Lugging around a bike while traveling

[elcolombiano]

Originally Posted by J.Higgins

What I have done before with great success is to simply buy a beater bike, bike it about town, and resell it or ditch it before I leave. When you add up all of the hassles and extra expenses usually associated with taking a bike with you, a cheapo bike looks a lot more desirable.

My wife and I live in a very rural area. Its about an hour drive get any place where there is any sort of city or cultural center. We like to go to a city and enjoy its food and entertainment, and atmosphere. Many times now, I have purchased us a couple cheapo Walmart bikes. Being a mechanic, I cant leave them alone, needing to adjust everything to my liking, but it gives me something to do while she's getting herself ready.

I used to load up our nice bikes, but I was always so afraid of them being stolen or damaged. The people on the ferry ask you to sometimes just lean your bike in a huge pile-up just to make room for more people.

Several times over the years we've revisited folding bikes. We've had everything from Raleigh Twenty's to Dahons, to Bromptons, and while I am okay with riding a folder, my wife is not. She says she feels like a circus clown on them, and that everyone is watching her. I just shrug my shoulders and say okay, and sell them off and move on to something new. So I guess I am saying that a folder may be a good choice too. Definitely easier to take along!

Very interesting. Thanks.

[elcolombiano]

Originally Posted by .RJ

Its always a hassle. If you rent, you gotta go get the rental and spend an hour getting it all set up/dialed in. If you bring, you spend an hour building your bike.

I've done both, the only less hassle option is to bring running shoes.

Running shoes. 25% of my travels I take a bicycle. 100% of my travels I take running shoes.

[elcolombiano]

Originally Posted by Likes2ridefar

I prefer my own bike and would just use a bike bag rather than tearing it down and requiring a lot of rebuild.

I use a pika pack works after many others and have used the big bulky ones as well. The pika is lighter than most suitcases and leaves the bike mostly still together.

When I went to Barcelona, I had a wheeled triall3sports case and while it was the best ive used it was also huge. I had to hire a van and then discovered the case wouldn’t fit up the narrow staircase to the place I had rented

Pika case looks nice!

[reuben]

Originally Posted by tomato coupe

Buy your own plane => take your own bike.

LOL, need to tie into the WGAS about SpaceX? thread.

[Bob Ross]

Originally Posted by Joel

One of my buddies had a proper S&S travel bike in a case. He said the worst experience in his life was lugging that thing on the Metro in Paris...

He's lucky he didn't have a non-coupled bike in a full-sized Trico or Thule case!

It was the nightmare of dealing with two full-sized cases in rental cars and hotel rooms when we travelled to the Markleeville Death Ride in 2010 that convinced me and the missus to get S&S coupled bikes later that year. And the joy and comfort of riding your own bike that you know intimately versus the vast unknowns of the rental bikes we encountered previously has made us grateful for that purchase again and again and again...

But I will note one distinct advantage of rental versus bringing your own travel bike: When we spent a week with a group riding in Mallorca, on the last night of the trip when Ms. Thing and I got got started on the whole disassembling & packing routine, everyone else in the group went out to a bar.

[elb1974]

Another advantage of taking one's own bike is the absence of any feeling of needing to ride every single day in order to justify the price of the rental.

[mcfarton]

I bought a break away on here. We normally travel overseas every other year. I planned to use it this year only to not be able to renew my daughter’s passport. It took 5 months to get her new passport and our travel window passed. Now I have a extra road bike that I have sunk money into and have to store. I get to use it next year.

I have done the full size travel case twice and won’t do it again. It sucks. Where we go renting isn’t much of an option.


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[zennmotion]

Originally Posted by Bob Ross

But I will note one distinct advantage of rental versus bringing your own travel bike: When we spent a week with a group riding in Mallorca, on the last night of the trip when Ms. Thing and I got got started on the whole disassembling & packing routine, everyone else in the group went out to a bar.

Pfft! You just need some practice! I have disassembled and packed my Ritchey breakaway in the back of a hotel van in a panic rush to the airport. Twice. Because the night before was spent in a bar