DAY -6
Apr 27
2010

Packing up the bikes
With just a few days left before we head out, there are only a couple of big items left on our to-do list: packing up our apartment and putting things in storage, cleaning our kitchen and bathroom, and getting copies of all our important travel documents. Fun stuff! Fortunately, I’ve been assigned another task–packing our bikes in special boxes for transport over to Japan. This means that I get to sigh and drag my feet and complain about this mundane chore…and then grab a beer out of the fridge and go down to the garage for a couple of hours.
But it’s not all fun and games down there–getting two bikes (including fenders, racks, and other accessories) to fit into a 8.5″ wide box is not easy. Especially when you have to be very careful that everything is well padded and is going to survive 6,300 miles of bouncing around in an airplane’s cargo hold. Here’s what mine looked like after our first attempt:
There are a lot of great resources out there for learning how to pack a bike for air travel. Here are a couple that I found useful:
After months of carefully assembling and customizing our bikes, it was a little sad to break them down and stuff them in boxes. Fortunately, Vicky took some great pictures of them first! You can see them on our photo gallery section here.
Thanks for the link! I’m glad you found the article useful. We’ve always wanted to bike around Japan so we’ll be following your trip. Make sure you check out a local bathhouse. I have never felt so clean or so warm from the inside out.
I just found out about you guys from Nancy at familyonbikes. Congratulations on your adventure and I’ll be following along as you explore Japan. Good luck with the packing and thanks for the links about packing for air travel. I’ve shipped my bike a couple times, but always looking for a better method.
Enjoy Your Ride.
Darryl
Just finished the final bike packing this evening–we had to take quite a few pieces off to get them to fit, so we’re hoping we won’t have to reassemble them in the airport…
@Friedel: we’ll be sure to hit up the onsen as much as possible–we’re counting on that to help sore muscles recover as we head over the Japanese Alps
Shouldn’t you have some packing foam in there or something, or are you planning to steal some from M and P?
Yeah, this was just a dry run–we wrapped everything in bubble wrap and newsprint last night before taping the boxes shut. Hopefully the wheels and derailleurs will make it through safely!