: Has anybody any information on flying with a tandem?. We have flown once with
: ours and all we had to do was turn the handlebars and deflate the tyres,
: but we want to fly again with a different airline(aer lingus) and we are
: getting bad vibes from them when we went to book. Have the tandem club got
: any agreement with any airlines re flying with tandems.

I flew with one tandem and two bicycles for a family cycle camping tour of the Vendee last year. We flew Air France, Gatwick to Nantes. Unfortunately the aircraft is very small: an Embraer Regional jet, and we had to comply with Air France's policy that no piece of luggage may exceed 3 metres when it's X, Y and Z dimensions are added, and an excess may apply to any single piece of luggage that weighs more than 25Kg. The tandem only weighs 22Kg, but by the time it's in a box and had bits and pieces such as lights and the toolkit stuffed in around it we could have exceeded the weight. However, with wheels and luggage racks it far exceeded the 3 metre limit. Therefore we had to dismantle the tandem almost completely. I removed the cranks, racks, mudguards, wheels, seats and handlebars and got a large piece of cardboard and taped the frame to it to make a packet that could slide along a conveyor. I fitted lengths of 8mm threaded rod as axles to replace the wheels and strengthen the forks and I heavily bubblewrapped the gears.

I had previously asked Air France staff at Gatwick about the possibility of carrying a tandem. I described its likely size when stripped down. The staff said that it should be possible as at just over six feet long and a couple of feet wide it was about the size of a coffin and they did occasionally carry coffins.

I also made it clear, having bought the tickets, that I intended to take a tandem and two bicycles. ( I wrote to Air France customer services. ) They wrote back and said I could not. I then gave the stripped down dimensions and they wrote back to confirm that it would be OK.

The two bicycles were in the standard bike boxes that bike shops are happy to give away. Front wheels off, pedals off, handlebars around, tyres flat. Any spare space in the boxes was taken up by bits of tandem.

The assembled luggage that we checked in was all weighed and was as follows:
2 bike boxes.
Packet of tandem frame.
Large very cheap holdall containing tandem wheels.
Large very cheap holdall containing 4 Karrimats, two tents, the empty small front panniers and the crash helmets.
4 large individual panniers.
1 piece pannier set.
Small heavy bag containing tandem cranks and the toolkit.
This made a total of 11 pieces, filled four trolleys, and at the check in weighed exactly 100Kg in total. The only hand baggage we had was the front bag for the tandem, so as there were four of us with a 25Kg luggage allowance each we were not charged any excess weight and did not have to pay any extra fees.

It has to be said that we were wearing quite a lot.

Arrival.
At Nantes all our equipment was found in a big heap where it had been tipped off the carousel. We gathered it all, went through passport control, and found a quiet corner to re-assemble everything. Putting the bikes back together took just over an hour. We had not been able to find a solution to the problem of storing the bike boxes; we wanted them for the return flight, if possible, but there was no left-luggage at Nantes. The problem was beautifully solved when half an hour into re-assembly my wife went to get some drinks and returned with a waiter following her with tea on a tray. The waiter was very interested in what we are doing and offered to store the boxes in the airport café’s basement storeroom, which was absolutely perfect.

We noticed three cases of damage: A gear indicator was broken, one of the pannier hooks was broken (We should have wrapped and taped the pannier hooks.) and between deflating and reflating the tyres the tandem back wheel somehow collected a puncture.

The whole operation was thus hard work but successful, and two hours after landing we were cycling along delightful lanes looking for somewhere nice for lunch.

We did not go by ourselves: Our friends the Banks family flew the same route on the same day, but flew British Airways. The Banks' also had, for a family of four, two bikes and a tandem. British Airways have an Airbus on this route, and it has a far larger hold. The Banks' just cycled up to Gatwick, took the luggage off their bikes and checked it in, turned the handlebars round and handed the bikes over. They didn't even have to deflate the tyres, and as the tyres didn't explode the aircraft hold must presumably be pressurised. At Nantes they collected their bikes, put the luggage back on and were away inside an hour from landing.

After a delightful week's cycle camping tour we all got back to the airport; our waiter produced our boxes for us and we re-packed everything. We checked in again with no problems.
The Banks' had more problems at Nantes than at Gatwick. They were told to remove the pedals and deflate the tyres. When the pedals wouldn't shift a certain amount of unhelpfulness was encountered which was only solved when the problem started to threaten the departure time at which point the bikes were deemed to be OK with their pedals on.

In Conclusion:

Check with the airline first, and check the aircraft type. Most airlines, within their websites somewhere, will detail the luggage allowances in terms of size and weight and will also detail any limits that apply to different aircraft types. There will also be a limit of the number of bicycles that can be carried on any given flight and it seemed to be four or five, depending on airline/aircraft.

Get written confirmation before you go.

Good Luck,
DT.