Pack my Ride

(Posted by Jeremy, a.k.a. Yama)

Well, as you can imagine, with the ride date quickly approaching, it's time we started packing our bikes up and getting them ready to ship/fly.

Joe is the only one of us who won't be packing, since he decided to buy a bike for the ride on eBay. There's obviously a bit of risk involved in that approach (the bike might not be in great shape mechanically, or maybe the components won't be as good as promised,for instance), but nothing that Joe or the local bike shop guy can't deal with.

Joe's also the only one of us already in Seattle, the meeting point, but I believe he's still waiting for his new (used) bike.

Anyway, here are two pictures of Tom's bike (just about to go in the box, and in the box). I swear, Tom must secretly be a professional bike packer. I told him he should start a new show on MTV called "Pack my Ride."

I spent a couple hours putting my bike in a box last night, but the result just isn't as nice as what Tom did, as you can see by the third picture.

Jody has to box up his bike, too, so hopefully I'll get a picture of that to pass on to you readers, too.

Tom (a.k.a. Jed) and Jody are shipping their bikes to Seattle via FedEx, but I'm taking mine on the plane from Japan.

When Joe and I flew with our bikes to Taiwan last year, we didn't have to pay a cent for baggage. Thanks China Airlines!

Thus, I just assumed that I'd be sending my bike on the plane for free this time around, too. Well, not quite. It turns out that ANA lets you check in a bike for free, but United doesn't. Lucky for me, I start off flying on ANA out of Fukuoka, before switching to a United jet in Tokyo. In other words, if all goes well, I should be able to get the bike to the States for free. (ANA and United are both members of Star Alliance.)

Not so on the way back. Since I'll be taking a United flight out of SFO, I might well get stuck with a hefty $200 fee for taking along my ancient steel beauty. Ugh! Screw you United!

One option available to me is to try to switch to an ANA flight, but that will take some luck. Another option is to disassemble the bike as much as possible, box her up, and try to get by with claiming my baggage is really "bike parts." I've heard that can work. (To that effect, I'm even considering leaving the wheels behind and buying a new set in Japan.) A third option that I've read about is to give a skycap at the curbside check-in a hefty tip so that he'll take care of it for me. We'll see.

Oh, yeah... I'm also flying my bike from San Diego to San Francisco on Southwest after the ride, and that's gonna cost me another $50, unless I can beat the system using the "bike parts" or "tip the skycap" method... Hmmm... Southwest Airlines: Where Bags Fly Free (until you read the fine print).

It's amazing how much trouble is involved when all you want to do is go for a little ol' bike ride with some friends...