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Flying your tandem

Jon Nomm2016-11-24 11:05:21

My tandem was bought in Washington DC and shipped here. In my mind, one day I would like to ride across the USA, going through DC as a kind of homage to its home town and roots.

I have read a few stories of people flying their tandems abroad and I was wondering what peoples experiences and/or advice are of this?

Ruth Hargreaves2016-11-24 14:15:09

Hi Jon

We have flown extensively with our tandem. And have found flying within Europe and from here to the USA no problem at all.

Last year we flew to the USA with Virgin Atlantic, and then internally with Delta to Memphis again all no problem. However coming back from New Orleans to Atlanta, again with Delta they were really unhappy about taking the tandem, in the end they did but charged us an extra 150 USD. My view is that to make flying internally within the USA stress free I would want a coupled tandem packaged into two hard cases.

Regards
Ruth

clive2016-11-24 16:37:23

: My tandem was bought in Washington DC and shipped here. In my mind, one day I
: would like to ride across the USA, going through DC as a kind of homage to
: its home town and roots.

: I have read a few stories of people flying their tandems abroad and I was
: wondering what peoples experiences and/or advice are of this?

It may be getting on too long since we've done it for the advice to be useful, but we've flown our tandem three times.

Easyjet -> Majorca. Cardboard box made from two bike boxes the local bike shop gave me. Near disaster when it rained on the way to the airport and things started falling apart - emergency gaffer tape called into action.

We carried the thing at the far end on the top of a Nissan micra with pipe insulation holding it off the roof and long straps under the doors. Which worked, but I don't think I'd want to try it somewhere busy.

Virgin Atlantic -> Las Vegas. Two CTC plastic bags taped together.

I was moved on in the airport because I spent too long on the wrong side of customs putting the bike back together - should have done that on the less comfortable side. We were travelling a lot on that holiday, so hired a people carrier, which worked well. The hire people tried to push a 4x4 onto us, which wouldn't have fitted the bike nearly so easily. On the way back I made the mistake of putting the petrol stove bottles on the bike - TSA objected to that, so I cleaned them out with soapy water and took them on as hand luggage.

Las Vegas isn't a massive airport, and we were in the smaller terminal, so they might be more relaxed than one of the bigger places.

Charter (Thompson?) -> Tenerife.

Same plastic bags. It turns out it will fit into a Citroen C3 with the front seat laid as flat as it can go and one of the back seats down. We might have packed pipe insulation and tape to try and do the same as we did in Majorca, but discovered we didn't need to, I can't remember.

For all of these I think we took the wheels, pedals, handlebars and rear derailleur off. Racks too for Tenerife - there was quite a lot of dismantling (the MTB we took to the US doesn't have racks).

Before booking the flights I made sure the airlines would take a tandem.

I preferred the plastic bag solution to the box one, and will use them again if we fly again.

Andrew Woodroffe2016-11-29 21:42:12

We flew with a non coupled tandem to and from Washington With Virgin. We used a CTC plastic bag and removed wheels, pedals, racks etc. We also used pipe lagging on all the main tubes. Going out was fine, though the check in desk staff were a little surprised by the use of a plastic bag, but I had cleared it with their Head Office first and had the email proof. Coming back was more difficult as the staff at Washington were more reluctant to take it unboxed. I suspect the fact we flew business class helped to get it through. We did get a bent chain ring on the way back so I would make sure you knew where the nearest bike shop was locally to fix any issues from travel. We also used a people carrier (Chrysler Grand Voyager) which swallowed the tandem no problem. I was not impressed by the way it was dumped at the carousel in Heathrow, outsize luggage at Washington was handled much better.

Tim Dowson2016-12-01 10:34:28

We recently packed up our (coupled) tandem up the night before, at the hotel - but no taxi could get to us as a marathon was surrounding the hotel and the police wouldn't let them through. We eventually struggled a mile and found one and it was taken hanging out of the taxi boot. This delay meant I missed the plane as they would not accept any luggage. In a re-used old bike box with minimal padding it merely collected a couple of scratches, but the bag around the box suffered badly. While on standby for the next plane I had the whole thing wrapped in clingfilm in the airport foyer, for £30, and I'm sure this helped hold it together.

The moral for us is to pack it into 2 lots of luggage - one frame and wheels, one eveything else including front handlebars - with cable splitters for front brakes, or cantilevers, even these can be removed rapidly without unbolting cables. In two bags we would be much more mobile (and the weigh on the taxi boot sill rather less as well). I'm sure 'flat-packing' would help with a non-coupled frame as well, though you'd need a bit more cardboard box.

WCC2016-12-01 11:57:40

We’ve flown with the tandem and Bob trailer, Easyjet; Edinburgh - Munich, Edinburgh - Amsterdam, Copenhagen - Edinburgh and Jet2; Budapest - Edinburgh. Each time we have booked 2 items of hold luggage, a bike and a standard luggage item.

We remove wheels from frame, racks, mudguards and rear derailleur (to make overall length shorter) wrap all in cardboard and place in a bag (that we made from ripstock nylon) along with the Bob wheel and fork. We then use the Bob trailer as our second piece of luggage which contained light / bulky / prohibited items with the handlebars lashed to the side. We then wrapped everything in giant clingfilm to keep it together. This way we can throw way the cardboard when we arrive at the start of the tour, and get more at the end before traveling home.

Pannier bags and everything else we placed in 2 Ikea laundry bags (which were pretty much identical to maximum allowable hand-luggage size) and took one each as hand luggage.

Cardboard seems to do a reasonable job of protecting stuff but on one trip we did end up with our big chainring being bent, after that we try to position the luggage racks in such a way it offers most protection to vulnerable parts.

We got a long strip length of velcro that we cut in to shorter lengths to secure all the loose bike parts to each other to minimise rattling around. A short velcro strip is also great for clamping brake leaver to handlebar when parking!


Jon Nomm2017-01-09 12:09:18

: We’ve flown with the tandem and Bob trailer, Easyjet; Edinburgh - Munich,
: Edinburgh - Amsterdam, Copenhagen - Edinburgh and Jet2; Budapest -
: Edinburgh. Each time we have booked 2 items of hold luggage, a bike and a
: standard luggage item.

: We remove wheels from frame, racks, mudguards and rear derailleur (to make
: overall length shorter) wrap all in cardboard and place in a bag (that we
: made from ripstock nylon) along with the Bob wheel and fork. We then use
: the Bob trailer as our second piece of luggage which contained light /
: bulky / prohibited items with the handlebars lashed to the side. We then
: wrapped everything in giant clingfilm to keep it together. This way we can
: throw way the cardboard when we arrive at the start of the tour, and get
: more at the end before traveling home.

: Pannier bags and everything else we placed in 2 Ikea laundry bags (which were
: pretty much identical to maximum allowable hand-luggage size) and took one
: each as hand luggage.

: Cardboard seems to do a reasonable job of protecting stuff but on one trip we
: did end up with our big chainring being bent, after that we try to
: position the luggage racks in such a way it offers most protection to
: vulnerable parts.

: We got a long strip length of velcro that we cut in to shorter lengths to
: secure all the loose bike parts to each other to minimise rattling around.
: A short velcro strip is also great for clamping brake leaver to handlebar
: when parking!

Thats an impressive pack down

Duncan S2016-12-12 23:02:20

: My tandem was bought in Washington DC and shipped here. In my mind, one day I
: would like to ride across the USA, going through DC as a kind of homage to
: its home town and roots.

: I have read a few stories of people flying their tandems abroad and I was
: wondering what peoples experiences and/or advice are of this?

We have flown with an old cannondale fixed tandem to Cuba with KLM BA and Air France.
On each occasion we have used two bike boxes 'cobbled' together. We have spread the weight to keep the tandem to 23kg with another bag to 23kg, the rest (2 panniers) as hand luggage.
At the check in desk we normally say that we have two 23kg pieces of luggage for two people and except for our last trip (with Air France) we have travelled without surcharges. Air France surcharge was 100 dollars but only on the return trip.
Bike boxes are not available in Cuba so we leave the bike box either at the hotel (10 dollars for the bell boy) or at the b&b and book in to the hotel/b&b for the last night before returning.
Be prepared for a long wait at Havana for the tandem to appear at the collection point

We have travelled to the US with a coupled tandem. The tandem breaks down into a front triangle and a rear triangle with 3 tubes to connect the two triangles, this allows the tandem to fit in to a large road bike box.
We travelled with KLM and BA . We travelled out with KLM and had agreed with KLM before travelling that the tandem would be free ( as part of our baggage allowance) but when we returned KLM had entered into a business arrangement with Delta Airlines and we had to pay 100 dollars (the attitude left a lot to be desired by the woman at the desk) again at New Orleans flight to Memphis. The surcharge was refunded by KLM on our return
We avoid travelling Delta except there is no other alternative because the attitude and service on the plane was terrible
There was mention in one of the posts of a vehicle to carry a bike box. We found that the standard bike box will fit into the back of a Ford Focus with the seat folded down. This was not possible in any of the other upgrades offered by the car hire company.

Ed Vine2017-01-11 22:34:22

We've flown ours (Orbit Andromeda MTB) just the once, to Bermuda with the now defunct Canadian one-horse airline called Zoom. Best airline I ever flew with, no wonder they went bust.
Tandem was carried for free, but they did stipulate a box, not bags, to make the baggage handlers lives a little easier. We made one out of that twinwall corrugated plastic stuff that estate agents make signs out of these days. Including the foam liner and some wheels for the back of it. It cost about £100 all-in ten years ago.
I improvised a foam cutter with a car battery and some copper wire to sculpt the foam liner.
The box survived the trip, but hasn't been used since as BA flatly refused to carry the tandem under any circumstances, and no one else flies to Bermuda from Europe. (It's a dream destination for gentle touring cycling, incidentally. 25 miles from end to end and a speed limit of about 25mph.)
I've stuck a link to the "About our Tandem" page from an online diary of a trip to Holland we did a few years ago. It contains a (clickable) picture of the Tandem in it's box, (and one of it in Bermuda for some reason...) The pedals are MKS Promenades from memory. The front handlebar was undone from the stem and laid along the top frame tube with all cables still attached. Bike has changed spec quite a lot since, not sure how the hydraulic pipes would take to all that.
ed.


Article inc pic of tandem in home-made flightcase