Pages

Friday, August 26, 2011

Packing and Traveling With Your Bike: Part 2 of 2














Here are the step-by-step instructions.
This will take you at least an hour and a half if you've never done it before and an hour at the minimum if you've done it before.


Prepping the bike:
Put the bike in the workstand.
Remove the pedals and put them into a zip-lock bag. Make sure to include any pedal washers (ie: SRAM and FSA cranks).
Shift into the smallest chainring and smallest cog. Remove the chain and put it into a zip-lock bag The masterlink should go into its own small zip-lock bag.
Remove the rear derailleur and put it into a small padded bag.
Cut the cables and remove them. Take the loose housing off the frame and make sure to note which piece goes where.
Unbolt the handlebar and remove it from the stem. It is best to have a mark on both the stem and the handlebar to be able to align them again when the bike is being put back together. Wrap the handlebar well using bubble wrap.
Put the faceplate back onto the stem. Loosen the pinch bolts on the stem and rotate it so that the stem is right above the top tube in the box. Make sure that the stem does not contact the top tube. You may have to flip the stem.


Prepping and packing the wheels:
Remove the wheels from the bike. The cargo holds on airplanes are pressurized so, contrary to popular belief, nothing will explode if you leave your tires at normal pressure, but I find that being able to compress the tires helps to get the wheels into the case in certain circumstances.
If you have a 29er and a standard hard case, you will have to completely deflate your tires to be able to get them to fit. It is your call whether or not to remove the sealant from the tires prior to shipping. If you have confidence that your tires will remain seated on the rim, you can leave the sealant (as I do with my Stans wheels and sealant). You do NOT want the mess of it leaking out.
Take the skewers out of the wheels and set them aside. If your mountainbike has a thru-axle, it is best to put them back into the fork and/or frame.
If you have a mountain bike, remove the brake rotors, wrap them in clean paper and place them into a zip-lock bag. The rotor bolts can go into a separate little bag or back into the hubs.
Put the plastic shipping end-caps into the wheel axles.
This is when you should also put blocks into the disc brake calipers to prevent the pistons from being activated during shipping.
It is also a good idea to let the air out of and to fully compress the fork on your mountainbike for ease of packing (if you have a 29er, this is a necessary step in order for the bike to fit) and also to prevent damage to the fork stanchions.


Packing the frameset:
Wrap the frame tubes in sheets of bubble wrap work great for this and if you want extra insurance, you can even wrap over the bubble wrap with sections of old inner tubes cut in half lengthwise.
Take the bike out of the stand, remove the seatpost/seat from the frame and wrap them.
Place the bike facing crankset-down in the case on top of the first sheet of foam.
Lay the handlebar between the top tube and downtube. There is no optimal positioning because of the shape of road bars so find whatever works best for you. I have included a photo of one option.


Packing the accessory box:
At this point, the bike has been separated into three sections: the frameset, the wheels, and the contents of the accessory box. Make sure everything that is to go into the accessory box is accounted for and put away: the brake rotors, skewers, rear derailleur, chain pedals, and the new cables which you will install or have installed at your destination. It is also a good idea to take a roll of electrical tape and extra zip-ties.
I also usually include an extra roll of bar tape, brake pads, lube, my digital tire pressure gauge, shock pump, a small Zippo tape measure, and my multi tool and flat repair kit in this box. Yes, it all fits.
The accessory box goes between the stays. It is best to zip-tie the seat/seatpost combo to the top tube or seat tube near where the handlebars are. Once again, optimal placement will differ.
Now any extra items can be included, such as shoes or a travel pump. These shouldn't have to be wrapped thoroughly because hopefully everything they could possibly contact inside the case is already packed well.


Finishing:

The second sheet of foam goes next, on top of which go the wheels. The wheels will overlap in the middle. The best way is to put the front wheel in first, and then the rear wheel with the cassette facing up. This way the cassette cannot damage anything in the box.
The loose bits of housing (if you're planning on re-using them) can go with the wheels. Make sure to secure the ferrules on the ends if this is the case.
Then follows the third layer of foam and then the lid. You're done!

A nice side-effect of having a bunch of relatively heavy parts of the bike packaged together in the accessory box is if the gate agent starts to gripe about the weight of your bike box, you can easily knock a kilo or so off the weight by removing the box from the travel case and putting it into your other checked bag.

Feel free to send me any questions you may have. Happy travels and good racing!

-Dávid

No comments:

Post a Comment