Packing Your Bicycle for a Flight – Everything You Need To Know

Feeling the call of new trails and better blacktop, or simply want to experience somewhere new at pedal pace? Tim flew with his gravel bike to Adelaide and tackled the intimidating but surprisingly simple task of packing, shipping, and rebuilding his bike.

There are many reasons to fly your own bike instead of renting one when you arrive. There are obvious ones, like the cost (it’s likely far cheaper), making the most of all the gear you’ve sunk cash into, and the fit you’ve dialled in.

And then there’s the more subtle joy that comes from it being your bike. Not only are you probably bloody proud of it, but you want to make memories with it that stay with you on rides back home.

But this raises a new problem: how do you ship your baby without it getting damaged? We’ve all seen videos of luggage getting absolutely manhandled by security, broken surfboards, or even cracked carbon fibre bike frames if your algorithm has really honed in on your fears.

Even if you’ve got a big steel frame steed that’s on the right side of bombproof, you might be unsure how to pull it apart and put it together again in working order. I know I was. But I did it and you can too.

By the third strip down and rebuild I kinda knew what I was doing! | @jackjbrookes

The Journey to RADL GRVL

The reason I jumped into the deep end was a gravel bike race in Adelaide called RADL GRVL. WAE Head of Brand & Community, Jack Brookes, lives in Port Willunga, about 40 minutes south of the city and 20 minutes from the starting line, and is a keen rider himself thanks to the exquisite country backroads in the Adelaide Hills.

You can almost hear the cork popping on the champagne gravel.

Anyway, I recruited my keen gravel riding mate Sam and we set about making a plan. We both have carbon fibre framed bikes – a Focus Atlas 8.9 for me and a Canyon Grail for Sam – making protection a high priority, yet we succeeded with very different approaches.

Sam’s cheap box and my much more expensive reusable case

Bike Box or Bike Carry Case?

When you ship a bike on a flight it’s treated as a piece of oversized luggage, but it needs to be in a box or case of some sort (this article would be a lot shorter if they’d just let me wheel it down the aisle).

Just a bit bigger than my carry on | @jackjbrookes

A Cardboard Bike Box

The cheapest option is to simply use a cardboard box that fits your bike. You can use an old box from a bike store (which they might give you for free), buy one from the airport itself or Kennards Self Storage. Sam bought one from Kennards for $34.90 and it was nice and tough with useful handles.

Hot tip: Your choice may depend on whether you need to box for the return journey. Many bikepackers choose this method as they can recycle the box and buy another at the end of their journey.

A Hard Case

A tougher option is a hard shell case. They look like something you’d put a tuba or a trombone in, with a strange shape, wheels, and generally lockable clasps. 

This is the gold standard of protection but you’ll need to make sure it fits your bike as there’s very little flex, and will need somewhere to store it both at your destination and at home. 

Like most bike things, prices start at a few hundred bucks and go up to a few grand, and you’ll probably want to spend closer to a grand to get something reliable that lasts.

They sometimes include a bike stand to help with the rebuild.

If you’re doing this often a bike stand is going to make life heaps easier | @jackjbrookes

A Soft or Semi-Hard Case

We saw a lot of these in the airport with people flying down for our race and other Tour Down Under festivities. They have a mix of padded fabric and hard protection and come in a dizzying array of configurations, including some that don’t force you to turn or remove your handlebars.

The wheels and workstand legs offer extra protection and structure in semi-hard cases | @jackjbrookes

I was using this style in the form of the Thule RoundTrip, which Thule kindly sent me for this trip and article. You’ll probs know Thule as a top tier roof and bike rack maker from Sweden, and the RoundTrip follows that approach with an incredibly well-thought out bag.

Highlights of this style of bag are that they fold down for storage (the RoundTrip becomes incredibly slim) and maintain some of the benefits of the hard cases, like wheels and inbuilt bike stands.

The Thule RoundTrip packs up small, which is great in my small apartment

Preparing Your Bike for a Flight

Do a Practice Run

The first thing you should do is a practice run like we did.

What you shouldn’t do, is try and get the pedals off, slip, cut your forearm open on the front chainring, and go to hospital for seven stitches like Sam did almost immediately.

Yeah, good thanks

The big rule with bikes is to never force anything. All of the parts you need to remove or loosen should not be tightened up to a ridiculous degree – as this can damage them. If you can’t loosen something after applying a decent amount of force you’re much better off calling a knowledgeable friend or taking it to a bike shop, than you are stripping the bolt or breaking anything.

Before you start, get acquainted with your bike and the tools you’ll need. See if you can find a manual online or even a YouTube video.

Mine came apart with a series of different sized Allen keys. While these may all be on your bike tool, it’s a lot easier with a longer handled tool like a ratchet.

Many bikes have their torque ratings listed on the bike, check yours and do any necessary research before you pull it apart

There’s a concept with bikes called ‘torquing to spec’ and it’s particularly important for carbon frames. Essentially the torque is how much pressure you apply when tightening. Many bikes have the torque listed where relevant – for example, a marking near the bottom of the seat post might say ‘5Nm’, which stands for ‘newton metre’.

The easiest way to get this right is to just use a torque wrench. I bought this one from Supercheap Auto and it’s been great – you simply dial in the torque you need and evenly apply pressure to the handle until it audibly clicks. I was surprised by how little pressure was needed for some parts.

I only needed four different sizes of allen key to disassemble the bike | @jackjbrookes

But which parts Tim? Here we go.

Pedals

Step one is to whip these off using a spanner, allen key, or pedal spanner. The pedal on the right hand side of the bike when you’re sitting on it loosens anticlockwise (righty tighty, lefty loosey), while the left hand pedal is the opposite.

I recommend doing this before you put the bike on a stand, as you can stand on each pedal to stabilise things while you’re loosening the other one, then remove both. Trying to remove them on a stand is how Sam got hurt.

Pro tip: Pack a little all purpose grease to dab on the threads before you replace the pedals, to ensure they don’t get stuck.

Put It on a Stand

If you have a stand available, now’s the time to get the bike up in the air as it’ll free up your hands. One benefit of the RoundTrip is that it comes with a collapsible stand that also clicks into the case to secure the bike, so rebuilding at the other end is a dream.

The stand keeps the bike safe and frees up your hands | @jackjbrookes

If not, asking a mate to help hold the bike steady and then returning the favour can be a good shout.

Seat Post

Before you remove the seat post, put a little tape around it to remember the height – you’ll thank yourself when you arrive and get it right first go! If any bolts come loose, put them in a ziplock bag, but your best bet is putting them back in the bike. In some cases you may just be able to lower the seat post fully, instead of removing it and securing it in the box.

Wheels

Now it’s time to get the wheels off. One thing that I highly recommend you buy is some brake pad spacers. These are small bits of plastic made for your model of brake, that prevent the pads closing together when there’s no brake disc in the middle.

Brake pads move in naturally over time as they wear and spacers prevent this happening if the handles are bumped or squeezed in transit.

Axle width options on the RoundTrip still fit my peculiar Road Boost spacing

The Thule RoundTrip had a stand I could bolt the axle through, which felt like it added some structure. If you remove your wheel axles, make sure you put them somewhere safe!

People generally put the wheels on either side of the bike as this adds a great deal of protection. It’s also best to deflate the tyres a little bit as the airlines ask you to, but you don’t need to flatten them.

Handlebars

So far so good right? The handlebars are the trickiest bit and they depend a lot more on your bike.

If you have a mountain bike with a flat bar you’ll be cheering. Loosen the bolts attaching it to the stem (the vertical bit) and turn it 90 degrees. If this won’t fit, you’ll need to tuck it away and secure it somewhere.

For a drop bar gravel or road bike it may be a bit trickier, especially if you have fancy internal cable routing that can be a fuss to pull apart. Give yourself the time to understand it, don’t force anything, and it should be fine though. My handlebar didn’t have enough cable length to fit the way Thule wanted, so it ended up hooking around the fork and sticking up a bit vertically, but it still fit because the soft bag had room to move.

Sam’s cardboard bike box was huge, so he had no problems here.

Derailleur

In many cases, you won’t have to remove this, just protect it (more on that in a bit). Mine stuck out a bit far so I made a note of how it was attached and removed it, along with the hanger, and hung it in a bag from the frame.

My shifter is electric with a removable battery, so I took that out and put a cover on, then took the battery on the flight. This is for safety but also stops it turning on repeatedly and wasting all the charge. However Sam’s can’t be removed so he had to leave it in. They’re small batteries, but it’s probably best to tell the staff ahead of time.

Protecting Your Bike

Ok so your bike’s in bits and you’ve got the tools to put it back together, how do you protect it?

For the cardboard box gang, you’re gonna want a lot of tape, bubble wrap and foam to secure things and protect anything vulnerable. If you’ve got a carbon bike you may go as far as getting hollow pool noodles and cutting them to the size of your top tube, downtube, seat tube, forks, seatstays, and chainstays (the two bits that connect to your back wheel).

Sam took the nuclear option, if your bike isn’t carbon you can probably get away with less

If you’re bikepacking – a big hack here is padding your bike out with clothes – you can even put your forks into your bike shoes to protect the ends. If you’re smart with this, you could get away with just a bike and carry on. On Virgin we didn’t have to pay an oversize baggage fee, we simply had to buy ‘enough’ baggage in terms of weight. 23kg was included and you could pay an excess up to 32kg, so naturally we kept our box to 22.9kg.

This is easier with a cardboard box as it weighs nothing. The Thule RoundTrip road case on the other hand weighs 12.5kg – more than my bike! – and didn’t leave much room for anything but a few tools and accessories.

On the plus side, the Thule RoundTrip came with a bunch of reusable wraps to secure the seat and handlebars to the bike, and then has inbuilt padding. This was all I used and my bike came out the other end just fine, which is nice and simple (and low impact) if you plan on travelling with your bike often.

The RoundTrip came with so much inbuilt padding that I didn’t use anything else | @jackjbrookes

Booking Baggage

This very much depends on the airline, so check who you’re flying with and their rules and regulations. Sam and I used our checked baggage for our bikes, and then I added a second bag (for around $80) which he added his stuff into at the airport (we packed light!).

On Virgin, oversize was included as part of your baggage, whereas on Jetstar you pay a separate oversize fee. Qantas also includes your oversize but excess baggage starts at $130, prepaid!

If you’re heading overseas you’ll likely need to do deeper research to ensure your bag or box suits regulations for all the carriers and flights it’s passing through, but generally if it’s well-packed and not over 23kg, it shouldn’t cause a problem.

A cardboard box is also far lighter than a 10-12kg bag, but a bit of a nightmare at the airport

Getting to the Airport

Honestly, I underestimated this bit. Bike boxes are BIG. The cardboard ones are particularly large and unwieldy, which is why some people prefer to do it at the airport – but at Sydney Airport that would’ve most definitely sucked.

You’ll probably get two stacked on top of each other into the back of a moderately-sized hatchback like a Corolla, or any station wagon, but that only works if you’re leaving the car at the airport. 

The RoundTrip taking up my entire Corolla boot with the rear seats down

When Jack picked us up in his Subaru Outback, we put the box on the roof and left the RoundTrip in the car, next to me in the back. When we parked in town, we put Sam’s box in the car, with mine on top of it, to prevent anything being stolen.

It’s just a faff that’s kind of fine if you’re solo but immediately difficult with two people and two bikes.

If I’d wanted to I could have wheeled the RoundTrip to the train station, but its wheels are really made for smooth airports, not suburban footpaths.

Note: Cardboard bike boxes will have holes for handles (or make new ones like Sam’s wheel did) so don’t put in anything small that you can’t afford to lose.

At the Airport

The advice is to arrive at least an hour before your domestic flight, longer if you’re going overseas. Honestly, take the stress out and give yourself plenty of time – you’ll probably need to find a staff member to assist you directly before you can take the bike box to the oversize counter.

If the staff are less rushed you might be able to get a fragile tag or tape attached to your bike box, which probably doesn’t do anything but at least it feels like you tried.

Worth a shot | @jackjbrookes

If you have a cardboard box you’ll need a trolley (which costs $5 at Sydney Airport for some reason?) to wheel it through the airport.

Pro tip: Turn the box vertical on the trolley to avoid hitting every bollard in your path.

The vertical approach is way easier to manage, just watch where you’re going!

If you have a case you’ll just wheel the bag along. The RoundTrip actually had a removable jockey wheel for the front so I could just push the whole thing along with one hand. It’s very chic.

Landing and Getting Your Bike

I put an AirTag in my bike bag in case it got lost, which mostly led to me checking that it made it onto the plane and to our destination about 15 times.

Simply head to the oversize area at baggage collection and wait for your bike to appear. Breathe a huge sigh of relief when it does, and another when you open up and see that it’s still in one piece.

The joy of riding in a new place 🥹 | @jackjbrookes

Later that day, breathe your third and final sigh as you pedal it away and realise it all still works. Happy riding!

Pro tip: Spend extra time making sure the seat and handlebars are straight. I didn’t and had to fix both.