September 3, 2023
The weighting is the hardest part
We're trying a slightly different strategy with packing for this tour. After getting dinged for overweight fees last year, we've decided to minimize the amount of gear in the bike boxes. My front rack, trunk bag, our helmets, cycling shoes, etc. all go in a bag, along with the 2 small panniers containing our camping and cooking gear. It's not just about saving weight, however. TSA will open the bike boxes, as they always do, and will remove and replace anything that's not tied down. That increases the risk of damage. Let's just make it easy on everyone and put all the smaller stuff in a bag that will fit in their x-ray machine.
Speaking of which, every non-USA airport we've been to has large x-ray machines for oversize baggage, so we never run into this specific problem when packing for the return trip. Even the weight doesn't seem to be much of an issue. They never weigh the boxes. Their attitude seems to be, "how much can a bike weigh, after all?" Finding bike boxes for the return trip, and finding transport to the airport, can be stressful, but once we're at the airport, it's usually been pretty smooth sailing. Of course now I'm thinking about some of the exceptions to this statement, such as the time at Incheon where they tried to hit us up for oversize charges, or the time our boxes sat exposed to the rain on the tarmac for an hour at Charles de Gaulle.
We have an extra large duffel bag that we've used many times in the past. The trouble is that it takes up a fair amount of space in the pannier, and weighs maybe 3 pounds. For this trip, we purchased what they call a "moving bag". It's basically an IKEA shopping bag with a zipper. I guess we're going to find out how it handles the rigors of air travel!
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To put our minds at ease, I asked a friend if we could weigh our items on his parcel scale. The bike boxes come in at 42 and 46 pounds, and the moving bag at 42. So this doesn't even include our handlebar bags and large panniers, which we take as carry-on luggage. That's probably another 25 pounds worth of stuff. Let's say the bike boxes weigh 7 pounds each. We're talking about 140 pounds between bikes and gear. It really adds up, doesn't it?
Hopefully in a couple days I'll be writing from the comfort of our guest house in Fiumicino, with all our gear intact. From there, it's a mere 325km to Firenze (Florence). Let's go!
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When we went to Sicily earlier this year, we checked that our cases were below Air Canada’s weigh limit for bikes: 32 kg. Al’s was right on the limit and mine a bit below. We paid AC’s standard fee of $50 but were surprised that they wouldn’t be checked right through to Palermo. We would have to collect and recheck them at our layover in Zurich. Imagine our shock to discover that when we rechecked them for the final leg, they were now overweight because the new airline had different rules. Maximum weight was now 23 kg!
Researching for next year’s trip, it seems most airlines have a 23 kg limit for bikes so we too will be using a third bag.
8 months ago