rear shock as hand luggage

[Topperharley]

Posted this in the 'flying with a dh bike thread', but kinda need some help now.

Called the airline who said it most likely not be ok to take my Fox Van RC2 shock on as hand luggage. End of the day thats probably true, but the web has conflicting stories of some saying it's fine, others not. Any experience? It's an international flight.

Saves a fair bit of weight! Any other ideas of how to save weight? Can't really think of much else, tyres and tubes are stripped, helmet & 5-10's are carry on (approved), was going to take pedals but De-Facto Straitline's look very much like a zombie survival tool so i'm not even going to try that.

Cheers

 

[fimpBIKES]

i once had a m8x40 bolt confiscated on a domestic flight, apparently = potential weapon...

 

[John U]

look at it like this, if a terrorist was getting onto a plane you or your family was travelling on would you mind if they were travelling with a coil shock? I reckon you could inflict some significant damage with one. I mean 12 years ago who would've thought a stanley knife would be a weapon of mass destruction.

I have back packed, not travelled with a bike. To reduce my load I pissed of any non-essential stuff. I had to take quite a bit of medical gear but reduced the weight and bulk by removing all the packaging and where needed replaced it using snap lock bags, sticky tape, and rubber bands.

If appropriate sacrifice stuff that can be picked up at your destination cheaply and easily.

On my return I had collected a fair bit of shit so I sent it back by surface courier in a tea chest. If you are organised there is no reason you couldn't do that to get stuff over there. You just need to know your destination or where you need to pick up from, and to allow enough time to get it there. I think it took about 6 or 8 weeks for my stuff to get back here from the UK.

 

[heavyp]

I took one on from gold coast to melbourne and then melbourne to Mildura about 5 years ago they didnt like it to much at melbourne but I still got away with it.

 

[Topperharley]

I'm pretty organised. Just looking to avoid avoidable excess baggage charges. Currently 5 kg's over our 85kg limit, 2 bikes, luggage etc. Every little helps! So now it's just down to what i can get away with on hand luggage!

For everyone, as i searched this a couple of times and found no answer; Maybe mods can move this to the flying with a DH bike thread?

EVOC bag with a standard DH bike weighing 18kgs give or take (example here is a 2013 Norco Aurum 1) with riding gear, shoes, D3, gloves, knee pads, Leatt Carbon, Pants and 2 jersey's weigh's in a 33.8kg's. 32kg's is the most for any 1 bag international so be careful!

Evoc bag with a standard AM bike weighing 13kgs give or take (example here is a 2013 Stumpy Evo 26") with trail pack, lid will weigh in at around 24kg's.

Get on airlines reward programs to get the best deal on excess baggage (I get 45kgs on Virgin as a gold member).

Travel insurance will cost you in the vicinity of $1000 for 4 months of cover, covering 2 bikes with a value of $3300 and $5200, this includes your medical stuff and other related travel insurance extras.

Bike specific insurance will cost you around the $400-$600 for the year, but will ONLY cover you for 90 days max. Very important point for me that one! It will also only cover you if your journey begins and ends within that window, for example, you can't travel and allow the it to run out, you are ineligible from day 1. (I tried all of them)

Home and contents works in theory if you declare your bikes, it will cost a fair amount, approximately $500, and only cover the bikes. Overseas cover however will only last for 30 days, budget direct were actually the best. Most others will not cover you overseas and have stupid measures for you to take in their pds, or have bike exclusion policies.

I have insurance though my credit card issued through NAB and underwritten by chubb, which will cover me for $2000 per individual item, with no bike exclusion policies. Not ideal but better than nothing.

EDIT: Southern Cross travel insurance came out very well, so i bought it, you can specify items up to $10,000 each. Cost me $414 to cover both bikes on top of a base $317 policy. Thanks for the hint Larks!

Hope that helps someone.

 

[fimpBIKES]

5kg? just wear all your pads then remove on plane :high5:

 

[heavyp]

Who are you flying with ? I just pay the extra online up to 3 hours before you fly, I just did 4 flights last week and am off to perth tonight and have about 140kilos of camera gear and it only cost me an extra 100 buks for 5 pieces weighing 23-26 kilos.

And ill offset that 100 buks by drinking about 200 buks of beer in the qantas club and about 100 in food haha

 

[skell]

I'm pretty organised. Just looking to avoid avoidable excess baggage charges. Currently 5 kg's over our 85kg limit, 2 bikes, luggage etc. Every little helps! So now it's just down to what i can get away with on hand luggage!

just be carefull you don't go over the limit for your handluggage, I flew back from the uk earlier this year and because we were close to the baggage limit (about 2kg under) they weighed the handluggage as well.

 

[outtacontrol]

I chose to wear some of my heavy items of clothing. If you are travelling with someone else and they are under, the airlines normally turn a blind eye if you are a little over and they are a little under.

They can be pretty strict with carry on limits on international flights, so carrying on stuff might catch you out anyway....

My advice would be to take less stuff. Look at what you could potentially buy if you needed to. Worse case, leave your tyres here and buy some over there. Will save trying to clean them properly to get through customs..

 

[Topperharley]

I chose to wear some of my heavy items of clothing. If you are travelling with someone else and they are under, the airlines normally turn a blind eye if you are a little over and they are a little under.

They can be pretty strict with carry on limits on international flights, so carrying on stuff might catch you out anyway....

My advice would be to take less stuff. Look at what you could potentially buy if you needed to. Worse case, leave your tyres here and buy some over there. Will save trying to clean them properly to get through customs..

Done and done.

It's amazing how much Minion's and DH tubes weigh!

 

[Topperharley]

Just spoke to Etihad, I sent them an email photo and description of the shock, they confirmed the object itself is fine, but as it contains fluid/gas it would not be allowed. If it was brand new out of the box without fluid no problem.

 

[nikmcc]

I'd contact DOTARS (I think that's what they still go by) directly. The decision is not Etihads, it's the monkeys at security screening. If dotars say its ok, get it in writing to show the security manger as I'm sure they will not know.
I don't see the risk in a shock. I just carried a full face helmet stuffed with leg and arm guards thru LAX and across Canada which was never an issue. But in reality you could do a lot more harm with the protective gear cause the air Marshall would have a harder time taking you down...

I've also taken brake rotors and pedals with no hassle.

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[placebo]

Maybe just take the spring off and carry it on. It's the heaviest part, I've done this with pedals and tools because they're dense and fit into hand luggage easily. Also what you can carry on is basically subject to whoever is doing the security when you go through, and that isn't consistent. I've been pulled up for a shock pump and allen keys, yet gone through with CO2 bottles without realising on US domestic. I've carried my D3 also rather than have in cracked by baggage.

 

[John U]

I don't see the risk in a shock. I just carried a full face helmet stuffed with leg and arm guards thru LAX and across Canada which was never an issue. But in reality you could do a lot more harm with the protective gear cause the air Marshall would have a harder time taking you down

I am playing devils advocate but a shock in some kind of bag allowing you to give it a swing could take your head off. Not that you'd have much room to swing it. Conversely I wouldn't have an issue with someone bringing protective gear on as long as they didn't also have something that could be used as a weapon.

I agree with all the comments that it'll depend on who you get on the day.

 

[ckooi]

i fly without the tire just to save some weight (its a 10 days DH riding trip at French Alps), and ya i wear my heavy gear when check in. only take it out in the plane.