Bike packing tips

By Pat Fitzpatrick - Ride International

Bike Packing whether it's for a road bike or MTB it's the same. It's an art learnt and it's tricky to get the correct formula to save weight, provide adequate protection for your pride and joy and ease of transporting the package between planes, trains and automobiles.

Many of you may be heading to Europe 2011 for the summer of cycling, these tips should assist in your choices and the 'how to' of packing.

The big question for most people is 'what is the best vessel for my bike?' A hard case? A bike box? A soft bag/case? One with wheels, without wheels? The list goes on and on.

Each bike vessel has its own merits and draw backs. It's a personal choice and really depends on what you are comfortable with and how much money you want to spend.

But for me, a soft padded light weight bike bag with no wheels ticks all the boxes. I have been using one for years. I have found it fits the bill perfectly for many reasons. They only weigh a couple of kg's, protection is good, I find airlines are more gentle with soft flexible bags than hard heavy cases, they pack down/roll down for easy transport after the bike is out, are less bulky, and are relatively cheap, around $200-$300.

Next choice for me is the trusty old bike box available from you LBShop for much the same reasons as above, can be flat packed once bike is out and best of all they are free!

Here's how I do it:

If you have a bike stand use it, it saves your back. If you don't have any of the items mentioned below head into you LBshop and ask them for some, they are generally more than happy to provide you with much of the following for free, it saves them from duping them as all new bikes come with oodles of protection material that generally goes straight into the dumpster after they are unpacked.

Place tubular packing foam on every part of the frame and fork you can get it onto.

Remove the front wheel only. Place a plastic fork brace in the fork legs. It stops the forks from being compressed in transport.

Remove handle bars and head stem; rotate them under the frame and in front of the head tube.

Leave the rear wheel on, leave rear derailleur on, and pack compressed eggshell foam behind the spokes and the derailleur.

Use light weight padded wheel bags and wrap the back wheel half inside wheel bag; it will also protect the frame. Use thick egg shell packing material inside the wheel bag on either side of your front hub, its stops the hub outers banging into your frame and damaging it.

Take your seat post out (with seat still attached) wrap post with foam tube and place in bottom of bag or box.

Put your cycling kit in two soft bags inside your bike bag for extra protection/padding. One in front of the head tube between the handle bars and head tube, which then protects the shifter brake levers and head tube. The other, under the down tube and behind the forks.

We use ThermoRest camping mats on either side of the bike on the outer side, as extra pieces of padding. These are blow up to 3/4 length camping mats. They are super light weight and provide full length air filled protection.

We also use the ThermRest mats when travelling if we get stuck a night without accommodation we can blow them up and sleep in our van / vehicle if we are on the move.

Leaving the bike partially assembled makes for quicker rebuilding time at the other end; it isn't necessarily any quicker to pack it this way but much quicker to rebuild.

Pack your cycling shoes in another soft bag and stuff them with bike spares, i.e. tubes or tyre and front wheel skewer etc, pack under down tube/bottom of bag/box.

Place a piece of compressed foam under the chain rings to stop chain ring damage or cutting through bag.

Pedals can stay on, in our off in soft bag. If you are using a box they must come off.

I trust these tips and tricks we use to pack our bikes may give you a few ideas for your travels or for the next time you pack your bike.

Happy travels!

Ride International provides the best possible mountain bike and cycling tour experiences from around the world. The professional team descends from a renowned lineage of competitive cyclists with more than 100 years of competing in cycling and mountain bike events all over the world then look no further than Ride International. More details here on www.rideinternational.com