The question is, how do you fit a full size tandem bicycle into two suitcases in order to fly with them to Europe? So glad you asked.
Well as you can imagine, the airlines charge for everything these days. In fact, it costs about a
$1,000 to fly a tandem bicycle round trip to Europe. That is a crazy upcharge to an already expensive fare. But there are some ways around it. When we initially purchased our bike we had what are called S&S couplers welded into our bike frame. These give us the advantage of decoupling our frame into three manageable size pieces for packing.
Now you get the picture? But not so fast there is more than meets the eye. Every piece of the bike needs to be disassembled not just the frame. That includes handle bars, seats, seat posts, derailleurs, brakes, including the disks, all cables, pedals and cranksets, wheels, including removing the tires and tubes, all racks and fenders, everything! Then all of the pieces need to be wrapped and accounted for. I must confess I have a little anxiety arriving in Europe and being faced with the thought, "Uh where is the piece that connects the handle bars to the bike?"
I am happy to report it took about four hours to disassemble and pack the bike into two suitcases. Not bad for my first attempt. It took about the same amount of time to unpack it and reassemble it. We took it out for a spin yesterday and she rode like a champ.
We have been told to declare the contents in our suitcases as sports equipment otherwise, the airlines may charge us for transporting a bike. To be more accurate we are transporting bicycle parts. Either way, we hope to arrive in London with all of the parts necessary for reassemblyđ”âđ«
Pedals off
Stripped down
Disassembled frame
Packed
Keep on rollin,
Scott