Holidays

Ryder

Bringing the bike to spain next week. 15kg weight restriction. Do people bring track pumps or will CO2 do? Thanks

Lumen

Ryder wrote: »

Bringing the bike to spain next week. 15kg weight restriction. Do people bring track pumps or will CO2 do?

You can't fly with CO2. Were you planning on buying it at your destination?

Ryder

Emmmm.....okay, hands up, would totally have brought the CO2. Thanks.

Packed the bike last night - 16kg for bike and bag. Have to throw in gear next, and now my track pump. Damn aer lingus and their 15kg limit

Poncherello

Hey Ryder what part of spain are you going to ?
I am bringing mine to Malaga at end of the month, staying close to Puerto Banus. Was hoping to get in touch with a Brit Exp Pat cycling club in the area if there was one ?
Anyone point me in right direction ?
Google hasnt thrown up anything for me on this front.
Or anyone any experience cycling the road up to Rhonda and those hills in the area ?

Thanks

ROK ON

Lumen wrote: »

You can't fly with CO2. Were you planning on buying it at your destination?

Not true. You are allowed a max of 6. Flew Dublin France UK Dublin .
They do check and count.

Lumen

ROK ON wrote: »

Not true. You are allowed a max of 6. Flew Dublin France UK Dublin. They do check and count.

Which airline? Checked or carry on?

It's difficult to Google this issue whilst avoiding recycled references to TSA (US) regs.

ROK ON

Lumen wrote: »

Which airline? Checked or carry on?

It's difficult to Google this issue whilst avoiding recycled references to TSA (US) regs.

Not up to the airline. Canisters in bike bag. That goes to oversize luggage which is a central depot in many airports.
They do a count. One bloke had over 6 so had to leave some behind. But 6 is fine apparently.

Ryder

ROK ON wrote: »

Not true. You are allowed a max of 6. Flew Dublin France UK Dublin .
They do check and count.

Thanks.....did you bring a track pump with you or just use cannisters of CO?

Ryder

Poncherello wrote: »

Hey Ryder what part of spain are you going to ?
I am bringing mine to Malaga at end of the month, staying close to Puerto Banus. Was hoping to get in touch with a Brit Exp Pat cycling club in the area if there was one ?
Anyone point me in right direction ?
Google hasnt thrown up anything for me on this front.
Or anyone any experience cycling the road up to Rhonda and those hills in the area ?

Thanks

Going to the same place on friday. Staying in cancellada, about 5k from PBanus. Been there a few times, never with bike. Apparently a lot of cyclists use the A3? Motorway in the evenings - nice road but pretty featureless and busy in the day at least. Have loosely planned on cycling into the hills towards Ronda etc.....just across the motorway. Hopefully will find backroads.

Also looked on line for clubs and route advice but found nothing.....will do a trip report when back next wend

blorg

Have you considered just booking a bag separate from your bike and putting the track pump in that?

Also consider that Aer Lingus are somewhat unclear as to whether there really is a 15kg restriction or not, you might be able to get some sort of commitment out of them on the phone.

Ryder

Poncherello wrote: »

Hey Ryder what part of spain are you going to ?
I am bringing mine to Malaga at end of the month, staying close to Puerto Banus. Was hoping to get in touch with a Brit Exp Pat cycling club in the area if there was one ?
Anyone point me in right direction ?
Google hasnt thrown up anything for me on this front.
Or anyone any experience cycling the road up to Rhonda and those hills in the area ?

Thanks

Just back so sorry for the late reply....hopefully will leave a more detailed post with crap pictures in my training log.....

Was there for 6 days, was a family holiday so most of my training was 1hr of intervals. Used the A7 for this; from cancellada to cadiz direction (roadworks in san pedro so wouldnt go this dirn) A7 is a great road, a dual carriageway on the coast with nice views. Great surface, was cruising at 34kph in zone 2 and getting up to 38 for intervals etc...only thing is that the hard shoulder is a foot wide and there is a rumble strip dividing it so you need to be awake.....also be careful not to accidently go on to the AP7 (motorway) as this is very fast and dangerous. Lastly be careful on the A7, loads of slip roads on to it and there is a very short merging lane. All of that said, felt safe on it, loads of other roadies, and suited me fine for intervals.

Went on one epic type spin...cancellada to minerva on the A7, then on to gaucin, ronda and back to cancellada theough san pedro - 140kish. Excellent roads throughout and spectacular mountain scenery. The roads to ronda through gaucin and on to san pedro are main roads and v. very good (whats a pothole??) loads of smaller roads to other mountain villages but these may not interconnect

Anyway good luck and let me know how you get on.....go out myself about twice a year

Poncherello

Thanks for the advice, tell me on the road up to Rhonda that you took was there shops /garages to refill your bottles ?
Also on the way down was there much ?
I remember getting a puncture on that road in the car before and felt pretty exposed.
Will keep an eye out for your training log update
Cheers

Ryder

From san pedro to rondha, nothing really, although you could detour to a mountain village like benhavis if you had to. That said, bring 2 bottles and food and you should be fine. If you get a mechanical, its a long straight busy road so you wont get lost. In total about 50k from sp to rondha. The real distance is from minerva/gaucin to rondha....about 100k, but you pass loads of villages

AstraMonti

I am going to use this thread instead of making a new one. On 25th of Sept I am flying to Spain for two weeks holidays with Aer Lingus and I am bringing the bike with me. Bike+Box is around 20something kilos, aer lingus has the limit of 15kgs.. but it says per bike.. so it's not really clear as what are the limits. Any personal experiences?

07Lapierre

AstraMonti wrote: »

I am going to use this thread instead of making a new one. On 25th of Sept I am flying to Spain for two weeks holidays with Aer Lingus and I am bringing the bike with me. Bike+Box is around 20something kilos, aer lingus has the limit of 15kgs.. but it says per bike.. so it's not really clear as what are the limits. Any personal experiences?

I flew with Ryanair last year. They didn't weigh my bike box in Dublin or Malaga. (And it was over 20kg's)

AstraMonti

I flew with Ryanair as well, and didn't have problems. The problem is that Aer lingus is saying on their site only 15kgs for the bike.. but it's not clear.

Poncherello

I flew with Aer Lingus in to Spain the end of May and my box weighed more than 30kg I'd say. Had no issue. You just bring it over to oversize baggage and throw it on the x ray machine. The guy there works for the airport and not the airline so he doesnt care what it weighs.
At least thats the way it seems to work.

TinyExplosions

Poncherello wrote: »

I flew with Aer Lingus in to Spain the end of May and my box weighed more than 30kg I'd say. Had no issue. You just bring it over to oversize baggage and throw it on the x ray machine. The guy there works for the airport and not the airline so he doesnt care what it weighs.
At least thats the way it seems to work.

That can be the case in Dublin, but you can then get stung on the way back!

What I've found to work is if you don't let the girls see your bag when you check in, then bring it to oversize, they don't really care. If the check in girls see your box, they can ask to weight it, and that's where problems can start.

Similarly, when flying back, it seems to be a bit of a lottery depending on where/when you fly back from. Grenoble for instance are quite strict on it

CramCycle

blorg wrote: »

Have you considered just booking a bag separate from your bike and putting the track pump in that?

Also consider that Aer Lingus are somewhat unclear as to whether there really is a 15kg restriction or not, you might be able to get some sort of commitment out of them on the phone.

It depends what airport you are in and what the attendant is like. I got through with about 25kg in Dublin because no one asked me to weigh it, but in Amsterdam they made me put it up on the rack and they said no as Aer Lingus has a limit of 15kg, some airlines apparently let you through with more.

AstraMonti wrote: »

I am going to use this thread instead of making a new one. On 25th of Sept I am flying to Spain for two weeks holidays with Aer Lingus and I am bringing the bike with me. Bike+Box is around 20something kilos, aer lingus has the limit of 15kgs.. but it says per bike.. so it's not really clear as what are the limits. Any personal experiences?

I found in Amsterdam that I could just get a decent plastic bag free of charge and dump everything en masse into it. Aer Lingus charge about 20quid for the extra bag, so i wasn't too annoyed. The limit on the extra bag is 10kg. So thats 40quid for the bike+bag at 16kg (slightly over) and 20quid for the bag with all my extra gear (a little over 10kg). So to clarify, the 15kg is for the bike including bag/box etc.

AstraMonti

Hm.. I am doomed.. My bike bag is 12kgs or so.. I ll just ring Aer lingus and ask.

CramCycle

AstraMonti wrote: »

Hm.. I am doomed.. My bike bag is 12kgs or so.. I ll just ring Aer lingus and ask.

If they weigh it, its 50quid per kilo over the 15kg, so they told me at the desk. If your a chancer, try and get the sticker for it off them when the bag is empty and then pack it up afterwards. Risky but not the worst plan I have ever had.

blorg

07Lapierre wrote: »

I flew with Ryanair last year. They didn't weigh my bike box in Dublin or Malaga. (And it was over 20kg's)

Ryanair have started weighing in Dublin and do it religiously now. This is a change from last year when they didn't. Last two or three trips certainly my bike has been weighed. On the way back they may not.

I haven't flown Aer Lingus in a while but there is some confusion as to whether the 15kg actually applies to bikes. I'd try to get something out of them by email that it does not and print that and bring it with you.

Otherwise worth checking another bag and putting anything you can in there although difficult to see how you could get a hard shell case under 15kg (I got mine down to 18.4kg.)

I wouldn't take it lightly; as pointed out the excess charges per kilo are very high.

abc_xyz

I've traveled with bike and box good few times, usually 20kg+, and have never asked to get it weighed in Dublin. Last time was three weeks ago and the check-in guy asked was it over 20kg because if it was he needed to a heavy baggage label on it. No mention of charging for being over 15kg.
In foreign airports I have had to get it weighed but never had to pay excess weight fees. Maybe I'm just lucky but that's my experience probably 6+ times.

Ryder

abc_xyz wrote: »

I've traveled with bike and box good few times, usually 20kg+, and have never asked to get it weighed in Dublin. Last time was three weeks ago and the check-in guy asked was it over 20kg because if it was he needed to a heavy baggage label on it. No mention of charging for being over 15kg.
In foreign airports I have had to get it weighed but never had to pay excess weight fees. Maybe I'm just lucky but that's my experience probably 6+ times.

agree with above. Have flown 4 times in 6 weeks with aerlingus. All times the bike/bag weighed 20kg ish. Never weighed. Could see ryanaer weighing and enforcing though.....

Ryaner

Going through Dublin the first time with Aer Lingus, the weighting consisted of being asked how heavy the bike bags were. On the way back through spain we didn't get weighted but were lucky. A guy ahead of us was charged over €100 for his golf bag being over weight.
Second trip through Dublin nothing was said about the weight which was annoying since we had booked a second bag and transferred extra bits into it. Actually Aer Lingus is even more annoying with that given a bike costs €40 and gets a weight limit of 15kg where as a second bag costs €15 and gets a weight limit of 20kg. Sorely tempted to pack the bike between two normal bags next time.

CramCycle

Ryaner wrote: »

Going through Dublin the first time with Aer Lingus, the weighting consisted of being asked how heavy the bike bags were. On the way back through spain we didn't get weighted but were lucky. A guy ahead of us was charged over €100 for his golf bag being over weight.
Second trip through Dublin nothing was said about the weight which was annoying since we had booked a second bag and transferred extra bits into it. Actually Aer Lingus is even more annoying with that given a bike costs €40 and gets a weight limit of 15kg where as a second bag costs €15 and gets a weight limit of 20kg. Sorely tempted to pack the bike between two normal bags next time.

You can claim a bike in a proper bag/box as just oversized baggage, so aer lingus told me. Once its fully sealed away, you can just claim oversize baggage but I think the idea is that they supposedly are kinder if its a bike (but thats bull and we all know that).