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I've never taken my bike before. At the moment we are just hand luggage plus a 32kg allowance for the bike bag.
I've just read this:
- no other items can be carried in the bicycle box/bag (i.e. clothing)
We are going bike packing and were intending on putting the packed soft bags in with the bike.
Will they reject that and is it a bad idea?
I have never had an issue with sticking stuff in with the bike with EasyJet, BA or Virgin but then I've never put much in because an Evoc bag plus my bike doesn't leave much weight allowance to play with
I've always put clothing, tools, helmet etc in whatever bike bag / box that I've used and it's never been commented on in any airport, here or abroad.
The only thing is to ensure it's under the 32kg limit and don't load the box up with gas cans or batteries or anything else likely to trigger a search.
Cheers both. Reassuring.
Gas cans are on the shopping list at the nearest decathlon, which is near fortunately and all electronics are in the hand luggage.
Definitely where an electric mini pump comes into its own. I bought one before my flight this year with easyJet. It's your track pump and your emergency pump and weights nothing. I also packed other bits and bobs into the bike bag
I've flown with easyJet a few times, never put clothes in my bike bag but spares, tyres, helmet, pillow, shoes etc. have always been fine.
The main reason they say no other items is you can quickly exceed the limit with the space, We've had bags, shoes, helmets, spares etc no issues but if you go over 32kg it can't be handled by ground crew.
So I was right on the limit and my hand luggage was bulging. Decided it was just easier to buy some extra hold luggage.
Bike bag 8.7kg
Bike packing bags 8kg (it does include a kitchen sink)
Bike 15kg
Extras like shoes and a few tools. 2kg
They don't care what's in with your bike.
Never had a problem with EasyJet. In my experience they are the easiest airline to take a bike with and I have used around 6 other airlines and always feel most comfortable travelling with my bike with EasyJet
I recently went to Portugal using EasyJet (and posted on here worried about the spare battery T&Cs). For the bike bag I don't think they care much as long as it's under 32kg, mine was about 23kg and also had some tools, handlebar bag (packed with various things), helmet, spare tyre, chunky electric pump and a couple of other random things in it. Was fine there and back.
For batteries they didn't ask me what I had or likely cared (was carrying SRAM batteries and a power pack in hand luggage).
I hired a Bike Box Alan Easyfit hard case for my trip (I have an old Evoc softshell but wanted the extra peace of mind + the bike I was taking has fully internally routed cabling and I couldn't be bothered dealing with trying to take the bars off and twist them enough without also damaging the brake hoses or something). It worked well but both brake levers ended up pushed in quite a bit (on both journeys) so either ground crew hate bike cases and jumped on the widest part or BBA need a reinforcing bar there (probably both). One thing I did find is it's a nightmare to lift sideways on your own (to put it on the x-ray belt or get it in/out of a car), there's no side handles just smooth hard plastic ridges. I struggled as it was but with more weight in the box or less strength I'd have needed help!
Easyjet experience for me and the group I was with are.
Easy jet themselves are not really interested what's in your bike box because that's the custom's job as it's them that scan the box and decide if it goes on the plane or not!
I personally packed all sorts in my box, but definitely no co2 cartridges or ebike batteries.
The weight side of it is handled by the baggage operators and it's them who impose the 32kg limit.
You will end up going to a different part of airport to put your bike on a bigger conveyor belt that is maned by the baggage handlers.
I used a cardboard box that was massively cut down and the bike made as small as possible and got close to the 32kg limit. But my mates hired the fibreglass type bike cases and they really struggled with the weight due to the case being quite heavy.
My box was an absolute nightmare in the airports. Too wide for the trolley and any doors/lifts etc and too high to see where I was going! whereas the cases with wheels on were a lot easier.
My box also got wet, so glad I took extra gaffer tape.
We all thought that a bike bag would have been a better option.
Yeah 32kg is the biggest issue - very easy to hit that limit with legit ‘bike’ stuff like shoes, spares, pads, tools.
Yeah 32kg is the biggest issue - very easy to hit that limit with legit ‘bike’ stuff like shoes, spares, pads, tools.
If you're taking a full sus MTB plus all the kit then yes, 32kg is very easy to exceed, especially if you have a solid bike box. That's the point at which you'll need the regular baggage allowance as well which can cause issues when your regular bag appears on the normal luggage carousel and your bike is appearing on the oversize conveyor invariably at the opposite end of the arrivals hall!
My road bike in a Bike Box Alan (with all the clothing, helmet, shoes etc in there as well) is usually around 27kg which so far no-one has been remotely bothered by.
Don't know about Easyjet but LH for MUc to MAN didn't care (and it's the same luggage handling crews). My mate and myself both took gravel bikes in Evoc bags, loaded our luggage and bike kit for a long weekend
cont.. from above
and as the bags weighed around 23kg each we weren't charged the sports equipment surcharge, it was counted as a normal suitcase.
Agree with the above - last 2 years I've rented a bike box which I think weighs something daft like 9kg on its own so leaves little room for anything else even once you've got a light'ish bike trail bike in there. Going to take an Evoc bag next year - will put a bit more protection on the frame but be able to carry more bike tools etc.
I've been challenged by BA before for having other things in my Evoc bike bag, I think I just had a jobsworth dealing with me though. It was literally a few grams over (fine on my home scales, not fine on the airport scales). I only had my shoes and helmet in there so I squeezed the shoes into another bad and offered to wear the helmet on my head.
I've picked my bike bag up from baggage claim before to find the zip open. For this reason I don't leave anything loose in there, it's tied taped or clipped to something fixed inside the bag.
As above, nothing loose. Lots of velcro straps holding things to the frame/forks. Also to provide some additional protection.