A simple guide to packing (and unpacking) a touring bike for a flight

The most stressful part of bike touring can be getting the bike there and back.

One way of avoiding this is to rent a bike at your destination and for shorter trips of a week or less, this can work out cheaper and much easier. But it might be expensive for longer tours, might not be practical if you plan to return from a different city, and might limit what you can take and how you can take it in terms of bags, bike lights, locks and other mounted items. Personally I prefer to ride my own bike where I know how everything works and have had the bike professionally fitted.

I have written here about the options for transporting your bike. This is my guide for those who decide to fly with their bike. I estimate that I have taken my bike on 30 flights and through 16 airports, all within Europe. I’ve taken a bike with rim brakes and one with disc brakes.

And I’m still learning… Over the years, I have looked at a bunch of sites, with lots of different and contradictory pieces of advice. So the following is what I have learnt so far and what works for me.

What follows is a bit long but don’t worry: it doesn’t actually take too much time and is not very hard to do, and you don’t need any specialist bike knowledge. It just involves a bit of planning and preparation beforehand and calmness and patience when you actually do it.

This guide has two parts:

Packing your bike;
Reassembling it at your destination

Part One: packing your bike for travel

A month or so before you go

I have written here about the considerations and logistics of booking your bike on a flight.

A few weeks before you go, approach your local bike shop and ask them if you can take an old cardboard bike box.

Most bike shops are very happy to do this for free or ‘coffee money’, as all they do when they have received new bikes and assembled them is to chuck the boxes away. In Belgium at least, Tuesday morning is usually the best day to pick one up as they tend to get the new bikes on Mondays.

Try to get one that is ‘standard’ size – 135-140 cm in length, 75cm in height, 20 cm in depth or close to that, so that your bike fits tightly. Some airlines will ask/insist about this. You might want to bring a tape measure to be sure. If worse comes to worst, you can always cut a bike box down to size or pack it with additional materials such as egg boxes.

If you are going to return from a different city, it is worth identifying a bike shop there and emailing or calling them to ask they can reserve a bike box for you. I look for shops with good reviews, ideally some of them in English.

The only city I had difficulties with was Prague, where several bike shops did not even reply, and the one that did, charged me about 10 Euros for the privilege and had forgotten about it when I finally turned up. Luckily, they rustled one up and I spent ten very amusing minutes walking through central Prague with an empty bike box.

It is not a bad idea to take your bike for a check-up about a month before you go unless it is new or was repaired recently. They should check the chain, spokes, brakes and tire treads.

While you are at the bike shop, you could also ask them whether they have other protective materials left over for packing. Of particular value is a derailleur protector/ shield. They will know what to give you.

If you have rim brakes, you should ask them whether they have a plastic spacer for the front forks. This is to stop them bending or getting twisted. If you have disc brakes, you should ask them for a protective padding for the disc brakes and a spacer/mount. It is a different type – see below. When I am using the bike with rim brakes, I take the spacer, remove the skewer from the front wheel and use that.

The latter two look like this:

One thing to avoid

When I started touring, I used a reusable transparent bike bag, having read on the Internet that this would actually lead to better treatment of the bike because baggage handlers would see that it was a bike and take better care of it. In my experience, this is rubbish. After nearly having had my trip from Sofia to Istanbul jeopardised by a crushed derailleur (and only saved by an extremely nice bike mechanic in Sofia), I switched to cardboard bike boxes and have not looked back (though note my comments below.)

A week before you go

A week or two before you go, head to your local hardware/DIY store and pick up the following:

A roll of bubble wrap
A few lengths of foam pipe cladding
A bag of plastic cable/ zip ties of a decent length
A roll of electrical tape
A roll of duct tape
A small length of bungee cord

Packing the bike

Finally! I recommend that you pack your bike at least a few days before you travel and ideally at a time when shops are still open – and especially bike shops – just in case you need to run out and get something or have a mechanic help in an emergency.

If you have recently had your bike fixed or checked, you might find that they have over-tightened the pedals, making them near impossible to budge. This is one reason why I pack the bike at a time when bike shops are open just in case, though these days, I specify with the bike mechanic when I pick up the bike from its service and get them to check.

I recommend setting aside about 2-3 hours and finding a clean space where you can put things aside. This is something that you want to do slowly and carefully.

As well as all the above materials, you will need:

A multi-tool/ set of Allen keys
An adjustable spanner
Oil and grease,
A rag
a knife,
scissors,
some freezer bags
a marker pen.
your phone/camera

If you use a tool or material when packing your bike, you will need to have it (or a substitute) with you when you unpack it at the other side and when you repack at the end of your trip (or be sure that your hotel will have one). It does not need to be the same tool but close enough, so for instance, when I pack at home, I use kitchen scissors and a Stanley knife, but when on my trip, I substitute with a small pair of medical scissors and a penknife.

I use the camera to record every major move and for instance, the position of the saddle, handlebars and other adjustables.

Ready to go? Start by taking a bunch of pictures of your bike from both sides, from the front (and specifically the position and tilt of the handlebars), the rear gears and derailleur and the seat post.

1. Lower your gears to the minimum on both sides

Simple reason for this: it means that the derailleurs – gear changers – are as protected as possible (see below).

2. If your bike has disc brakes: loosen the skewers

The reason why I suggest doing this now is that sometimes, you will find that they get stuck or have been over-tightened by the shop. Best to find this out now before you dismantle everything else or go travelling. I had this happen the last time that I dismantled the bike. Luckily, squirting some WD40 and leaving it for 10 minutes to soak in allowed me to unscrew the skewer. If not, you need to find your nearest bike shop and get them to unscrew. I would check both wheels, but not actually unscrew them. You will not be removing the rear wheel but it is best to check this before you head out on the road as you don’t want to have this problem when you are trying to fix a flat tire.

3. Remove the pedals

Here is an interesting thing that I did not know until a few years ago: you don’t – usually – need a spanner to remove pedals…

If you look at the crank – that is the ‘arm’ sticking out from the big chainwheel at bottom centre of your bike –the hole that the pedal screws might go through to the other side and fit a thick Allen key – roughly 6mm for my touring bikes – so you can unscrew the pedals from the side furthest away from you rather than using a spanner on the near side.

A simple rule with screwing and unscrewing pedals: you tighten by screwing in the direction that you pedal and you loosen by screwing in the reverse direction. So for the pedal on the left hand side of the bike, you loosen by turning clockwise, and on the right by turning anticlockwise.

Having removed the pedals, wrap them in bubble wrap, and put them in a plastic bag. Out of caution, I used to take them with me as part of my hand luggage, pulling them out when I go through the airport X-ray machines. These days, I tend to tie them to the top bar right at the end of my packing. If anything is going to fall out, it will more likely be the seat.

4. Remove any bells and mounts

This is much simpler. Unscrew all your mounts: bike bell, light, GPS, bottle holders etc. so that they don’t get bashed/ get in the way. Put the mounts in a freezer bag to take with you in your luggage.

With the bottle holder screws and any other screws such as for seat post, pannier rack and handlebars, as soon as I have removed the bottle holder, I screw them back in though not too tightly.

5. Fit padding onto frame

This is where those lengths of foam pipe cladding and cable ties come in. They are ideal for wrapping round the frame to protect it. I use a mixture of duct tape and cable ties to secure them in place. With the cable ties, do NOT tighten them as far as they will go. When you unpack the back, you will need a little bit of space to cut them without damaging the frame. And you may be using a Swiss Army knife at that point.

Start with the three core parts of the frame – the top tube, the down tube and the seat tube – and then move to the other parts of the frame though leaving the front forks until you have removed the front wheel. If you will be re-using the box and padding, mark each part so that you remember which bit you used when you repack at the end of your trip.

6. Remove the front wheel

OK, this bit is slightly different according to which type of brake you have.

If you have cantilever rim brakes, start by releasing the wheel release mechanism.

Then turn the bike upside down. Then flip and unscrew anticlockwise the quick release mechanism: the golf club-shaped lever that sits on the left hand side of the hub of the wheel. For the time being, you don’t need to unscrew it all the way: just enough to loosen the wheel enough that it comes out of the forks. Remove the wheel and unscrew the quick release skewer all the way and pull it out of the wheel, replacing the nut loosely on it and then wrapping in a bit of bubble wrap and packing with the mounts.

If you have a fork spacer, fit it now.

If you have disc brakes, it is even simpler. Turn the bike upside down, and unscrew the skewer. Gently remove the wheel, which will come out easily.

Then, take the weird brake spacer and plug it in between the brake pads, inserting the narrow bit, with the wider bit sticking out so that you can remove it when you unpack. Screw the skewer back in, and put the spacer block on top of it (so that when you turn the bike up the proper way, it will be sitting underneath the skewer. Use a cable tie to fix it in place.

If you have a front mudguard, this is the time to remove it.

Then wrap the forks (and disc brake if appropriate) with pipe cladding and/or bubble wrap. They can easily get damaged in the box so wrap them nicely. If using disc brakes, wrap the disc in some bubble wrap.

7. Remove pannier rack and seat

Sometimes the pannier rack will fit in the box without needing to be removed, but most times it doesn’t. Unscrew the bolts, remove the pannier rack, and then rescrew the bolts loosely. Wrap the ends of the rack and the top in bubble wrap/cardboard.

With the seat, before removing it, cut a small bit of plastic or cardboard to the length of the gap between the seat fitting to where it fits in the seat tube (see picture). Take a photo and put the plastic/cardboard in your purse, wallet or handlebar bag. This allows you to set the seat at the right height when unpacking. While on the road, it also allows you to check whether the seat is slipping or not and if so, to refit it and tighten the bolt.

8. Deflate tires

This is a bit of silliness that most airlines insist on even though it makes little difference. Half-deflate both tires so that they are soft enough that an overzealous airline will be satisfied in the unlikely event that they check. You don’t need to go all the way and you want them to have a little air in them to pad them and to save you some effort when you have to pump them up again.

9. Remove and turn the handlebars

Now the bit that always makes me nervous because I once screwed it up, even though it should be easy: removing and turning the handlebars.

First, if you have not done so already, take a few photos, including a side-on view of the handlebars.

Second, cut two small strips of electrical tape and apply them evenly either side of the handlebar clamp (the bit that holds the handlebars onto the front stem of the bike). Note where the clamp bracket screws on (i.e. where there is a little gap) and mark it with the marker pen on both sides.

Fetch the small bungee cord and loosely hang it on the top tube – as you will need it quickly.

Start to unscrew the four screws holding the clamp bracket in place. I tend to loosen each one a little to start before unscrewing them in turn, ending with one of the top ones. Put them in a safe and close place.

Remove the clamp and immediately take the handlebars to the left and hang them over the top tube, using the bungee cord to loosely hold them in place and being careful not to twist the gear cables.

Fix the clamp back on, using the screws. Again, do this by hand: no need to over-tighten: just enough that they do not come off.

Gently turn the forks clockwise 180 degrees – or near enough – so that the handlebar holder is turned towards the back of the bike. When you come to fit the handlebars and put the bike into the box, you will find that they turn slightly. See the picture below.

Nearly there…

10. Wrap derailleur and everything else

At this point, most bike mechanics would advise you to remove the rear derailleur and wrap it up safely. If you feel up to that, go ahead. There are plenty of videos on how to do it and it reduces one potential risk. You could ask your local bike shop to show you.

I have to confess that I don’t, no matter how many times I have looked at the video. I think that I would end up doing damage to the bike or never being able to put it back again.

So having lowered the gears, I wrap the derailleur with as much bubble wrap and other protection as I can manage so that it is as snug as a bug in a particularly comfortable bed. If you can, get hold of a protector as seen in the picture. Your bike shop should have some. You attach this to the hole where the wheel skewer fits. It just gives a bit more protection.

I also put more wrapping on anything else that seems vaguely vulnerable, using whatever bubble wrap and pipe cladding I have leftover. You do not want to overdo it or you will never fit the bike in the box, and you run the risk of customs or security officials at the airport not being able to see clearly what is in the box and opening up the box to take a look. Believe me, this has happened a few times.

11. Put bike in box

Enfin. The big moment. Start by using some duct tape to cover the bottom of the bike box so that even if there is some rain while it is being loaded onto the plane, the box still holds together. I use quite a lot.

Remove the handlebars from where they are hanging and if possible, fit them between the front forks, using the bungee cord to loosely hold them in place (see below). Ideally they should both fit between the forks, but you might need to have one of them over the top of the bike. Play around but do NOT force anything.

Gently lower the bike into the box, starting with the rear wheel and then the front forks. You need to fiddle around a little bit including with the handlebars so that they fit, but DO NOT FORCE ANYTHING. This is why I use the bungee cord rather than a cable tie, to give myself a little bit of movement. Ideally, get someone else to hold the box open.

Gently lower the front wheel into the box so that it slightly fits in the gap in the frame. I tend to put it on the opposite side of the bike to the gears. If using a disc brake wheel, I would put the side with the disc on the inside of the box so that it is more protected.

Fit the seat post and rear pannier rack if possible and mudguard if appropriate. I also jam in a bit of extra padding round the rear wheel if possible to give the derailleur extra protection. Don’t overdo it with the padding for reasons set out below.

What about the pedals? Some sites suggest taking them with you in your main/hand luggage just in case your bike box gets ripped. I used to do this – and got some odd looks when going through airport screening – but these days I put them in a tough plastic bag and try to fix them to the top of the bike. If your box is going to get ripped – and so far, I have had only minor tears around the handling holes at the top – your bike seat and everything else is going to drop out too. So far, that has worked.

Finally, put in your bike bottles, with two of them in the removed bottle cages, and your helmet, putting it on the same side as the derailleur so that it pads out that side a bit more and gives yet more protection to the derailleur.

Then close the box and seal it with the duct tape.

On the side of the box that the derailleur is on and on the top of the box, use the marker to write such things as “Fragile: bicycle” (possibly in the languages of the country you are leaving from and leaving for, your name and phone number and the flight number and date.

Remember to pack the duct tape, electrical tape and some spare cable ties for the return journey, together with some grease, oil, and the mounts and other parts that you removed from the bike in the bag that you will check in.

12. The day itself

Whenever possible, I try to take the bike to the airport myself using a share car. If not, I try to call a taxi company and tell them that I will need a car or minivan large enough for a bike box or book a large Uber. The last thing that you want is for a taxi or Uber to turn up and refuse to take the bike. It has happened to me.

When loading the bike and when handing it over at the airport, if it has to be turned on its side, I make sure that the part with the derailleur is always on the upside.

When travelling to/from Oslo airport, given the exorbitant cost of taxis, I was forced to take the bike on the airport train, taking a small foldable trolley that I packed in my suitcase for the flight. It just about worked for the five minute haul of my bike from the central station to adjacent hotel, but I certainly would not have wanted to lug it and my suitcase for much further. Still, it saved me about £100 each way, so was worth the inconvenience and odd looks.

At the airport, having navigated round with a trolley and got to the check in desk, I usually find that they weigh it and then tell me to take it to the large baggage desk. When they stick the baggage tag on it, I ask that they put it on the side with the derailleur on, again so that this is placed upwards.

One final word here: after you have parted with your precious bike, it will usually go through two sets of baggage handlers and two sets of customs officials. Both tend to be underpaid and overworked… Baggage handlers might not treat your precious bike like Ming china and customs officers when presented with a large box marked “Fragile: bicycle”, often think “Hmmm…. I wonder if that’s really a shipment of cocaine or some explosives. I’d better check”. On a number of occasions, my bike has arrived at the other side with large holes torn into the box as a result of careless treatment/ a customs officer wanting to take a better look at the contents.

There is nothing that you can do about this and it would be difficult to prove that it was the airline’s fault. This is why I try to leave at least half a day spare between arrival and setting off just in case I need to go to a bike mechanic and to book a hotel close to a bike shop. But please take heart: since I started using bike boxes and worked out how to protect the bike, I have had no damage to my bikes and have found taking it on planes to be considerably simpler than taking on cross-border trains even if it does take more time.

Part Two: reassembling your bike at your destination

Over the years, I have put my bike back together in airport terminals, car parks both inside and outside, hotel rooms, hotel corridors, hotel luggage rooms and quite often, a quiet part of a hotel lobby.

A sense of humour, lots of patience and the ability to withstand odd looks and funny comments from passers-by are essential. I take the bike box, my tools and a rag and bottle of water, and slowly get on with it. Hotel staff have seen stranger things…

1. Inflate tires

If you are doing this in a hotel room/airport, then the chances are that you will be using a hand pump. Unless you feel super-strong, I would pump them until they are reasonably hard and then take them to a bike shop when the bike is fully assembled and ask to use a foot pump. Usually bike mechanics grunt a bit but then consent.

2. Remove padding

Do this gently, so that you can re-use as much as possible. If I am doing an A to B trip, I tend to compress all the packing materials into a bag that I tie with the bungee cord. If not, I shove them in my luggage or the bike box.

This is the point to remove the spacers from the front forks and disc brakes and put them somewhere safe: possibly the bag that you put the bell and mounts in.

3. Replace front wheel

If you are using rim brakes, now is the point to stick the skewer back through the front wheel. The quick release lever should be on the left of the bike – the opposite side to the gears. With disc brake wheels, you will obviously want to remove the skewer at this point, keeping it in your hand.

If you have a front mudguard, this is the time to refit it.

Turn the bike upside down gently.

A minor but important point is to put the wheel in the right way. With disc brake wheels, this is rather obvious. With wheels that use rim brakes, the way of checking is to look at the markings on the side of the tire. You will see an arrow pointing in the direction that the bike should rotate in when pedalling (so on the left side, it will be pointing anticlockwise and on the right side clockwise).

Gently slide the wheels in. With disc brake wheels, you will find that they slide in precisely. With rim brakes, a piece of advice given to me by a mechanic is to get them roughly in place and then when the bike is the right way up, loosen them a bit and slightly jog them into place to allow them to find their natural fit, checking by then lifting the front wheel and giving it a spin.

Tighten the skewer before pressing down the quick release lever. The rule here is that you should tighten the skewer just enough that when you press down the quick release lever, it momentarily leaves an imprint on the palm of your hand.

Turn the bike right way up. If you are using rim brakes, you now need to refix the wheel release mechanism for the brakes so that the conical part slides into the catch. The ribbed rubber covering should be outside this.

4. Refit handlebars

Start by unscrewing the clamp bracket, again keeping the bracket and bolts in your hand, and then undo the bungee cord and gently slide your handlebars back into the clamp before rescrewing the bracket, being careful not to twist the gear cables. Don’t worry about getting it exactly right at this stage and don’t fully tighten the screws. You can adjust at the end. You just want the handlebars the right way up and fixed inside the clamp. If in doubt, check against the photo that you took.

5. Refit saddle

Same process here: gently lower the seat post into position and slightly tighten but again don’t worry about getting it exactly right at this stage.

6. Refit pannier rack

Having removed the screws from the frame, I tend to start by fitting the top part of the frame and rescrewing the two top screws halfway before dealing with the bottom screws, and then tightening up everything. Get it nice and tight and check regularly as with the jolting of the bike on the road, these often come loose.

7. Refit mounts and bell

As with the pannier rack, I get everything loosely into place before tightening up.

8. Refit pedals

Before you put the pedals back in, give both them and the crank a quick clean with some toilet paper/ kitchen paper and then squeeze a bit of grease onto the pedals before screwing in. As above, to screw in, the left pedal should be turned anticlockwise and the right clockwise. You do not need to tighten beyond the point at which you feel resistance and the pedals are screwed all the way in: the act of pedalling will automatically tighten the pedals.

9. Final checks and adjustments

By this point, everything should be more or less in place.

This is the point to get the saddle absolutely right, at the right height and with the nose pointing in a straight line along the top tube, before tightening up. This is the point at which I take out the piece of plastic or cardboard that helps me get the height right.

Make sure that the handlebars are sitting absolutely right, absolutely aligned between the two pieces of electrical tape and with the gap between the bracket and rest of the clamp absolutely aligned with the markings. Tighten everything up.

At this point, it is a good idea to check that the screws holding the gear levers are firmly in place as sometimes they come unscrewed. You do not want them super-tight as otherwise you will not be able to move the levers: just tight enough that the levers do not slip.

Then time to spin both wheels and check that they are moving freely, check that the gears are working and check the brakes. If you are confident that all is OK at this point, squeeze a bit of grease into the various nuts and even better, run your chain loosely through a bit of rag and apply a bit of lubricant.

Remember to keep the bits of padding, tape and zip ties with you for the return journey or in the bike box if you are leaving the box until your return. If I am doing that, I carry a bungee cord, a few zip ties and some electrical tape with me on the bike just in case I have an accident or mechanical out on the road.

If you can, take the bike out for a quick ride round the block, just to check that everything is moving nicely. Happy riding!

Any questions?

Interested in reading more about other aspects of bike touring? Check out these other pages: