by bike  
Tuscany & Umbria 

by Allan Nelson & Konrad Orlowski  

  Conception

  Route planning

  The bikes

>Packing bikes

  Packing list

  To the Airport

  At Pisa Airport

We’d checked with the carrier (European Air Charter) several times  about what was required of us. Somehow I still expected a nasty surprise, but we didn’t get one. Basically, they wanted… Pedals off Handlebars turned and strapped to the top tube – note, not loosen the headset or anything like that, merely turn the handlebars Front-wheel out and strapped to the back wheel (we strapped it to the main triangle as it felt more secure there) Tyres letting down (I know!)

They didn’t want the bike in a bag or a box (which surprised us), but what we did do, more for our own piece of mind than anything, was to wrap the tubes with bubble wrap, secured with lots of electricians tape, and covered the transmission with a sheet of cardboard (bent over the chain ) and taped securely. As well as protecting the rear mech., it would also protect other peoples luggage (‘cos we’re thoughtful like that). We fastened one of the cranks to the chainstay to keep it from moving, and also made some ‘dummy’ front hubs out of some dowel and old skewers I had. These were used in the front forks when the wheel was out, to hopefully keep the forks from being crushed.

And that was it!

As we didn't want to pay anything to keep some scraps of bubble wrap and a couple of sheets of cardboard at Pisa Airport for a fortnight, we simply binned it at the other end. Coming back, we sliced the KarriMat up into strips for the tubes, and wrapped what remained around the transmission. If anything this worked better than the bubble wrap and cardboard!