July 6, 2015
All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go ... almost
'Cause I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane.
I packed up the bike for the flight. It was just as hard as it was in my first attempt. I ended up using the same unsanctioned packing sequence, with the front wheel at the bottom of the box. The problem is that I can't get my handlebars around the wheel and tire as suggested. It might be that actually having wider handlebars would help, as the drops would then be closer to the sides of the box, but the brake levers might still get in the way. And despite initially taping all of the cables into place, I ended up freeing them. The short cables limit the way I can manipulate the handlebars, and to get everything in I needed the extra length from letting them hang loose. As in my initial attempt, I didn't get the rear rack in, so it will go in my other luggage. The tools and small bits are bagged and bubble-wrapped and taped to the larger pieces. At the last minute, I tossed in some grease and some Loctite. If TSA takes things out of the box, they may not get everything back together! And although the box meets the 26x26x10 size spec on the edges, there is a significant bulge in the middle!
The other issue that came up was some unplanned dis-assembly when I removed the brake rotor from the Rohloff wheel as recommended for packing. Removing the rotor requires removing the axle plate. I removed the axle plate, and the external gear mechanism came with it. It turns out that once the five screws for the axle plate are removed, there is nothing holding the gear mechanism in place, and the grease was sticky enough to lift up the gear mechanism and a spring!
With some internet searches, and then an e-mail to Rohloff, I did manage to get things back together (except for the disk I was trying to remove). There is some reasonable chance that I did not align the gear mechanism correctly, so I've printed out the relevant section of the manual to bring with me.
In addition to the bike box, I have an old well-worn wheeled duffel bag to check that has my panniers and gear. I'll be taking one pannier as my carry-on, and also taking my handlebar bag with my documents and valuables (or at least all the valuables except the bike) on the plane.
The plan right now is to re-assemble the bike on arrival at the Stockholm airport, unpack the duffel and pack the panniers, ditch the cardboard box and the old duffel in the airport trash, and ride to town. The Stockholm airport is 48 km (by Google maps) to my hotel downtown. I'm using the last of my Hilton points for 2 nights at the Hilton in the center of Stockholm. I chose to do that after contacting several small hotels and being told there was no place indoors to store the bike. I didn't even ask the Hilton, and expect to just wheel the bike into my room.
I really, REALLY hope I don't have any issues re-assembling the bike.
Update: 2015-07-09
The bags are packed for real now. I wanted to double check the weight for the airline. The bike box comes in at 46 pounds and the duffel at 39 pounds. A-okay for the airplane! Not wonderful for pedaling uphill, but not outrageous for standard (i.e. not ultralight) bike touring, either.
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