bikes on planes

[keeks]

ok following a further topic and feedback, I'm now going to take a plane back. Never taken a bike on plane. It will be easy jet from Zurich to Gatwick.  Now I've seen youtubes of experienced tourers turning up at an airport with a folded cardboard box then assemble box and disassembling bike . Is this a good idea ? if not I guess booking a suitable taxi to take box- any advice on that would be very appreciated. Also looking at easyjet site you can't put anything else in the box. So was going to buy a sports bag in Zurich and put panniers en all in that as hold luggage.

I know about deflating tyres - emptying my cooking fuel - any other gotchas I might have missed ?

Thanks Kieran

[yoav]

As long as the overall weight of the bike and box doesn't exceed whatever their weight limit is, you can put panniers in the bike box. I've done it several times and never had a problem. They're not going to open the box to check. It will be x-rayed by security but they don't care whether you have anything in the box apart from the bike.

Deflating tyres is a somewhat pointless exercise. The baggage hold is also pressurised, and even it it wasn't, the air pressure at 30,000ft is about a quarter of an atmosphere so tyres only have to cope with an extra 10 psi or so.

You don't actually need a box, turning the handlebars and removing the pedals is enough - some people say that's better than a box as the baggage handlers can see its a bike and take more care of it than a box.

[Kim]

Deflating tyres is a somewhat pointless exercise.

It stops an overzealous airline employee who doesn't understand physics from rejecting the bike or deflating them for you...