How To Pack A Bike Bag | Packing Your Triathlon Bike Like A Pro

Transport your bike safely and securely with our guide on how to pack a bike bag. Whether you are travelling for training, racing or a holiday, you want to arrive with your bike in perfect condition!

Mark and Fraser recently travelled to Lanzarote for a shoot. When packing for the journey home, they decided to make this guide on how to pack your triathlon or time trial bike in a bike bag. We hope you find it useful and if you have any packing tips, make sure to leave them in the comments below 👇

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[gtn]

How often do you travel with your bike?

[jamesd]

#1 TIP for travelling with a bike! -- Pack your clothes for the trip in plastic bags and double wrap them. then put these around the bike e.g. under the BB, between the chainstays ect.. and you pad out the box and potentially save yourself from having to buy a suitcase slot in the plane hold.

I've done this many many times, bike box carrys everything for the trip, bike is always fine and never have trouble with weight limit ect. at the airport ethier

[eduardocelisMD]

A very useful tip: for the tube parts of the bike I use pool noodles, they work great

[agusromeo]

I usually mark the saddle hight with electrical tape so I know where to put it later!

[chickenpoodle]

use the pipe insulation on every possible tube. seat stays, frame, fork, everything! go and wrap up and zip tie the seat pin and saddle to your top tube to get it out of the way. shove your helmet and shoes into the rear triangle to get it out of the way. clothes can go into separate bags and set them throughout the bag, and if airlines question it, you tell them, that you're just adding insulation to prevent baggage handlers from breaking stuff. basically use the excuse you're going the extra mile to ensure THEY don't screw up. 99% of the time they won't argue and just let it go. the only warning i'll give though is for ppl running scicon bags, where you don't have to remove the handle bars, I always take mines off anyway, and zip tie it to the frame/forks, and throw on a diff set just to take the abuse of handlers. the sti levers are pretty exposed up there. I use clear packing tape to to tape up the chain, so I don't have to remove any wrapping to show ppl what is inside, if they insist on a manual search. zip tie the chain to the chainrings to ensure it doesn't fall off in transit, otherwise it'll do a number on your cranks. set your cranks to the 3 and 9 positions, and tie one of your crank arms up against the frame.

[Dolbouck]

You can get a hard cover guard for the “mech” so no need to take it off. Also, you can have the chain not hanging by getting a chain guide, it will keep the rear forks rigid as well and less disassembly.
In the US if other stuff is stored in the travel case it’s more likely TSA will open it to check it.

[alexbojanic]

BikeBox Alan EasyFit hard case is expensive but the BEST choice for transporting TT bike. I got it. It is designed to accommodate tri bikes with taking off only pedals and maybe rear mech (depend of the bike size). However with my 2021 Scott Plasma 6 size 56 cm I am not as lucky and whole integrated cockpit shall be taken and set on a top of the frame to fit the frame in...

[TheKauaiboyz]

love this channel! i recently bought a hard case bike bag and your tips will definitely be useful! mahaloz!

[StandardDeviation]

Can you please make a new packaging video that shows how to package new bikes that have hydraulic brakes where all cables are internally routed?

[midsfella]

I have that exact bike and have to say it's virtually a full strip down to get it into a bike case.... It's certainly not travel friendly.. 👍

[bertinofulzzz]

Having travelled 7-8 times with the bike I discovered that the major thing to keep in mind is airlines policy and employees: it is literally a lottery. Even if the weight is ok, sometimes they charge crazy amount because they consider the bag oversized. In my flight with #United one way was ok and the way back was 200$. Long story Short story: if u fly for IM the bike can cost as much as your flight ticket!

[imtriinsight_jingwu]

Any suggestions and recommendations to pack a size 58 Cervelo P5 DISC, a huge triathlon bike, please?
It's big and heavy, hardly to find one appropriate bike bag for it...

[larsproductions]

#askgtnswim I don't get the Transition zones.
When the water is warm enough, do you only swim with a trisuit or do you wear it under a swimsuit. And then in the T1 you just take the swimsuit off and start to ride?

[susanolesky]

What are the easiest tri bikes to pack? Canyon? Dimond? BMC? Cervelo? Trek?

[timschonberg]

another question, what do you do with the di2 battery? I have heard that you can get problems with some airlines. and especially with the canyon speedmax beause you can not remove the battery

[kennethmanusama]

How about disc brakes? Do you take the discs off?

[markankone]

1 😎
Questions
1 Why do you not use a hard case?
2 i want to buy a bike navigation, how do i fix that between the earobars, i see that you have that
3. Now your finisht, you can sent the bike to me 😁

[JorgeDiaz-umqx]

...and if you have a power2max on take out the battery as it would run while travelling

[johnbouttell]

Dear gtn, my NYR is to use a Concept 2 rowing machine in the off season. Please make a video called, 'Rowing for Cyclists.' Thank you.

[ponderingfox]

The big question is how to put things back together so that the proper fit is intact.