You love your bike. You love the fit, the feel, the way it disappears under you on a good climb. So when it’s time for a Climate Ride, you want your trusty machine there with you. Here’s how to do it: how to get your own bike through an airport and onto the start line without a scratch, a mystery rattle, or a shifting problem you didn’t have at home.
Choose Your Case: Hard, Soft, or Cardboard
There’s no single “right” container — it’s a trade-off between protection, cost, weight, and how much storage space you have at home.
Hard cases (like those from B&W, Thule, or Evoc’s hard-shell line) offer the best protection, especially against crushing and impact. They’re molded to hold your frame and wheels securely and can double as a stand while you build the bike back up. The trade-offs are cost (often $400–$900), weight (a heavy case eats into your airline weight allowance before you’ve even packed the bike), and the fact that you need somewhere to store an empty case for the rest of your trip — not ideal if you’re flying into a point-to-point Climate Ride and won’t see your car again.
Soft cases (Evoc, Dakine, Scicon, Post Carry) are lighter, easier to store or fold down, and often cheaper than hard cases. They rely on internal padding and frame protectors rather than a rigid shell, so they demand more careful packing technique — foam, pipe insulation, and cardboard inserts do the work a hard shell would otherwise do. Airlines and baggage handlers can’t tell what’s inside a soft case, so it may get treated less gently.
Cardboard bike boxes are what most bike shops give away for free, and they’re what your bike likely shipped in originally. They’re the cheapest and most sustainable option — you can often find one at a local shop, use it once, and recycle it — but they offer the least structural protection and typically can’t be reused indefinitely. If you go this route, over-pack the padding to compensate for the lack of rigid support, and expect to build a fresh box for the trip home (ask your destination bike shop or hotel if they have one, since Climate Ride host hotels and local shops are often happy to help riders find one).
A middle-ground option worth knowing about: some riders rent a hard case for a single trip through local bike shops or services like BikeFlights, which sidesteps the storage problem entirely.
Prep Before You Even Open the Box
A little homework before disassembly saves you real time and stress at your destination.
Take photos of your cockpit setup — stem height, saddle position (fore/aft and height), and cable routing — before you touch anything. When you’re reassembling in a hotel parking lot or your event’s staging area, these photos are worth more than memory. Measure your saddle height from the center of the bottom bracket to the top of the saddle and jot it down, or wrap a strip of tape around the seatpost at the point it meets the frame so you can reset it instantly.
Clean your bike before you pack it. A degreased drivetrain and wiped-down frame won’t leave grease marks on padding or clothes packed nearby, and it’s much easier to spot new scratches from travel if the bike was clean beforehand.
Deflate your tires partially. You don’t need to remove all air, but tires at full pressure in a pressurized, temperature-swinging cargo hold have (rarely, but occasionally) been known to cause issues, and most airlines simply ask that tires not be at full PSI for security screening.
Protecting the Frame and Components
This is where most of the “pro tips” live, because this is where damage actually happens.
Remove the pedals. Use a pedal wrench (remember: the left pedal is reverse-threaded) and wrap the threads with a bit of tape or a plastic bag so they don’t gouge anything else in the case.
Remove or turn the handlebars. Most cases require you to loosen the stem and turn the bars parallel to the frame, or remove them entirely, to fit within the case dimensions. If your bike has hydraulic brakes, avoid squeezing the levers once the wheel/rotor is removed — this can cause the pistons to push out and make it hard to reinsert the rotor later. A rotor spacer or an old ticket stub wedged between the pads prevents this.
Remove the rear derailleur on geared bikes, or at minimum protect it. The derailleur hanger is one of the most frequently damaged parts of a traveling bike because it sticks out and takes side-impact hits. Many riders unbolt the derailleur from the hanger entirely and zip-tie it to the chainstay, padded, rather than just shifting it out of the way. This alone prevents a huge share of “why won’t my bike shift” moments at the start of a ride.
Pack a spare derailleur hanger and the small bolt that attaches it. These are bike-specific parts, not something a random shop in a small town is likely to stock, and a bent hanger or stripped bolt is one of the most common travel casualties. A spare costs a few dollars and weighs nothing — carrying one can be the difference between riding on day one and scrambling for a mail-order part.
Protect the frame tubes. Pipe insulation (the foam tubing from a hardware store) slit lengthwise and taped around the top tube, down tube, and chainstays is inexpensive and highly effective. A pool noodle works just as well and is often even cheaper — slice it lengthwise with a knife and wrap it around whatever frame tube or fork leg needs padding, then secure it with tape. Pad the fork tips and rear dropouts with the plastic or foam spacers your case or shop provides — this keeps the fork and frame from splaying or getting crushed if something heavy shifts on top of it.
Use a thru-axle or dropout spacer. Without one, the fork and rear triangle can flex inward under pressure and misalign your frame. Most shops will give you a spacer block for free when you buy or rent a box.
Don’t lose track of your thru-axles. Once the wheels are off, it’s easy to set an axle aside “for a second” and have it never make it into the box. Thread each axle back into the fork and dropout if you can, or tape it securely inside the case so it can’t work loose. Thru-axles are frame- and fork-specific — the wrong diameter, length, or thread pitch simply won’t work — so a lost one usually means you can’t ride until a replacement arrives, not just a quick trip to a local shop.
Wrap the wheels separately in their own padding or wheel bags, and consider removing the rear cassette-side quick release skewer or thru-axle so it doesn’t puncture anything. If your wheels ride alongside the frame in the same case, position them so the cassette and rotors face away from the frame, and add a layer of cardboard or foam between wheel and frame contact points.
Protect (or remove) your rotors. Disc rotors are thin and bend easily under even light side pressure, and a bent rotor means an annoying rub at best and an unrideable brake at worst. If you know how to pull them (a Torx wrench for six-bolt rotors, or an appropriate tool for center-lock), removing them and packing them flat in a rigid sleeve — a cut-down cereal box or a dedicated rotor guard works well — is the safest option. If you’d rather leave them on, at minimum use rigid rotor guards (cardboard discs cut to size and taped over each rotor, or purpose-made plastic guards from most bike shops) and pack the wheels so nothing else in the case can press against the rotor face. Either way, keep rotors away from direct contact with the case wall or other hard components — that’s where the bends happen.
Fill dead space. Loosely packed cases let components shift and collide mid-flight. Use soft items you’re already packing — a rain jacket, packing cubes, extra padding — to fill gaps between the frame, wheels, and case walls so nothing has room to move.
Electronics: What Flies With You, Not Under the Plane
This is the part riders most often get wrong, and it’s worth reading closely.
Spare lithium batteries stay in your carry-on, always. This includes spare batteries for electronic shifting (Di2, eTap/AXS), dropper posts, GPS computers, and any spare bike light batteries. TSA and FAA rules prohibit spare (uninstalled) lithium batteries in checked luggage — they must travel in the cabin with you, terminals protected from short-circuiting (tape over the contacts, original packaging, or a battery case/pouch all work). Installed batteries (the one already in your Di2 derailleur, your GPS unit, etc.) can travel in the checked bike box, but if you can pull it and carry it on instead, that’s the safer bet against both regulations and cold-cargo-hold battery degradation.
Know your watt-hour limits. Batteries under 100Wh are fine in carry-on without special approval; 101–160Wh need airline approval in advance (this mostly affects e-bike batteries, not standard component batteries); anything over 160Wh isn’t allowed on passenger aircraft at all. If you’re traveling with an e-bike, call your airline well before your trip — battery rules are the single biggest reason e-bikes get bumped at the gate.
Bike computers and GPS units should travel with you in carry-on if possible, both to protect the screen and because a jostled cargo hold is a rough place for anything with a glass face. If you leave one mounted on the bike, remove it from its mount and pad it separately.
Lights with removable batteries: pull the battery and pack it per the rules above. Lights with sealed, non-removable batteries under the watt-hour threshold can typically stay installed, but check the specific light’s Wh rating if you’re unsure.
CO2 Cartridges: Leave Them Home
This trips up a lot of riders who otherwise pack perfectly. TSA prohibits all compressed gas cartridges, full or partial, in both carry-on and checked baggage — CO2 cartridges for tire inflation are not an exception, even though they’re small and clearly recreational. The only way a cartridge flies is completely empty and verifiable as empty, which isn’t practical for standard 16g cartridges. Plan to buy CO2 cartridges after you land — most bike shops near ride start locations carry them, and many Climate Ride events have neutral support or a shop partner on-site who can point you to a nearby supplier.
Packing Checklist
- Bike cleaned and drivetrain degreased
- Cockpit measurements recorded or marked with tape
- Photos taken of stem, saddle, and cable routing
- Tires partially deflated
- Pedals removed, threads protected
- Handlebars turned or removed
- Rotor spacer or spacer wedge in brake calipers
- Rear derailleur removed and padded, or fully protected in place
- Frame tubes wrapped in pipe insulation or foam
- Fork and dropout spacers installed
- Thru-axles reinstalled or taped securely inside the case
- Spare derailleur hanger and bolt packed
- Wheels padded and packed with rotors/cassette facing outward
- Rotors removed or protected with rigid guards
- Dead space filled with soft items
- Spare batteries and bike computer moved to carry-on
- CO2 cartridges left at home
- Case weight checked against your airline’s limit before you leave for the airport
At the Airport
Airline policies on bike fees and size/weight limits change often and vary widely, so check your specific airline’s current bike policy a few days before you fly rather than relying on what a friend paid last year. Weigh your packed case at home if you can — many hard cases plus a bike push close to the 50 lb standard checked-bag limit, and overage fees add up fast. Consider adding a layer of luggage insurance or checking whether your homeowner’s/renter’s policy or a cycling-specific policy covers transit damage, since standard airline liability for checked sports equipment is often limited.
When You Land
Give yourself more time than you think you’ll need to reassemble — rushing a rebuild is how torque specs get skipped and bolts get left loose. Reverse your packing steps, use your photos and marked measurements to restore your fit, and do a full pre-ride check (brakes, shifting, tire pressure, quick releases or thru-axles torqued) before you roll out. If anything feels off after a flight — a rubbing brake, a hesitant shift — it’s worth a once-over from a local shop before ride day rather than troubleshooting on the road.
One last, small thing in the spirit of why we ride: if you’re using a cardboard box, ask your destination hotel or a local shop if they’ll take it back for reuse or recycle it, rather than tossing it. It’s a small gesture, but it fits the trip.
Safe travels, and see you at the start line.