How to take a Folding Bike on an Airplane?
For many cycling enthusiasts and cyclists, you don’t want to travel to an unfamiliar city without having to take some form of two-wheeled transport with you. However, the standard bikes on the market are too big to carry as carry-on luggage and are not commonly shipped with people when they are leaving for a week or two. Traveling around the city is also incredibly frustrating when you’re used to biking around the city.
How to take a Folding Bike on an Airplane?
City traffic is unreliable, difficult to get through, and waiting times are timeless. Also, who wants to learn a new metro or bus route, not to mention that taxi drivers in most cities will take advantage of you if they find out you’re new to the city? Overland tours are best when exploring a new city, so when traveling by plane, you’ll probably want a way to take your transport with you, and a folding bike is the best way to go.
Do planes and airports allow you to take folding bikes out the door? While you might inspect your bag by going through the scanner, it’s never a problem after they see it’s just a folding bike. There are quite a few models and several companies that sell practical folding bikes that can be carried on planes, so let’s review some of them.
Dahon Folding Bikes
Dahon is one of the world’s most recognized folding bike names, and when they build a bike it’s designed with high quality in mind. One of the best things about most (if not all) Dahon bikes is that they can fit at an airport or in a suitcase. If you have a sturdy or hard case that you use for air travel and the dimensions don’t exceed 33 x 27 x 13 inches, you can take it on the plane with you. The best thing about Dahon bikes is that it doesn’t matter if you are riding a 16-dimensional, 20 or 26-size bike, almost all Dahon folding bikes fit in an airport suitcase. The good news is that you will have over 30 different Dahon folding bikes to choose from, but the bad news is that many airports may have additional charges for the folding bike size or weight. On the other hand, when you consider how much money you will save on taxis and transportation costs in a foreign country that is used to attracting tourists and charging expensive tolls to carry it. In hindsight, you don’t feel so bad about those heavy luggage surcharges anymore, do you?
Brompton folding bikes
Brompton folding bikes are some of the highest quality folding bikes in the world and are made in English. The Brompton suitcase was designed with Brompton folding bikes in mind and is a very versatile piece of luggage that can fit in many compact spaces. Along with the enormous amount of space you’ll find surprisingly in these suitcases, they have a handlebar and wheels so you don’t have to carry your suitcase at the airport. Folding bikes while lightweight can become heavy after transporting them.
One thing that may surprise you is that you will even have extra space to store extra things in your cases, such as clothes, books, or other materials. The Brompton suitcase has an extra hard shell so you don’t have to worry about anything getting damaged inside the case during the flight, no matter how much turbulence there is or how rough the trip gets. One of the advantages of the Brompton folding bike suitcase is that it is not considered oversized luggage for most airlines and you will not have to pay any additional charges.
How to take a Folding Bike on an Airplane
Couldn’t you just wrap your bike in a cover or some sort of see-through texture so that the airline can visibly see that it’s a folding bike and they won’t give you any discomfort? Although this is an option and some airports will not bother you, it is not very practical for traveling. However, for the experience of many, their bike is handled much more carefully if they can see that it is a folding bike.
If you don’t want to buy any type of suitcase (which is ideal for many travel situations), you can simply use a thin cover or a duffel bag to travel, but you will have to check with the individual airport regarding their carry-on baggage laws. However, some users have suffered damage to their bikes because they did not use enough protection when they used only a bag to protect their bike.
People who check their bags in luggage are generally not particularly interested in what is in the case or care about the contents and simply check in the air. You could label it “fragile” and it could be treated better, but it’s much better to just put it in a foldable bike case
