The Flap Jill Mini is great for traveling Once you ve packed your bike, put everything else into one

The Rockmelon (aka The Macky Mobile) I was lucky enough budget travel online to spend most of this summer traveling budget travel online by car (since leaving Vermont on February 1st, I have driven over 15,000 miles). budget travel online I say lucky because I much prefer traveling car travel to plane travel. budget travel online For one, it s cheaper. Especially if, like Syd and me, you have more than one person in the car. It also helps if your car is tiny and the worst gas mileage it gets is 22MPG (with two people, tons of stuff and three bikes on the roof). As an example, take our recent trip to Downieville for the Downieville All-Mountain World Championships. It s just over 1000 miles from Winter Park (our start) to Downieville. Assuming the car got 20 miles per gallon budget travel online (a low estimate) and gas was $4 a gallon (a high estimate), it cost us (1000/20*4) $200 to get out there. Had we flown (to the closest airport of Reno, NV, 90 minutes away) it would have cost us EACH $170 not including the bike fees, rental car and gas to Downieville. You can also bring more. When driving I bring extra parts (wheels, brake pads, rotors, chains, budget travel online tires, etc), a full toolbox and a stand, budget travel online all things I can t bring when flying. But I digress. Instead of telling you why driving budget travel online is better (don t get me started on the smaller environmental footprint) I want to share some tricks I have learned to make flying with bikes less painful (and less expensive).
No bike fees on Frontier First and foremost, pick the correct airline. Unfortunately the correct airline budget travel online depends on where you re going. If, for example, you re flying to Durango, CO, Frontier is your best option. But if you re flying to Burlington, VT, you want to choose Jet Blue. Important factors to consider are cost of the ticket, checked luggage fees, bike fees and, most importantly, where they fly. In a lot of cases, it s cheaper to buy a more expensive ticket on Frontier, Jet Blue or Southwest because they charge so much less to fly with a bike. Here s a chart I made to help you decide:
Once you re bought your ticket, you have to pack your bike. This is a delicate procedure and requires some forethought. First of all, cardboard box or bike case? A hard case does a better job of protecting your bike but weighs more and you have to have somewhere to put it when you get to your destination. budget travel online I used to have a hard case but have recently switched to cardboard because it saves about 15 pounds (which can be used for other stuff I ll get to that in a bit) and I can get rid of it when you get to my destination (bike boxes don t fit well in rental cars). Once you ve decided you have to disassemble your bike. Take the wheels and pedals off, detach the rear derailleur and pull the handlebar and stem off (as one piece). Put the pedals and disc brake rotors (you took those off the wheels, right?) in a smaller box (this helps you keep from losing them) along with any other small-ish parts (quick-release skewers, multi-tools, etc). This keeps them from bouncing around in the box and scratching things.
CO2s? What CO2s? The next thing to think about is CO2 cartridges and tire sealant. Generally you can purchase these at your destination but I hate buying things I already have so I bring mine along. Unfortunately budget travel online the good old TSA isn t terribly fond of these items and has a tendency to remove them. So here s the deal. Apparently the TSA doesn t like if you fly with a bottle of tire sealant with TNT (Geax s Tubes-No-Tubes logo) written on it. They also don t like that Stan s NoTubes has ammonia in it. But they don t mind mystery liquids. So just remove all the labels and, boom, problem solved. And for CO2 cartridges, just put them in one of your bike water bottles. budget travel online Somehow this makes them invisible to TSA (yes, even in clear bottles). I always imagine budget travel online a TSA agent going through my bike box and pulling out the CO2-filled bottle, shaking it and commenting to his neighbor Hey, this bottle makes weird metallic noises, must be fine.
Then add your SeaSucker bike rack. Seriously. budget travel online They re small enough to fit in the bike box and then you can rent a tiny car instead of a van and put your bikes on top instead of inside. Make sure you wrap everything in copious amounts of foam, newspaper and/or bubble wrap, toss in your hydration pack and shoes and then fill the rest of the space with everything else you re traveling with (clothes, toothbrush bag, nutrition products, presents). Just make sure you keep the weight under 50 lbs or you ll get an overweight charge.
The Flap Jill Mini is great for traveling Once you ve packed your bike, put everything else into one carry-on-sized bag making sure that none of it will get you detained at the security checkpoint (no pocketknives, I ve made that mistake). Then make yourself some burritos or sandwiches or rice bars and pack those, along with some fruit, into your backpack and anything else you might want on the plane. At the airport, budget travel online after you ve checked your bike and made it through security, fill up your water bottle (hydration is key, right?) and sit. Don t get in line to get on the plane. Wait as long as you possibly can before boarding (you can even wait until they page you). When you absolutely have to get on the plane or they ll leave without you, go around the corner and then run up panting and hand them your ticket. This guarantees you re the last one on the plane so as you enter the cabin ask the flight attendant if they need you to put your carry-on in the luggage part of the plane (not your backpack, that goes under your seat). They re usually relieved and will happily check it to your final destination for you. So now you just have your backpack filled with the necessities to worry about and can comfortably sprint through the airport to make any close connections.