Mariana Bothma - 13 June 2009 08:34 PM Hi there,
We are off to Prague with our trusty tandem for a trip down the Danube Prague to Budapest. Is there anyone with experience of taking tandems on Easyjet flights. We have not as yet travelled with our bike so any advice will be very welcome.
Mariana & Deon
We have flown all over Europe with tandem via Easyjet and have found them very user friendly with no hassle at all. The tandem travels dismantled and boxed as sporting goods for about £17 per flight, – no dimension limit, 32kg weight limit.
Get 2 identical bike delivery boxes from your lbs and use PO parcel tape to make a longer box from one of the boxes and part of the other. Internal length should accommodate frame length with wheels, mudguards and racks removed, and with forks rotated 180 deg to reduce overall length.
Pack very carefully with pipe lagging and crumpled newspaper to protect everything.
Derailleur should be detached from frame and bagged and taped between stays (no need to slacken cable clamps). Remove saddles, pedals etc. Remove bars, rotate forks 180 deg and tape bars to top tube (no need to detach brake cables). Remove skewers from wheels to reduce width and pack wheels alongside frame (taking great care to protect frame from cogs!).
The most vulnerable parts are the chainwheels and forks. Forks must have wooden separators secured at fork ends to protect them from crushing. Chainwheel teeth are vulnerable to damage if box is dropped off a trolley. So they need very careful protection (we use tailored brush handle lengths zip tied to chainring spokes to transfer any impacts to bottom bracket).
Reassemble and test ride with great care before setting off on road!
This all sounds more hassle than it really is once you’ve had a practice.
Book accommodation close to airport for night of arrival.
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