airlines and bike

Mint Sauce

considering doing the london to brighton bike ride this year, but concern would be getting bike over there, any tips or sugestions for trainsporting my pride and joy, as only one off trip , not sure should i buy expensive bag that i may only use a few times, but would it be save enough wraped in padding and cardboard, also need to consider to and from airport on public transport as dont drive,

suggestions welcomed

E@gle.

my local bike store offer the option to rent a box, i think cyclesuperstore offer the same facility.

Húrin

You can buy a combined boat and train ticket between here and the UK. I think the trip from Dublin to London costs only about €41 each way. You can place a reservation for your bike on the train, and they won't charge extra for it, or ask you to dismantle and bag it.

This method of travel also negates the concern about the bike on public transport from the airport. The boat picks you up from either Dublin port or Dun Laoghire, and the train brings you to central London.

see www.sailrail.co.uk

It would seem to be the sensible choice for a relatively short-distance journey as this.

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.seat61.com/Ireland.htm

London to Dublin costs just £29 each way via Holyhead.
London to Galway, Cork, Limerick or Sligo costs £47.50 each way.
Oxford, Canterbury, Brighton, Norwich or Cambridge to Dublin costs £29 each way via Holyhead,
and Leicester, Hereford, York, Plymouth or Leeds to Dublin costs £27.
Those are the regular fixed prices with (in effect) unlimited availability, even if you buy on the day of travel.

blorg

What is your bike made of? I have transported my aluminum and titanium touring bikes on planes as is, just hand over naked, no wrapping at all beyond a bit of foam on the (carbon) fork. Carbon I would tend to put in a case.

Mint Sauce

Húrin wrote: »

You can buy a combined boat and train ticket between here and the UK. I think the trip from Dublin to London costs only about €41 each way. You can place a reservation for your bike on the train, and they won't charge extra for it, or ask you to dismantle and bag it.

This method of travel also negates the concern about the bike on public transport from the airport. The boat picks you up from either Dublin port or Dun Laoghire, and the train brings you to central London.

see www.sailrail.co.uk


It would seem to be the sensible choice for a relatively short-distance journey as this.

was considering that but i thought bikes were restricted on certain services on both sides of the water, will check it out

blorg wrote: »

What is your bike made of? I have transported my aluminum and titanium touring bikes on planes as is, just hand over naked, no wrapping at all beyond a bit of foam on the (carbon) fork. Carbon I would tend to put in a case.

alluminum frame, steel forks, read on aer lingus bike bag required

Húrin

irish-stew wrote: »

was considering that but i thought bikes were restricted on certain services on both sides of the water, will check it out

I've done this myself, no problem.

blorg

irish-stew wrote: »

alluminum frame, steel forks, read on aer lingus bike bag required

Aer Lingus ONLY requires bikes to be bagged out of Amsterdam:

Aer Lingus wrote:

Bicycles must be pre-booked with the aerlingus.com helpdesk. A maximum of six pre-booked bicycles may be carried on each aircraft. Bicycles departing Amsterdam airport must be boxed or bagged. These can be purchased at the airport.

My last flight with Aer Lingus and a bike specifically was out of Santiago I think in 2007. Bike was unboxed. Ryanair to and from France this summer (twice), also unboxed, no problems.

petethedrummer

blorg wrote: »

What is your bike made of? I have transported my aluminum and titanium touring bikes on planes as is, just hand over naked, no wrapping at all beyond a bit of foam on the (carbon) fork. Carbon I would tend to put in a case.

I had much the same experience on Aerlingus. In Dublin we dad to remove the front wheel and cable-tie it to the frame and take off the pedals. Wrapped the fornt fork in bubble wrap. On the way back from Hamburg they took the bike with everything on it and put it straight on. No damage either way. I'd say its like anything on an airplane, you could just get unlucky and get damage. I'd say on the vast majority of journeys no damage is ever done.

Aluminium Frame, Carbon Fork.

michaelm

Four (Aer Lingus) trips in two years with "naked bike" gave the following results: first two - no problem, third, slight damage to brake lever, fourth, back wheel buckled beyond repair. Fifth trip coming up soon will see bike in a box. As a matter of interest there has to be a market for a system which gives support but on arrival at your destination may be converted into a rucksack - based on the technology used for popup display systems. If anyone here runs with this idea and makes a million, I'll settle for 40%! Seriously though I find the biggest problem with bags is that they give a false sense of security - the baggage handlers are more likely to throw suitcases on top of a bagged bike than a naked bike. The rigid case however makes it impossible to cycle to your accommodation on arrival in the other country. Has anyone experience of any airport that allows you store your bike box until your return trip?

Sean02

Unscrew rear mech and tape to frame plenty of pipe insulation /bubble wrap on levers. remove pedals. It is vital that you don't fully deflate tyres, if you can get away with it. Naked is definetly best otherwise if will be thrown around like the rest of baggage. Its equaly important to book bike in advanced and pay the fees on-line or at the Airline ticket office before you check-in. Enjoy L2B. this would be a nice warm up for a LE 2 JOG (a great trip) !!!!

Mint Sauce

Húrin wrote: »

I've done this myself, no problem.

any problems with carrying bike on this side of the water, ie on intercity or dart to Dun Laoghaire

Saltbeast

Heading to Switzerland this summer and have already sorted bike transport. Apparently planes can only accomodate 6 bikes. Don't know if this is an Aer Lingus policy only but if you are travelling to a popular race you might want to book your bike in early.

rottenhat

irish-stew wrote: »

any problems with carrying bike on this side of the water, ie on intercity or dart to Dun Laoghaire

Bikes are not permitted on the DART. You can bring them on the proper Intercity services - no need to book ahead - but Irish Rail have an irritating habit of substituting commuter trains on some of these (e.g. certain Galway - Dublin services). These are basically glorified DARTs with no guard's van and bikes are, again, not permitted.

Mind you, the day I found out that you can't bring bikes on the commuter trains, I got the classic Irish response, which was to sell me a ticket for person plus bike, then tell me that it was against regulations to take the bike on the train for Gorey, and then tell me to go ahead and do it anyway.

petethedrummer

rottenhat wrote: »

Bikes are not permitted on the DART. You can bring them on the proper Intercity services - no need to book ahead - but Irish Rail have an irritating habit of substituting.

I've had this experience. Even though the timetable advertised an intercity service the train was a commuter train. After long negotiations (arguing) with the ticket inspector, he finally let me take the bike on a virtually empty train.

flickerx

rottenhat wrote: »

Mind you, the day I found out that you can't bring bikes on the commuter trains, I got the classic Irish response, which was to sell me a ticket for person plus bike, then tell me that it was against regulations to take the bike on the train for Gorey, and then tell me to go ahead and do it anyway.

Yes! Classic Irish Rail modus operandi. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you want to bring your bike on the train in Ireland, ring ahead to the departing station, ask the manager if its OK if you've bought a bike ticket, and make sure you get their name so when the guy at the gate starts saying something about 'union rules' or 'health and safety' as to why you cant bring your bike on, you can hit him with the "Oh, but the manager X said that it was OK, I called him/her today about it and there was no issue", then they'll let you on. Works for me every time.

blorg

rottenhat wrote: »

I got the classic Irish response, which was to sell me a ticket for person plus bike, then tell me that it was against regulations to take the bike on the train for Gorey, and then tell me to go ahead and do it anyway.

Works exactly the same way in Spain from my experience, ticket office will sell you a bike ticket for a night train, bike must go under the bunk, there is no room under the bunk, everyone knows this but they sell the ticket anyway, guard on the train gets very pissed off, threatens to throw you off the train but eventually sticks all the bikes in his own cabin leaving him with no room at all.

flickerx

How much are hard bike cases for air transport?

Mint Sauce

gonna go the sail/rail route route, train to connolly (first train of the day is the intercity), cycle to port, ferry and train to london, will be booking the bike at the very earlist opertunity, €104 for me and bike rtn from dublin

uniqueusername

i did the london to brighton ride last year, was great so you should go for it.however, flying back from london gatwick on aer lingus i was told (at the airport info desk for aer lingus in gatwick)about two weeks before i travelled that all i had to do was take the pedals off and air out of the tyres. so i turned up at the airport with this done, then was told i had to have a bag or box!!!! luckily the left luggage shop had one spare, otherwise i would have been leaving my bike there. i needed pedals off, air out of tyres, and the front wheel off so it would fit in the bike box. luckily a couple of the airport engineers where on hand to help!

so double check ,and double check again. they even had the cheek to tell me i should have asked before, when the girl who told me i didnt need a bag was right next to her, could have killed her!!!

and bikes arent allowed on the trains that day, so you may need to consider how you will get back to the airport, or stay an extra day. taxi from brighton to gatiwck costs a lot. but they do run buses from crawley(town 2mins away from gatwick) that will take your bike. if you get a boat to holyhead the trains should take your bike but would normally only have one carriage that will accomodate them. also work out your journey in advance, as you obviously cant take a bike on the underground, so find out where your train leaves you and if you can catch a normal train, instead of an underground from your arrival point, the race starts in clapham common. easiest thing is to get a plane to gatwick, then the offical bus up to clapham and back.


might see you there anyways, might enter again, see if my new bike improves my time!

colblimp

With the risk of getting a gob full because I've hijacked the thread, what's the story with taking bikes on buses and coaches? I'm another who doesn't drive and when I start doing triathlons, I'll have to transport bike and gear around Ireland and the UK.

Has anyone had any experiences in the past re this?

petethedrummer

Carrying Bicycles on Bus Éireann Services
Bicycles will be carried on Bus Éireann services in Ireland only if sufficient accommodation is available for them in the luggage compartment of the bus/coach. There may be limited capacity available in the luggage compartment, particularly during the summer months; therefore we cannot guarantee that bicycles will be carried. Cost of carrying a bicycle on a bus/coach is €11.50 per single journey irrespective of distance.
Folding bicycles which are packed and wrapped in a suitable carrier bag/protective covering will be treated as passengers’ accompanied luggage and carried free of charge in the luggage storage area.

Folding bicycles which are NOT packed or wrapped as described above will be charged at the full cycle rate.

We regret that bicycles cannot be through-booked for journeys involving change of bus/coach en route, as it is not possible to guarantee accommodation on connecting services.
Bicycles are not carried on Bus Éireann/Eurolines coach and ferry services to/from Britain and Europe.
http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1201093023-Bicycles-&-Animals.pdf

Some private operators will take your bike for free. e.g. the Mathews coaches service between Dundalk and Dublin.

Mint Sauce

uniqueusername wrote: »

i did the london to brighton ride last year, was great so you should go for it.....

and bikes arent allowed on the trains that day, so you may need to consider how you will get back to the airport, or stay an extra day. taxi from brighton to gatiwck costs a lot. but they do run buses from crawley(town 2mins away from gatwick) that will take your bike. if you get a boat to holyhead the trains should take your bike but would normally only have one carriage that will accomodate them. also work out your journey in advance, as you obviously cant take a bike on the underground, so find out where your train leaves you and if you can catch a normal train, instead of an underground from your arrival point, the race starts in clapham common. easiest thing is to get a plane to gatwick, then the offical bus up to clapham and back.


might see you there anyways, might enter again, see if my new bike improves my time!

doing the ferry/train over and back, been chating to the train operaters and the ferry company the last few days on bringing my bike, just need to give them notice to book a space once i have booked through sail rail, as for getting back to london afterwards, have seen on the website that you can book transport back to various drop off points between brighton and clapham common, doing the event with a friend and maybe one or two others taking the car(s) down to the coast with our gear, so might make a night of it down there , loads of family in london (born and rasied there my self) so gonna make a bit of a holiday of it as well, do a bit of training in richmond park, etc

do mods want to change title to 'london to brighton' at this point

Bambaata

am bringing my bike on a plane tomorrow and a little concerned. i cant get 1 pedal off but the bike will fit. i don't have wheel bags and they are zipps which i really don't wana damage. Is wrapping them in towels sufficient? Also what happens if they are damaged? Is the airline anyway responsible?

I have detached the tri bars from the stem, wrapped the bars in a towel and taped top the side of the bike. I've wrapped the derailer and chain, and both wheels etc in a towel with one wheel each side of the bike. I'm thinking i'll fill the box with clothes to give it extra cushion. Is there anythign i'm not doing that would be recommended?

Capt'n Midnight

Don't forget that the pedal on the other side has the opposite thread :pac:

I've used a sleeping bag before. Deflate the tires too.