<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re a con,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a swindle invented by the industry to make money out of idiots like you.\u201d He told me that he insists on handing the bike over at the check in desk as it is: \u201cIf you do that, it\u2019s obvious that it\u2019s fragile. Only a psychopathically violent baggage handler would do it any damage. If you pack it, it\u2019s more likely to get chucked about.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below <\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n I admired his casual confidence in the non-existence of psychopathically violent baggage handlers. But it\u2019s also possible that he might be on to something \u2013 a \u201cnaked\u201d bike might well get treated with more respect. Also, if one of his bikes had ever been damaged travelling this way, I guarantee I\u2019d have heard about it at length.<\/p>\n Multiple national champion on the bike and award-winning author Michael Hutchinson writes for CW every week<\/p>\n I still won\u2019t change my approach, though. How you fly with a bike isn\u2019t a question of logic. It\u2019s religion multiplied by superstition. People who believe in no higher power, who dismiss astrology and who pin a race number \u201c13\u201d on the right way up with a merry laugh, will cling to any belief system at all when it comes to combining bicycles and airports. This is because the one thing we think we know is that an airport is essentially a giant bike-crushing machine.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve heard the horror stories. We\u2019ve seen the social media posts about bike frames<\/a> snapped in ways mere science cannot explain. So if you ever, even once, transport a bike by air and get it back unharmed, you will stick to the method you used. You will tell others their method is as good as driving a baggage truck over the bike themselves. Your faith in your method will never be shaken.<\/p>\n Until of course, your bike is damaged. But that doesn\u2019t happen as often as you think. Bike survival has usually got very little to do with your packing choices, it\u2019s just that in practice most bikes make it. Survival has nothing to do with us, we just think it does. It\u2019s the equivalent of sacrificing a virgin for a good harvest because of that one time you sacrificed a virgin as an experiment, and the crops flourished.<\/p>\n My bike made it to Spain and back inside my usual soft bag, with an internal frame. So did that of my travelling companion (not Bernard)in its solid box. He was amazed mine survived, just as he is every single time we travel together. I know riders who swear by the cardboard boxes used for shipping bikes to shops. I know riders who dismantle their bike into as many parts as possible, on the basis that the more bits it is in already, and the more rattly noises the box makes, the more likely the baggage handlers are to assume it\u2019s already smashed.<\/p>\n But my favourite bike mover is an ex-pro, who never packs a separate bag for his clothes. Instead inside his box, he protects every tube of the bike with t-shirts, jeans, and jumpers, wrapped around and held on with zip ties. It looks like someone has knitted him a bike. But, give him credit, he\u2019s never had a bike mashed. Even if every item of clothing he owns, including his underpants, has chainring marks on it.<\/p>\n He is, obviously, convinced he\u2019s right. And, equally obviously, there is not the slightest point in arguing about it.<\/p>\n What to read next<\/p>\n Acts of Cycling Stupidity<\/p>\n A colleague told me about a friend of his who recently borrowed a set of very lovely ENVE<\/a> carbon wheels<\/a> from a local shop-owner to test ride for a few days before deciding if it was worth the upgrade.<\/p>\n \u201cI just hope the hell I can tell the difference between them and my current wheels,\u201d the rider in question said, arriving for a group spin.<\/p>\n Why was this? Was it because he felt his finely tuned sense of ride and handling was in question? No.<\/p>\n \u201cI need to be able to tell the difference because I know I\u2019m going to buy them whatever, and I\u2019ll feel like a lot less of a fool if I can at least tell that they\u2019re better before I hand over \u00a34000.\u201d<\/p>\n \n (Image credit: Shutterstock)<\/p>\n![\"Dr](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/hSPLqVjnkWwNR3C7UKCbEk.jpg\")
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