Flying with Silvio 1?

[AbramClark]

Last fall I did a nice short tour on my Silvio in Idaho (~210m mostly on Trail of the Coeur D'Alenes). The worst part was disassembling, packing, and reassembling the bike. I'm thinking about doing some more touring in other states on the Silvio and I'm hoping somebody has some tips for checking this bike on a plane.

I ended up removing the front derailleur, bottom bracket tube and handlebars and putting it in a bike bag. I used way too much cardboard and duct tape. The bike fared just fine but the bag was pretty much destroyed with a few holes worn in it.

It's by far my favorite touring bike so I'd like a better system for checking it. I think it would be best to get some sort of semi-rigid wheeled case. Any suggestions?

 

[super slim]

A Silvio S30 WILL fit into a 26"*26"*10"outside dimensions, carboardbox that S&S Used to sell, but still sell a plastic one for $580!
Any Cardboard box manufacture can build one for you for $20

But will require the Silvio rear suspension bike to be completely pulled apart , and in the Silvio V1.0 case, the seat sides to be cut off level with the frame sides, and a new 2 piece Fiberglass or 1 piece CF Silvio seat bolted on top of it!

Team Moose packed his S30 in a S&S plastic box for a Holiday trip to France, for a gentle tourist ride from Paris to Brest and back!
https://teammooseisloose.wordpress.com/2015/01/10/221/

http://www.sandsmachine.com/p_i_seq.htm
http://www.sandsmachine.com/ac_box.htm

3 or 4 compression members to stop the sides bending under external loads, OR use 1" PVC Conduit and flanges
http://www.sandsmachine.com/ac_comp.htm

Tiltmania also did it, but with the huge THOR seat (815 mm long) in a separate long narrow bag!
https://forum.cruzbike.com/threads/silvio-s30-fits-into-26x26x10-travel-case.8499/

 

[Mathew Fy]

If you don’t want to disassemble much, consider using a service like shipbikes.com and ship to a hotel or local bike shop.
I would make my own box sized to accommodate the bike and still be within size limits. (Beware that international sipping sizes are smaller.) Larry did some reporting of his efforts here. He demonstrated a minimum size for a fork-on V20:
“I then just laid out the bike parts on the garage floor to see what the minimum footprint would be without taking the fork off. It looks like you could do it in 47"x27"x8"...”

I see that Delta now accepts bikes as regular luggage if under 50 lbs. Maximum outside dimensions (length + width + height) is 115 linear inches.

 

[paco1961]

I just did this for my s40 for bike Sebring. Standard cardboard bike box from localbike shop. 2 padded wheel bags. Removed seat. Detached bars but left all cables attached. Detached RD and hanger but left cables intact. Loosened bb, slider and boom bolts and slid it all the way in until the chain stays were vertical. Wrapped in loads of bubble wrap. Took a little finagling w the box and 2-3 rolls of duct tape but worked out just fine. Bikeflights.com. Shipped from Louisville KY on a Monday and it showed up at the specified FL ups shop on Wed morning. The shop did charge me $5/day for the 2 days it was stored there before I could pick it up. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

 

[Pollock]

@paco1961 if you are packing it back up when you head back home, would you mind snapping a quick picture and posting it? I believe I understand what you wrote. Just curious to see it in action so I have a reference later for my S40.

 

[super slim]

I just did this for my s40 for bike Sebring. Standard cardboard bike box from localbike shop. 2 padded wheel bags. Removed seat. Detached bars but left all cables attached. Detached RD and hanger but left cables intact. Loosened bb, slider and boom bolts and slid it all the way in until the chain stays were vertical. Wrapped in loads of bubble wrap. Took a little finagling w the box and 2-3 rolls of duct tape but worked out just fine. Bikeflights.com. Shipped from Louisville KY on a Monday and it showed up at the specified FL ups shop on Wed morning. The shop did charge me $5/day for the 2 days it was stored there before I could pick it up. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

How much did the shipping cost?

 

[paco1961]

Will post pics as I unpack when I get home. Already in the in the box.
Shipping Ky-Fl was $135 one way including $3000 insurance.

I flew Southwest Airlines. Called and talked with them twice before I left about checking it as luggage on my flight. Got two different stories on max weight and measurement so was not comfortable showing up at the airport and being turned away. Seems if that worked out it would have been more like $75-$100 each way.

 

[Brad R]

I pretty much disassembled my T50 and put it in a box. Total weight was just under 50 lbs and checked it to my destination on Delta. Worked out great. It counted as my first (and free) checked bag.

shipbikes.com uses FedEx and FedEx changed the weight limit for oversized from 70lbs to 50lbs in January. That provided the incentive to keep the weight under 50lbs and take it on the plane with me. The Delta size restriction for a bike is much more generous than FedEx for being less than oversized.

 

[AbramClark]

in the Silvio V1.0 case, the seat sides to be cut off level with the frame sides, and a new 2 piece Fiberglass or 1 piece CF Silvio seat bolted on top of it!

Wow has anybody here actually done this or have you heard of someone doing this and how it worked out? I'm thinking about something like this, but I think I'd need that seat modification to fit in this bag https://www.orucase.com/products/b2?variant=29128838905909

When I packed up my Silvio I ended up removing the fork too, which turns out to be really easy, so I'm not too concerned about that. Removing the front derailleur wasn't hard, but it was annoying dealing with the pulley. I think it's necessary though to collapse the front fork, unless I redo the cable housing?

 

[super slim]

It is what I was going to do to my Silvio V1.0, before my next overseas trip, as my last with the Silvio V1.0, with a 260 mm wide seat base, in a standard Aust bike box 1.44*0.81*0.290 ,2.54 m circ (57"*32"*11.4", 100"circ)
The bike box had to bow out to 300 mm, as the wheels had to fit each side of the seat!
The Handlebars were removed with the cables attached!
The drive wheel was buckled once.
I took this on Amtrak from Whitefish MO to Portland OR, but it cost me $40 extra!

This trip to USA/Canada will require 4 internal flights/bus/train trips , so a 26'*26"*10" box will be required, and complete Dis-assembly each time!!

The 28 degree seat back on the Silvio S30 is too low for me, so a foam wedge to 35 degrees, and keeping disk brakes, was a better option than the 45 deg seat back and rim brakes!
I was going to use Tiltmaniac's heat settable white poly beads to form the gap between the frame and the CF seat.

 

[paco1961]

As promised, here are a few pics from my packing the S40 for Sebring flight.

Used 2 standard DF bike boxes from a local shop and put them together to make 1 with extra width but standard height and length. Wrapped it up w 2 rolls of duct tape.

Wheels came off and went in padded wheel bags. Head rest (I use it upside down as a seat pack rack) came out and Thor seat off. Detached handle bar but left cables attached. Loosened BB, slider and boom bolts and slid it all closed and retightened. Crank set off and RD and hanger was removed but cable left attached. Wrapped the whole thing in bubble wrap. There was plenty of room for frame, wheels, helmet, seat and pad plus shoes/clothes and came in at 52lbs.

Disassemble/pack and unpack/reassemble each took about 45 minutes.