allen key, which could either be a 4mm or a 5mm and loosen my headset. When looking down at your stem you will see a directly on top and then usually two bolts on the side of your stem. I loosen the top bold first and then the two bolts on the side. I then take out the bolt on top and take off any shims that are there and slide the stem off. I then place the shims and bolt back in the top of the steerer tube (the tube that is left exposed) and tighten it up. Then I tighten back up the side bolts that are on the stem just enough so they don’t fall out. Remember when putting your bike back together on the other end that you know how many shims were either on top or below your stem. That can change the height of your handlebars and is important.
Step 8 – So now your bike is ready to put in the box. The handlebars are dangling and that’s okay. Open the box up and place the bike in evenly and with the forks turned backwards. Place the loose handlebars to one of the sides and try not to get the cables too twisted.
Step 9 – Now go back to your front wheel that is over to the side. If you can try to find two small pieces of flat cardboard and tape your loose disc brake in between nice and snug. It is important that your disc brakes DON’T get bent.
Step 10 – Find a nice little bag you can carry excess stuff in and put the disc brake and your skewer from the font wheel.
Step 11 – Now go back to the bike box and while looking down at the bike as it’s forward reach down and pull your left crank up so that it is pointing upward, but forward as well. Take your front wheel and carefully push it down into the box with the crank arm going through the spokes. Don’t jam it on there so that you bend your spokes. It should fit snug though. If you put the wheel in that way the box won’t bow out too much on the sides.
Step 12 – Now you can put your excess bag of stuff, tools, tubes, etc. that you want to put in there. Remember airlines have a weight policy so don’t get too carried away. You should go online to find out their individual policies. **A little reminder to NOT put your bike shoes in your bike box. More often then not these days the airline seems to lose bike boxes. Not sure why as they are so darn big! But with specific shoe sizes and cleats if you get to the mountain w/o your bike maybe you can at least ride someone else’s bike.
Step 13 – Once you’re done close it up and use packing tape and again make sure the corners are taped up nicely.


Now just so you know, some people pack their bikes differently. This is what has worked for me in the past. Some people like to take both wheels off and their fork, but that’s just too much for me.

Good luck and safe travels!!
Tara