Bike packing! It's an art form...

It was Sunday 15th - it's just one week before I fly out to Canada and I figured that I should try to pack my bike. Top tips lay ahead!



First off, assuming you're not using a big-ass box, you need a bike bag. I bought my Chain Reaction Cycles one before I went to Turkey last summer, at the time it was roughly £90. At the time of writing it is actually only £68. There're lots of options out there though, ranging from the bottom of the range CRC offerings upto Polaris' hard-box type bag at £400+ and a whole host inbetween. As per usual I was on a budget, and so have the cheapest option. Last year I was riding a 16.5" (medium) Trek Superfly 29er XC bike, which is relatively small, light and compact and a nice starting point on my bike-bag packing experience. The only problem at the time was fitting the wheels into the wheel bags, that was tight, but doable.*

*Quick review - I have used the bag to and from Turkey with it weighing upto 35kg's on the return journey thanks to my colleagues utilising the extra luggage space, and is now packed again. The bag has it's flaws but is fairly well designed and it fits upto a size Large MTB with 29er wheels. The wheel bags have plastic plates in to protect the hub endcaps/discs and the bag itself has loads of pockets for tools, spares and clothing. The bag is padded all over, but it isn't thick padding. The trade off is that it isn't as heavy as some options, fortunately I have no complaints as to the toughness of the material used for construction inside or out. The shoulder handle works fine if you're strong enough to heft it fully-laden, but the front handle is too high and the bottom of the bag isn't rigid enough. As you wheel it along, it bends in the middle meaning you need to lift it higher from the front, which emphasises the problem with the height of the front handle. The rear wheels roll perfectly well, but are too close together, this reduces stability and means that you have to pack the bag perfectly for it not to continually fall over as you walk it through the airport. Overall it's a good bag for the price, with plenty of room for improvement. Unfortunately doing so would probably raise the cost significantly, so value for money is high. 


For 2017 I've been riding a Large prototype On One Hadza, which is essentially a Boost-spaced Codeine. For those not in the know, it is full suspension bike and, thanks to current trends and sizing, significantly larger than the Trek. Was it even going to fit?


How to pack your bike...

It's certainly going to be a bit of a challenge, but where is the fun in life if it's easy all the time? The first thing to sort is the wheels - you should let the air out so that the tyres are flat. While you could probably leave them inflated, it's not worth it with the pressure changes they'll be going through on a flight. If you have a 29er like me, you'll probably find they don't fit in the bags with inflated tyres...
Both tyres are still seated on the bead, with sealant inside so they're a simple pump-and-go at the other end.

Next up is to continue stripping the frame. That means the pedals come off, the front and rear axles are put back in, the seatpost removed or, if you have a dropper, it is compressed. Again, if you have one that is pressurised, remove all pressure. Personally I have a really cheap RSP unit that is sealed and I can't do anything with. Lastly, take the rear mech off as you do not want this damaged during the flight, your mech hanger snapped, or both.

Remember what I said about pressure? Well your forks and shock are the most crucial items here. You'd hate to arrive at your destination to find your seals blown wouldn't you?. That would not be a fun way to start a holiday! I've deflated both and written the pressure in PSI on my travel tool box.

If you're lucky enough you'll have some of these lovely SRAM brake spacers. They come with new brakes or SRAM bleeding kits, my friend Vickybikes was good enough to supply me with this one. As it was only one, I've folded up some cardboard (or paper) and put it between the pads on the rear brake so they cannot be squeezed together.

Time to place it in the bag! Finally some progress is being made. My bike is a TIGHT fit, I've barely got any room at either end with my rear triangle and forks touching either end. For balance I always put the front of the bike at the front of the bag. It always just seems to work better as you can easily use the space around the rear triangle for weighty items to keep weight low and further back. NOTE where I put the tool box, you want something under the BB so that the chainring isn't hitting on the bottom of the bag, it'll easily be damaged there, and even if it isn't, the teeth will eat your bag up! (pun intended)

Time to remove those handlebars. Do you want to get them back in the same place when you arrive? Put a little mark on them so you'll know! No need to spent 30 minutes re-setting your bike back up when're rebuilding when you can just do this...

I tried putting the bars down both sides of the bike, the left worked the best, this will depend on cable routing. Before you finalise this though, you should not forget that like this the brake levers are really easy to depress, which will push the pads inwards and so need to be pushed back out when building. This is why we fitted the brake pad spacers earlier - it will save us a lot of time at the other end.

So what now? If you have paint you want to preserve or you want to avoid rub marks and general damage to the bike as a whole, it's time to dig that bubble wrap out that you've been saving for a rainy day (or is that just me?) First up; wrap those bars! End to end, nice and safe. The forks are a good choice next and anywhere the bars might make contact with the frame. It's times like this I'm really happy to have a raw aluminium frame, but even so, it's worth wrapping things to avoid damage.

Don't forget to wrap that rear mech up! This area in the rear triangle is also a great area to stash spare bits. I've put 2 folded up tyres in here. My pedals will go into a side pocket and most of my MTB clothing will also go into this area and all the little gaps around the frame - it's both protection and an easy way to maximise that 30kg allowance you get with a bike bag.

Last but not least, you need to fit those wheel bags in. One on each side of the bike, try to keep them even if you can - this will result in a better balanced bag while you're wheeling it along, but a zip that is harder to do up. As you put them in, try to make sure that the discs are inwards, against the frame rather than outwards. This will reduce the likelihood of them being bent in transit.

Look at that, it all fitted! The key here is to repack various items as many times as it takes to make sure the bag is as balanced as possible.You can put the tools you're taking into the pockets, redistribute items and pack your spares and clothing as extra protection. I recommend walking the bike around in the bag for a while, test how it rolls and make sure you're happy. It's a royal pain in the backside if you get to the airport and suddenly it falls over every time you try to pull it along.



Thanks for reading, new and exciting content coming soon!