For any trip that does not begin by pedaling out of your own driveway and later pedaling back in, there is always the question of how to get to the start of the ride with your bike. If the ride is far away, and even overseas, then this can be a real. major question.

The Bike Friday is supposed to solve the problem of traveling with a bike, but it is not really that simple. Yes, you can fold the bike and put it in a suitcase. But it can be quite a bug to disassemble enough to get the bike, with its racks and bottle cages and many other touring fittings, to fit. And once you get there, you have two giant suitcases to contend with.

Then there is the option of a quick(er) fold and putting the bikes into a nylon carry bag. At a couple of pounds each, you might drag the bags around with you (assuming you had a place or an answer for the inevitable duffle bag(s) that held your panniers).

So at the start of planning this trip, as with every trip, we asked ourselves about suitcases, duffel bags, bike carry bags, bike boxes, hotels or warm showers people to hold on to stuff, and which airline to throw ourselves into the gentle arms of.

Somehow we also had the idea that once we could get to Hawaii, be it at Honolulu or Kahului (Maui) or Kona, we could hop from island to island easier than with the big leg from the mainland to the Islands. Without really checking, we figured that we could throw the bikes folded in bags onto a friendly local plane.

Now last time we used the bike bags (the ones sold by Bike Friday) we as usual struggled with figuring out how to make the bikes fit. We got it, finally, and wrote ourselves notes about how to do it. The only thing, last time we had put the bags on the train (Amtrak!) and they had made numerous holes in the rather flimsy fabric. So we thought we could solve everything by finding bigger and stronger bags. Dahon (one of Bike Friday's major competitors) has a few bags on offer, and especially if made for 26" folders, could be bigger and stronger.

So we jumped into the van and zoomed the 50 km down to Fairfield Cycle, in Victoria. Fairfield is the Victoria shop with the great selection of European style bikes, trikes, recumbents, folders, and such like, and they are extremely knowledgeable. They had a Dahon bag called the Bolso, and it seemed pretty big and strong. We bought two, at about $100 each and went home to try them out. Nope, not really big enough. Handlebars and stuff stuck out of the corners, and we could see picky airline staff blowing the whistle about that.

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We hopped on the web to look for something even bigger and stronger, but in an idle moment also read the baggage rules for Hawaiian Air. Hawaiian is pretty much the only carrier between islands now. Aloha Air seems to have gone bankrupt or merged with Alaska, or something. So Hawaiian demands bike boxes and $150 per bike, per leg. So much for island hopping. Actually, that killed our hope of cycling on Maui. Maui is the home of John Byrne - who wrote a great blog in 2012 from Vietnam and China, and we did want to drop in on him. Hmmmppphhh.

So given that apparently we could only cycle one island, we could focus on which airline would have the honour of flying us there. We seemed to remember lots of fares in the $400-500 (return, each) area, from times when we were not looking to travel. Now, of course, no such thing. And the main carrier in to Kona: Hawaiian.

To fly one way out of Seattle, Hawaiian wanted about $600 for the two of us, plus the $25 and $35 first and second bag fees each. While we were absorbing that (overnight) they jacked up the basic fare almost $100 in total. Grrr. So our total bill to get to Kona airport will be about $800. The airport is just 12 km from the hotel, but with the suitcases, we will need to take a taxi. We understand that is $35.

To get back from Kona, we tied into the other major carrier - Alaska (Aloha?) and found a somewhat cheaper rate. For us both, including the checked baggage, it will be $560.

The return air cost for two is then about $1400 - $700 each. Not $400, like in the "old days", but not so bad. Still, airline rules and charges did pretty much seal us out of all but one island.

All this is the kind of thing that had us finally just pedalling out of our driveway in 2012. Of course, we pedalled right in to continual freezing rain. That is why we, and everyone else, are lining up to pop down our $1400. It'll be worth it!

Coming up next: The route and the plan.