Bike for multiple overseas trips.

SafeSurfer

I’m looking for advice about options for cycling the Via Francigena (Canterbury to Rome 2000km) over multiple years.

Bike rental on the French sections is pretty much non existent.
Transporting a bike by plane is going to be complicated by the difficulty of bringing a bike box /bag between destinations and if there was a way to avoid bike disassembly and reassembly it would be preferable.
I am wondering if a foldable bike such as a Dahon Mariner would be an easier option to travel with.

Another option might be buying a cheap second hand bike on a French buy&sell site for each trip.

Any advice welcome.

Peterx

I used to go cycle touring from A to B with an aluminium CX bike with panniers. We would pick up a cardboard box in a bike shop at this end and pack up the bike in that for Dublin airport. Leave the cardboard box at the airport we landed at, re-assemble the bike and cycle to another airport.

Brought a few cable ties, cable tied the wheels to the frame, turned the handle bars sideways and went up the desk. At the going home end we'd have paid for baggage and used the pannier bags to put everything heavy in the hold.

Some places would insist you buy either a bx or a large plastic bag for the bike and some places would just take the bike.

This is all heading for fádo fádo territory as we haven't tried it in 10 years :)

Maybe there's a niche market there for an app to hook up with bike owners in various places, much like the borrow a house one!

SafeSurfer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122598896#Comment_122598896

Thank you very much for the reply. The clear plastic bike bag seems to be recommended by some travellers as baggage handlers seem to treat it more carefully when they can see it’s a bike.
Yes, a bike swap or even bike storage arrangement along the lines of Warm Showers would be very handy.

rflynnr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058368295/bike-for-multiple-overseas-trips

I've been doing short tours in Europe with friends for years, and even did a bit of the Via Francigena (between Rome and Pisa).

What have I learnt?

1. If I was doing the Francigena again, I'd bring a gravel bike. Much of the surface on the bit we did is more akin to a hiking trail than a bike path and even 32mm tires are less than ideal. Furthermore I'd look for the lowest gearing possible: the gradients on some climbs into some of the hilltop towns on the route are extreme. I rode a hybrid with a triple on the front and a 27 at the back. I NEVER get off my bike but on this occasion I did because the noise coming from the frame was unreal: loud on-the-cusp-of-imploding noises.

2. Between them, airlines and airports seem to be conspiring to make things ever more difficult for those wishing to bring bikes with them. (I eventually caved last year and, for the first time, hired a bike in Portugal. I've no regrets about this but it did mean doing loops rather than following a linear path as SafeSurfer intends.) The last time I brought a bike (to Vienna in 2022), the staff at the oversize baggage warned me that I wouldn't be able to use my standard clear bag with pipe insulation padding covering again because "new rules" were coming in this regard from the DAA.

I later contacted the DAA to establish what these rules were. Six months later (literally) they replied to the effect that the rules had not changed but they offered little clarity on what those rules are.

The airlines seem to have adopted a "you must use a hard case" approach but they were pretty much doing this even when I was doing the plastic bag approach and I found that a certain amount of polite assertiveness overcame any resistance at check-in.

If it was me, and I was doing it now, I'd look for a solid but not pristine second hand gravel bike, accept that it's likely to take a few scratches in transit but take the usual precautions (e.g. undoing the rear derailleur). You'll probably be ok.

SafeSurfer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122599414#Comment_122599414

Yes the rules between airlines and airports on how a bike must be packed for flight seem pretty arbitrary. Ryanair says bag or box but local check in staff in certain locations seem to insist on disassembling into a box.
Thanks for the tip about using a gravel bike and low gearing. The bike I would intend to bring is a Giant Toughroad with 50mm tires. I would be doing stages in the autumn and have heard that some sections can be muddy so wider tires make sense.

ShevY

I have travelled abroad with my bike a few times now and I also had been hoping to avoid bike disassembly. Initially I was planning the cardboard box from a bike shop method. In the end I bought a "B&W Bike Box II", so far I'm quite happy with it and the extra protection it provides. It has decent wheels, moving it around the airport is a one finger operation. It seems to be the cheapest decent hard shell case.

For my bike, it is only necessary to take off the wheels, handlebars, pedals and to push the saddle down into the seat-tube. I have started taking off the discs also. This was daunting at first and I took quite some time packing the bike and reassembling it the first time. But now it's less than a 15 minute job to have the bike built and everything torqued correctly.

I wouldn't recommend it for a one off trip, but seeing as you are planning multiple trips, I would recommend a hard shell for both the protection, maneuverability, and less hassle with the airlines. Ryanair give a 30kg allowance for a bike so if travelling with them you would have a lot of spare capacity in the box after the bike is packed.

cletus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122617791#Comment_122617791

Thanks for that, jumping in here, but I'm looking at exactly the same box and had been looking for reviews of it before I dived in