Travelling overseas with a bicycle

[DavidE373]

Hi all,

I'll be immigrating to Toronto soon and wondered if anyone has experience in taking their bikes with. Ideally, I want to take both my road and mountain bike with me, assume having my indoor trainer packed up is a bit too much.

At this point, I am looking at taking both bikes to a bike shop to have them packed up in cardboard bike boxes. 

My family will only join me early next year, so I don't want to wait for a container, my road bike absolutely has to go with me!

Does anyone have any idea on costs? I am assuming I would check my bikes in as additional luggage and pay for the extra weight etc. 

Please share your experiences if you can..

 

[Spirog]

Whatever you do, ensure that you're insured properly. Emirates smashed my BMC on the way back from Europe and had zero interest in helping me afterwards. 

[Nico van Loggerenberg]

Hey David, I'm going to be going through the same trip to Toronto some time in the next half a year. From what I've read and heard, shipping can be very slow, and you could wait 6 months for your boxes. Another friend paid for extra baggage, 24kg per package, and I've heard that this will cover 2 bikes carefully disassembled in a cardboard box. Let me know what you find !

[DavidE373]

9 minutes ago, Nico van Loggerenberg said:

Hey David, I'm going to be going through the same trip to Toronto some time in the next half a year. From what I've read and heard, shipping can be very slow, and you could wait 6 months for your boxes. Another friend paid for extra baggage, 24kg per package, and I've heard that this will cover 2 bikes carefully disassembled in a cardboard box. Let me know what you find !

Shipping may be slower now due to congestion at Durban harbour. At this rate it may be easier to sell up here and buy a new/second hand bike in Canada. The issue with that is that my bike is old and not really worth selling.

[Nico van Loggerenberg]

3 minutes ago, DavidE373 said:

Shipping may be slower now due to congestion at Durban harbour. At this rate it may be easier to sell up here and buy a new/second hand bike in Canada. The issue with that is that my bike is old and not really worth selling.

From what I've seen online, bikes are much more expensive that side - replacing my bikes would carry something like a 30% penalty, so personally I'm thinking of doing the extra bag at the airport thing.

[The Ouzo]

[comic sans]

just remember to do the left hand drive conversion when you get there

[/comic sans]

[Jan Myburgh]

I havent flown international yet, but I have done many domestic flights with my mtb. For domestic flights the cost vary but its not a lot, around R200 or so. The bag is checked as sporting goods. I use a Biknd Jetpack bike bag. I can highly recommend it. It is not as cheap as a box, but I think it offers more protection and you can use it many times over. Packing and unpacking takes 30 minutes. Pretty convenient. 

[esCape-ist]

Just check the airline policy. This varies widely across the industry, some airlines being very accomodating and others being happy to rip you a new one for excess baggage/sport equipment charges.

As for the process, it's really no real hassle to fly with a bike. Arrive a little earlier to make sure check in goes smoothly. At OR Tambo, the bike box gets checked in with your regular luggage, but at Cape Town, the check in counter will give you all the relevant tags, and then you need to go back downstairs to the “non-conveyable luggage” drop off to hand in the bike box, so budget a bit of time for this.

Also, make sure they check your luggage through to the final destination. Saves you the hassle of needing to lug your bike box around during lay-overs.

[DavidE373]

On 7/24/2022 at 8:21 PM, Jan Myburgh said:

I havent flown international yet, but I have done many domestic flights with my mtb. For domestic flights the cost vary but its not a lot, around R200 or so. The bag is checked as sporting goods. I use a Biknd Jetpack bike bag. I can highly recommend it. It is not as cheap as a box, but I think it offers more protection and you can use it many times over. Packing and unpacking takes 30 minutes. Pretty convenient. 

Thanks. I'll skip on the fancy bike boxes and bags and will have to resort to a bike box from a local bike shop. I'll only need to box the bike once so it makes little sense to spend a lot of money on a hard shell case or bike bag.

[DavidE373]

1 hour ago, esCape-ist said:

Just check the airline policy. This varies widely across the industry, some airlines being very accomodating and others being happy to rip you a new one for excess baggage/sport equipment charges.

As for the process, it's really no real hassle to fly with a bike. Arrive a little earlier to make sure check in goes smoothly. At OR Tambo, the bike box gets checked in with your regular luggage, but at Cape Town, the check in counter will give you all the relevant tags, and then you need to go back downstairs to the “non-conveyable luggage” drop off to hand in the bike box, so budget a bit of time for this.

Also, make sure they check your luggage through to the final destination. Saves you the hassle of needing to lug your bike box around during lay-overs.

Thank you, this is useful. From what I can see, I'll simply have to pay for the additional weight (as I'll be over my allocated 20kg) and check the bike in as luggage, as you said.

[esCape-ist]

Yeah, generally pretty straightforward. 20Kg for an international flight is pretty limited though. If your tickets aren't booked yet, consider looking at Qatar or Emirates - you might end up with a crappy lay over, but the luggage allowance is a lot more generous

[dirtypot]

I've flown overseas many times with my bikes, but I always check the sporting goods allowance for the various airlines before booking tickets.  If you look around a bit you'll usually find one where its either free (additional to your normal luggage allowance too in some cases) or cheap to add on the extra item.  Make sure its all sorted out in advance though and you're not paying a per kilogram penalty at the check-in counter! 
If you're only using a normal cardboard bike box then make sure you use a lot of additional packing material.  I've seen my bike in its Evoc bag being severely mistreated by airline staff twice in the past, and that's just because it caught my eye as I was passing...  

[Nico van Loggerenberg]

Had a quick look at Air Canada, which seems to be a fast and affordable airline for the Toronto route, and it seems like you get 2 x 32kg bags with your ticket - one of these should be fine for a bike. If not, it's 50CAD extra which seems reasonable. 

[Robrider]

I'm also in this boat. 

Looking at going to Toronto with 2 bikes in the next few months. I'd also like to either take it with or send it at the same time. So please keep updating on your progress...

I haven't done any research just yet. I think for the flights I saw, it was 2x23kg and options for excess luggage. 23kg should cover both bikes. Would 2 bike boxes count as one checked in luggage?

Is there any way to send them separately (like courier) at a similar price to excess luggage?

[Sprockets]

Stick an airtag in the box or something along those lines. If your bike goes missing you can atleast have a chance of seeing where it is and help the airport staff figure it out too.

[dave303e]

8 minutes ago, Robrider said:

I'm also in this boat. 

Looking at going to Toronto with 2 bikes in the next few months. I'd also like to either take it with or send it at the same time. So please keep updating on your progress...

I haven't done any research just yet. I think for the flights I saw, it was 2x23kg and options for excess luggage. 23kg should cover both bikes. Would 2 bike boxes count as one checked in luggage?

Is there any way to send them separately (like courier) at a similar price to excess luggage?

No way you will get 2 bikes boxed for under 23kg in my honest opinion and from my experience...

The locally made and really solid travel bikebox is 5kg. Cardboard ones are like 3 ish from my guess. Then you add in a bit of bubble wrap, some extra protection, a rag here and there, a pool noodle and then a helmet and a pair of cleats and it all adds up fast.