Ryanair and bicycles

25sean

Flying on friday with my bike. going to be tight on time getting to the airport from work so will probably ride out. have already paid the increased fu$%ing carrier charge. would rather not have the hassle of boxes etc and take the chance rolling the bike up, with no pedals and flat tyres...

has anyone flown with a bike with ryanair recently.. did they insist on a box? will they accept a bike without?

any tales appreciated

seán

crashoveroid

25sean wrote: »

Flying on friday with my bike. going to be tight on time getting to the airport from work so will probably ride out. have already paid the increased fu$%ing carrier charge. would rather not have the hassle of boxes etc and take the chance rolling the bike up, with no pedals and flat tyres...

has anyone flown with a bike with ryanair recently.. did they insist on a box? will they accept a bike without?

any tales appreciated

seán

Hi

I think it has to be in a box all i can say is watch your weight mine was over the allowed weight and it cost me an extra 180 yo yo,s extra both back and forth so watch the weight.

velopeloton

We recently had visitors who traveled with Ryanair (Dublin-Biarritz) and had the bikes covered in cardboard. A sheet on each side held on with cable ties and duct-tape. The wheels were deflated. They just wheeled the bikes up to the check-in and then to the over sized baggage. All bikes arrived in perfect condition. I would be happier with a bag or case myself but Ryanair were happy with just the cardboard.

Michelin

I havent travelled with a bike on ryanair since last summer, so not sure if there are new restrictions now. but i have rolled my bike up to the check in many times with just the handlebars turned and pedals removed. never a scratch.

tawfeeredux

Travelled last summer with Ryanair and didn't need a box. AFAIK, it depends on the airport more than the carrier. Dublin airport seem fine with bikes - they just ask that you let the air out of the tyres, i was never asked to turn the handlebars or remove the pedals.

if you're returning from another/foreign airport, you might need to check their policy beforehand (i returned by ferry so can't relate any experiences in that regard).

blorg

I fly with Ryanair (and Aer Lingus) reasonably regularly. They don't require packaging. If you leave the bike unboxed you will not hit the 20kg limit. When I go touring I just wheel the bike up to them, they call some lads to take it away and there you go. Packing is completely optional.

Travelling with my road bikes (carbon/light titanium) I put them in a box and there is hassle over the 20kg etc.

If you have a reasonably solid bike I would bring it as is and not package it.

IM0

blorg wrote: »

If you have a reasonably solid bike I would bring it as is and not package it.

If your doing that its worth it to loosen the rear der and tape it to the chainstay if you dont want the hassle of it being ding'd in transit and finding a new one when you get there. Its a small risk, but it's also 2 minutes work to 'tuck it away'

blorg

me@ucd wrote: »

If your doing that its worth it to loosen the rear der and tape it to the chainstay if you dont want the hassle of it being ding'd in transit and finding a new one when you get there. Its a small risk, but it's also 2 minutes work to 'tuck it away'

Worth considering but I have never bothered doing this myself and have never had a problem. I had a bent chainring once but that was on a bus rather than a flight.

Lumen

velopeloton wrote: »

We recently had visitors who traveled with Ryanair (Dublin-Biarritz) and had the bikes covered in cardboard. A sheet on each side held on with cable ties and duct-tape. The wheels were deflated. They just wheeled the bikes up to the check-in and then to the over sized baggage. All bikes arrived in perfect condition. I would be happier with a bag or case myself but Ryanair were happy with just the cardboard.

I like this idea, a sort of self-rolling bike box.

I've been experimenting recently with 10mm twinwall polycarbonate sheet from B&Q, and it's pretty light (1700g/sq m) although the stuff I got was only 700mm deep which would be inadequate for a full size bike.

Fatscally

I used to work in a bike shop and I always wondered about 1 particular repair job. They bought the bike new in Portugal, brought it home ryanair and the whole bike was destroyed. But what was really odd is that even the brake shoes were bent like bananas. So it seemed like spite vandalism rather than accidental damage.

Anyway, I'm planning a Milan to Palermo tour so good thread.:)

07Lapierre

Was I just lucky then?

I brought my bike to Malaga last year with Ryanair. I had the bike in a box (along with cloths, cycling shoes and anything else i could fit into it).
At the check in desk thay simply put a "fragile" sticker on the box and directed me over to the "oversize" luggage area. The box wasn't weighed and i've no doubt it weighed a lot more than 20kgs.

I'm doing the same again this year and I've already booked the flights (and paid for bike transport). I'm not expecting any extra charges.

blorg

07Lapierre wrote: »

Was I just lucky then?

I brought my bike to Malaga last year with Ryanair. I had the bike in a box (along with cloths, cycling shoes and anything else i could fit into it).
At the check in desk thay simply put a "fragile" sticker on the box and directed me over to the "oversize" luggage area. The box wasn't weighed and i've no doubt it weighed a lot more than 20kgs.

I'm doing the same again this year and I've already booked the flights (and paid for bike transport). I'm not expecting any extra charges.

No, you were not just lucky, it is a new regulation. I have travelled with them plenty including Malaga early in 2009 and I used stuff the box full of wine and all my clothes, it weighed near 40kg coming back from that one I think. Coming back from the Marmotte last year they were weighing but only enforcing a 32kg limit. My box was around 32kg but others in our group had to pay excess then.

The 20kg is new and may or may not be enforced but going over to Malaga in February 2010 they weighed all our boxes in Dublin. They didn't on the way back. I had to struggle to rearrange stuff to get it near 20kg.

I would ENSURE if travelling with Ryanair that you have the box under or at least near 20kg. Easiest way to do this is book a separate bag and stick stuff like saddle and seatpost, tools, clothes etc into that.

If your box weighs 35kg (to take an example, easy to hit that with a bike box) you will be paying €20 per kilo on the excess, in other words €300. Each way if you are unlucky enough to be weighed in both directions.

Michelin

Well how about usiing a bike bag instead of a bike box? with plenty of padding.

blorg

Michelin wrote: »

Well how about usiing a bike bag instead of a bike box? with plenty of padding.

Depends on the bike but I generally think you are better off with nothing than a bag. The handlers seem to handle the bikes quite carefully if they can wheel them around while the bag makes handling difficult. I have seen them throw boxes and bags around quite roughly (and have had several boxes damaged) while they don't do this to an unpacked bike.