Pack, Fly, Ride: Your Guide to International Mountain Bike Travel

If you're planning to join one of our Overseas MTB Expeditions to Tasmania (or anywhere else), or you're curious about the world of overseas MTB travel, this guide is for you. Whether you're a seasoned traveller wanting to brush up on the essentials or a first-timer, here’s a comprehensive look at how to efficiently transport your bike overseas. We'll cover everything from booking your flights to packing your bike, and finally, reassembling it at your destination.

Booking a bike for an international flight may seem complicated, but it's quite straightforward. Bikes are usually considered sporting equipment. You'll book a regular flight, which usually includes one checked bag and one carry-on. Your bike counts as the checked bag. Make sure it's packed in a proper package, such as a bike bag or a box. This allows you to make use of the extra weight allowance (up from 23 to 32kg) and pack additional items. Some airlines may charge an oversized or overweight fee (~$50), but it's often waived. So it’s affordable and convenient, especially if your trip is short.

Bike Bag vs. Box

A common dilemma travellers face is whether to invest in a bike bag or just use a cardboard box from a bike shop. If you plan on travelling regularly, a bike bag is a worthwhile investment. It offers protection and ease of mobility, thanks to wheels and durable materials. If you opt for a box, ensure you have some strong tie-downs to help transport it through the airport. Both options require appropriate packing to protect your bike during transit.

Packing Your Bike

The most critical part of travelling with your bike is how well you pack it. Start by cleaning your bike thoroughly. A clean bike is less likely to attract scrutiny from customs officers. Remove the pedals first since they can be tricky to take off. Make sure to point the tool towards the back of your bike while removing them. Follow this by removing the wheels. Use plastic tubing over your axles to prevent the frame from getting squished.

For large bikes, like enduro models, you may need to remove the derailleur and fit the bike carefully into the bag. Use the built-in straps of your bag to secure loose parts and ensure you keep everything padded and tight. Don’t forget to take off your brake rotors before packing your wheels to avoid bending.

Tools/Gear to Bring

You’ll need essential gear to reassemble your bike at your destination. Pack a multi-tool, chain lube, shock pump, tire pressure gauge, and any spare parts you might need. Secure your helmets and riding gear within the bag. Once everything’s packed, weigh the bag to confirm it falls under the airline’s weight restrictions.

Part 2: How to Unpack & Rebuild Your Bike

Upon arrival, check your bike for any potential damage right away. This keeps you covered by the airline’s liability in case anything's amiss. Start by reattaching the handlebars, which will help stabilize your bike as you work on it. Then reinstall your derailleur and reattach the wheels, making sure the brake rotors are secure using Loctite on the bolts.

Final Pre-Ride Checks

Before hitting the trails, go through a series of safety checks. Re-align and secure your handlebars, test your brake settings, inspect the wheel trueness and spoke tension, and ensure the suspension is properly adjusted. Conduct a full bolt check from front to back to ensure everything is tightened and reassembled correctly. Lastly, conduct a rattle test and make sure your bike functions smoothly.

Travelling with your bike doesn’t have to be a daunting task. With careful packing, the right tools, and a few thorough checks, you can ensure your bike arrives safely, ready for adventure. Whether you're gearing up to join us in Tasmania in November or tackling new trails elsewhere, this guide will help prepare you for a smooth, successful biking trip. Safe travels and enjoy the ride! - Jake

VIDEO TRANSSCRIPT:  [00:00:00] Hey, what's up everyone? This video is for anyone that's coming with us on the Tasmania trip who hasn't flown overseas with a bike before, and also for anyone else who's curious about the whole world of overseas bike travel 

What this video is going to cover

So in this video we're gonna cover everything related to how to travel with a bike, from booking flights, to how to pack your bike, what to pack it in, and then what to actually do when you get to the airport as well. So feel free to skip through if there's any sections that you feel like you're already really familiar with. However, I'm gonna be adding lots of little tidbits of knowledge all the way through this video, kind of covering all of the things I've learned the hard way over the years, so that hopefully you can have a nice, easy, pleasurable experience.

Geting to Tasmania or get into wherever else it is you're traveling with your bike.

Booking your bike onto a flight

So I'm gonna start off firstly, really quickly just talking about how you actually book a flight to take a bike overseas. 'cause I know it can be a bit confusing if you've never done that before. Basically, the way it works is bikes are classified as sporting equipment. I. [00:01:00] Obviously, so airlines will allow you to take a bike packed in a proper package.

So it could be a bike bag like the one here behind me, or it could be a bike box. So essentially you book a normal flight. It usually has one checked bag, one carry on bag. The bike counts as your checked bag. The bonus of that is it not only gets to be a bit bigger, but it could also be up to 32 kilograms instead of 23, so you get to take a little bit of extra weight as well, which is really helpful.

I find my bike usually takes up most of that weight, There's always a little bit of weight allowance to spare, which means I can shove a little extra clothes, a few extra things in there as well. So your bike, whether it's in a bag or a box. Counts as one piece of checked luggage. Some airlines will charge an oversized fee or an overweight fee for the sporting equipment. However, a lot of airlines will simply waive this fee. So either way, it's relatively cheap. If there is a fee, it's usually somewhere around 50 bucks.

So not crazy. I generally just [00:02:00] pack my bike as my checked luggage, and then I've got a, a nice big carry on suitcase here. The largest size that's allowed as a carry on piece of luggage. That's where I put on my clothes. Generally. That's enough for me. It's two bags to wheel through the airport. Super easy.

However, for longer trips, like when I did a season down in New Zealand, I paid for an extra checked bag, had a hiking pack full of extra stuff as well. So up to you, whether you wanna do two checked bags or one generally for short trips, I find it's, it's quicker and it's easier if you've just got one piece of checked luggage that is the bike.

Bike Bag Vs Box

The next question that usually comes up is, are the bike bags worth it? Should I just get a free box from my local bike shop, or should I pay, you know, 600 bucks or more for one of these Evoc bike bags or, or one of the other brands I used to travel with, just a box. And it works. It's fine. It does the job.

It's cheap, it's economical. However, I will say if. This is something you think like you're gonna do [00:03:00] more than once, more than a couple of times. The bike bag definitely is, is worth the investment. It's not only stronger, more durable, so it keeps your bike safer, makes everything so much easier when you're actually like going through the lanes at the airport, getting on public transit and traveling.

It's got wheels. So it wheels just like a suitcase. Definitely recommend the bag if that's within your budget. If it's not and you're gonna use a box, definitely recommend getting some of these. Just some basic tie downs to put around the box. That'll help you drag carry this big box through the airport rather than using the cardboard handles, which usually rip the first time you use them.

A couple of things to think about there.

So this is my bike bag here. It's the EVOC bike bag, just the regular version rather than the pro. I've had this one for about six years now, so there's definitely some updated versions there that are probably a lot better. However, this one's served me really well. I've traveled all around the world with it multiple times, lent it out to buddies.

Um, and it's probably been treated pretty rough [00:04:00] in airports because that's what they do, unfortunately, and it stood the test of time. So definitely recommend this one if you're gonna buy a bag. Um, one thing to consider is that as bikes have grown longer, the bags have also grown longer as well. So if you do buy an older one or a secondhand one like this one.

Fitting, uh, modern long travel, large Enduro bike into it is sometimes a little bit of a struggle. So just something to keep in mind. I know the pro model actually has more structure, more base to it, so it's stronger, which protects your bike better. People often ask me like, is it worth it? I think like, yeah, if protecting your bike is a, a big priority, it's definitely worth it.

One thing to note though, is it will be heavier as well, so it means you're actually gonna be able to put less things, less weight inside the bag. I've never had a problem with this one. Touch wood.

So it's got separate compartments for the wheels, which we're gonna take off and put into that, and then it's got the, the main compartment here. With straps everywhere you need it, structure [00:05:00] everywhere you need it, and extra reinforcement as well. So it does a really good job of keeping everything safe, making sure nothing gets damaged in that.

However, it's really important that we pack the bike properly as well, and we take off everything that needs to be taken off in order not to get damaged in flight. So I'll show you how to do that next.

How to pack the frame

 so next we're gonna go through how to actually take apart your bike to be able to pack it into a bike bag or a bike box before you do that. Super, super, super important, and I can't stress this enough, give the bike a really good clean, and when I say clean, like really well, better than you usually clean it just after a ride.

The reason is if you have clean tires and the bike looks visually clean, most of the time, customs and security take one, look at it and say, this person knows what they're doing. Go on through. If you don't, if you have dirt on your tires, mud on your frame, they're gonna make you pull this bike out of the box and they're gonna check it, go over it with a fine tooth comb.

Two problems there. If you're doing multiple stopovers, going through multiple airports, it's a pain in the butt. It takes ages. [00:06:00] When you're tired, you'd rather be, you know, having a drink at the airport, lounge something else instead. Right? And sometimes when they take out your stuff, there is potential for them to damage it as well.

I've had. rotors bent and yeah, things broken by custom agents before, and that's really my fault for not cleaning the bike properly first so that they wave it on through. So really important you do that. 

Removing pedals

Now that we've said that first thing to take off before you worry about taking the wheels or anything else is the pedals.

Often when they've been on there for a long time, they're quite difficult to get off. So do it with the bike standing up like this. Pedals have a reverse thread on them, so what that means. Is, it can be quite confusing if you're not in the habit of taking them off, on and off all the time. The way that I like to remember it, when you're taking the pedals off, the Allen key or your tool needs to point towards the back of your bike, towards the back wheel when you're putting them on, it's the opposite points towards the front, so pointing that key towards back of the bike there,[00:07:00] 

it's easier than expected taking those pedals off.

Other side's the opposite.

Alan. Key points towards the back of the bike.

Make sure you put the pedals in a safe place to so that you remember to put them in the bag later on.

Removing wheels

Now I'm gonna flip the bike over.

Sweet. Next thing we're gonna take off is the wheels. Okay.

Now I've got a couple of extra things I do when I'm packing [00:08:00] my bike, but just as an added precaution, maybe they're not a hundred percent necessary, and I like to do it just for peace of mind. One of them is I've got some plastic or some PVC conduit or tube in that I put over the axle when I put that back on the fork.

What this does is it stops the fork or on the rear of the bike, the frame being able to be squashed in if they were to stack lots of things on top of our bike bag, which they may well do. So gonna go ahead and put the axle back in with that little PVC pipe in the middle there just as a bit of a spacer.

 Now we'll do the rear.

When you're taking the rear wheel off, if this is not something you do often, something that can help with that is, one, changing the bike into a, hard gear beforehand, and then two, making sure the clutch on your derailer. [00:09:00] Is off. So I'll show you what that one looks like here. If it's a Shimano, you're gonna have an on off switch like this, and you can see mine's still a little bit dirty.

I'm gonna give this an extra scrub before I put it in the bag. If you've got a SRAM drive train, there's gonna be a little lockout switch here. That's super helpful. It takes the tension off the chain and your cassette there makes it easier to get the rear wheel off. With me, I've put the clutch off. I'm just gonna pull the derailer out of the way and lift the rear wheel up and out of there.

Like I said, you can see this tire still not perfectly clean because I'm gonna take that outside, give it an extra little bit of a scrub before I put it in the bag. Really important, you allow time when you're packing your bike for this stuff to dry as well. You don't wanna be pack in, pack in, wet stuff into your bag.

Okay, cool. So I'm just taken my tires or my wheels outside, given them a little bit of an extra clean while they're drying. Going to flip the bike over and start actually packing the, the frame into this bike bag here. So I'll show you how that all [00:10:00] works.

Great. So definitely recommend putting the frame in first and then the wheels. That way when you're kneeling down on the open side of the bag, like I am you're not wheeling, ah, you're not kneeling on the wheel. 

Removing handlebars

Okay, so you see the bike is still quite a bit bigger than the bag. So the next thing we're gonna take off is actually the handlebars, and there's some really good straps in this bag.

I'm gonna show you. For the handlebars to stay nice and sturdy out of the way.

 So before you take the bars off, you're gonna wanna undo all of these little clips on your brake cables, gear cables.

[00:11:00] Sweet. So bar's off. I can just hang down there for now. Make sure you put your top cap back on just so you don't lose that one. I like to tighten this right up. It keeps the, the fork kind of tight so that your headset bearings and all of that stuff doesn't fall out and jiggle around in transit.

Just finger tight. Sweet. Now we're gonna actually place the bike into the bag.

This is where a little bit of wiggling is sometimes needed.

 Okay, this is actually my first time putting my DaVinci into its bike bag. And because it's a, [00:12:00] a longer bike than this bike bag was made for six years ago, I'm gonna struggle a little bit to fit it. So the same with my GG and 

Removing Deraileur

someone actually asked this question on Instagram. They said, derailer on or derailer off.

Ideally de derailer on if it all fits in there and the bag is shaped in a way that protects that. However, for me, we'll see. There's no way I'm gonna fit that bike in there with the derailer on. So I'm gonna take the derailer off and just have it kind of loose in the bag.

So five mil Allen Key. We're gonna take the derailer off the hanger there.

 And this is actually not a bad idea regardless, because it means if anything does push on the bag as different things have been stacked on top of it, it's been thrown around by airport handlers. It's gonna move rather than bend. Sweet. So I should be able to work the bag or the bike into the bag. Now,

[00:13:00] Gonna get one end of the bike in and then the other end. At the rear end, there's this nice shelf here. It's designed for the rear triangle to sit onto. Now this bike's a bit funny 'cause it's a high pivot. Again, this bag probably wasn't made for a high pivot bike, so we've got to move it around a little bit.

The great thing about these EVOC bags is everything's customizable in terms of that. It all kind of comes undone and moves around to fit your specific bike frame.

I just moved that shelf back a couple of inches. Everything fits in there really nicely, and you'llsee my derailers, and it's still attached [00:14:00] via the cable there, but it sits nice and loose. I'll probably use a strap or a zip tie or something just to tie that maybe in place to the frame so it can move around a little bit, but it's not gonna rattle around and chip the paint or. Damage anything else.

We'll get onto that later. 

Securing frame in bag

Well, now it's time to apply all of these straps to the bike. Keep everything nice and sturdy.

[00:15:00] I.

Put those pedals in before I forget. There's a nice little pocket here for the pedals to make sure they don't bounce around, scratch anything else.

This is just an extra little frame pad. The EVOC bag comes with to protect the frame as we strap everything else on that.

Okay, drink bottles empty. Not only is this important for saving weight, it's also another customs issue if you're bringing in water from one place to another. So make sure you remember to empty your drink bottles.

 so these straps, like I said, they're all, they're all able to be moved around and each specific bike frame is gonna need them in different places. So do a little bit of trial and error test in, see whether the bike fits best. In general, I'm looking to have the bike. Really well strapped in so it doesn't move around.

But also making sure that the bike has room within the the bike bag and nothing's gonna get gonna get squished snap in half as other bags inevitably get stacked on top of [00:16:00] this one.

sweet.

All right, so my fork's actually hitting on the brake levers, which are on my handlebars, so I'm gonna loosen them off on the handlebars and actually move the brake levers around a little bit just to create a bit more space in there so that everything can fit in.

This, in hindsight, would've been really good to do beforehand. It's actually a little step I usually do, but I forgot this time.

 So moving the, the brake levers in a little bit there will also allow the cables to be less stressed, less pressured as well. Really important. We don't wanna break or bust a, a brake line, mid flight, do these really loose finger tight. Not only reminds me to set 'em back to the correct positions when I put the bike back together, it also allows the.

brake levers to twist on the bars [00:17:00] again, if anything is stacked on top of them.

Okay, so they're well out of the way now. Should be able to put everything else in there.

Packing the wheels

 Now it's time to pack the wheels. This is an important one and one that I learned the hard way a couple of times. 

Removing Brake Rotors

It is a bit embarrassing to say. It took me a couple of times to figure this one out, but that's okay. Sometimes we learn things the hard way. Take the brake rotors off, store them somewhere safe within the bike bag or bike box. Can't stress that enough. The first time this happened to me, or the first time I had a problem with this, I had the, the wheels stored in a bike box that have the plastic protectors on there that come when the bikes come new.

So pretty good in terms of traveling. But what happened in customs in New Zealand where they're quite strict, they took the wheels out, put them on a stainless steel bench and started scrubbing some tiny little flecs of, of mud and dust off my wheels. But they had it face down like this. So of course, that rotor got horribly bent.

I had to start my trip with spending a [00:18:00] couple hundred bucks on new rotors. Not ideal. So take those ones off. The second time I had a problem. I just had the bike in this bike bag when the bike bag was brand new and I thought, you know what? It's really well reinforced. I'm not gonna bother taking them off.

But unfortunately, somewhere in transit, this rotor was bent, put the wheels on the bike, went to go for a ride, and I wasn't going anywhere. Again, a couple of sets of new rotors, so definitely worth taking the time. It's a little bit fiddly to take a brake rotor off. Most of the time they're on there with a T 25 torx key, which is like the little star one.

Sometimes it's the center lock tool, but usually the star keys. So really important to take a multi-tool like this with all your Allen keys and also the talk key with you. That way when you get to the destination, you actually be able to put the bike back together as well. So I'm gonna go ahead and take this one off.

Another thing to consider. Is getting a little tube of the the blue lock tight thread locker, taking that with you because when you get to your [00:19:00] destination at the other end, you're gonna be able to apply some lock tight to these bolts and ensure that the brake rotor goes on there nice and sturdy as well.

 Obviously these are all little bolts we don't wanna lose. We're gonna need when we get to the other end, same with the little spaces that's underneath them. So I usually keep them just in a little Ziploc bag again, in that, in that pocket, in my bike bag is a good place for them. Another thing to note when you take these rotors off the front and the rear are sometimes different sizes.

And even if they're not different sizes, they're definitely worn at different rates, which means you want to keep the front and the rear on the front and rear wheels. So pays to put a little label on them just with a, a permanent marker, actually do just a little [00:20:00] f or a little rear there. You also notice this is quite dirty.

I'm gonna give it a quick wipe before I go ahead and pack it. We rag does the trick, being careful not to wipe the actual braking surface 'cause that would no doubt contaminate it. We only wanna wipe the actual bra in surface with acetone or brake cleaner, which I've already done yesterday. I wanna wash the bike.

Okay, so you might be able to see mark that with a little R for rear. And in terms of packing those ones safely, I've got some old cardboard cutouts here. Then I like to put each rotor in.

And then we're gonna secure that somewhere in the bag at the end.

 For now, actually putting this tire in the bag, we wanna make sure we empty all the air out of the tire.

 This is an [00:21:00] airline requirement,

also a necessity to get these big. 29 inch wheels actually into their wheel pockets. So emptying out all the air there.

People often ask on the topic of empty and air out, do we have to empty your suspension? The answer is no. Luggage is kept at cabin pressure, um, which is all good. It's all safe for the suspension. It's not gonna hurt it, but it is important to bring a, a shock pump with you. To your final destination because I find you're often at different altitudes, uh, different temperatures as well, which will affect how many PSI, how much air pressure you actually have in your shock and fork.

So you're gonna wanna adjust that when you get to your destination. So here, bring a, bring a shock pump with you. So is that you're gonna need a tire pump as well to prop these tires back up. I've got my one up tire pump on the frame there. If you don't have one of the one up ones, just any little kind of.

Trail Air pump will do the job or swing by a bike shop and use their [00:22:00] floor pump if you're feeling lazy. Sweet. We're gonna go ahead and put this tire in the bag

 Okay, now exactly the same method for the front. We're gonna use that tox T 25 key to undo the front brake rotor. Lefty loosey, You maybe, maybe wondering, why am I doing all this in my tiny little office here? It's 'cause it's snowing the ground outside and it's bloody freezing. So I'm very, very excited to get down to Sunny Australia. Put this one back together in the sunshine. And then get some, some good laps in on my local trails down there, as well as check out a couple of new trail centers that have been built in in country Victoria since I've been gone.

Very, very excited for that.

Packing The Wheels

Cool. Cool. I'm gonna show you how this one actually fits in the bag, and then we'll talk about the other stuff. I pack into my bag afterwards.

So [00:23:00] seeing the, the wheel holder here, it's got some, uh, some nice struts in this bag to keep it nice and sturdy. Reinforcement in the center here as well. So now we're gonna work the wheel in there. Doesn't really matter which way you put it in. You can see if we did have that brake rotor on, it's obviously gonna get bent.

I don't know what else. Thinking

good, wiggle.

Tools/Gear I like to bring

Sweet. Okay, so now that we've got the actual. Bike packed into the bag. Gonna spend a little bit of time here talking about the other things I like to bring with me as well, kind of, uh, the essentials on top of obviously just extra luggage. So firstly, once you've got the bike in there, I always like to do a little bit of a check room's, generally a bit of a mess hard to make sure we've got actually all the components in.

So I haven't actually put my rotors in yet.

 So I [00:24:00] usually like to find a space. Somewhere,

but they won't get bent around or pushed around too much. So generally, like somewhere in between 

 the rear triangle works really well. You see there they can move around a little bit so they're not gonna get pushed on and bent, uh, but they can't move around too much. Sweet. The bolts for the rotors as well. Gonna make sure they go. Into this little zip pocket here.

Now you can get some extra packing protection again from a bike box. Put around the stanchens, put around extra places on the bike if you like. However, I usually choose not to, so as long as I've got everything secured in the bag, the benefits of not having anything on there is it's one less thing to rub up on there.

Even if there's little bits of dust, little bits of dirt in there, and you've got those on there, it could scratch stanchens. So I'd rather just secure everything well in the bike bag instead of doing that. So let's talk [00:25:00] about what else I take. Really, really important to make sure we bring that multi tool or some proper tools to make sure we can actually put the bike together at our destination.

As well as that, we're gonna need some chain lube. We're gonna need a shock pump, like I mentioned before, to adjust the air pressure when we get there. Tire pressure gauge is really handy to have, as well as an actual tire pump if you're going anywhere a little bit more remote or on a longer trip.

Usually like to bring a couple of sets of brake pads as well. I know like even in Tasmania, certain spots can be difficult to buy parts like this, uh, and other spare parts like spare derailuers and that kind of thing as well. So I'm usually bringing spares for you guys on the Tassie trip. I'll be bringing a whole bunch of spares with us to make sure keep you out of trouble.

 I got a couple different helmets as well. This one for when I'm sending it, this one for when I'm cruising. Uh, really important. We put those in safe places that don't move around as well. And we've obviously got our riding gear, put our riding gear in there as well. I like to start with the, [00:26:00] I think like the non-negotiables, so the essentials, the stuff I essentially need to ride.

And then from there we can give this entire bag a weigh, which I'll show you how to do shortly. And see how much extra room we've got, how much extra weight we've got for like extra clothes, extra things that are nice to have but not need to have.

Great. So I've gotta put everything I just showed you plus some of my smaller riding gear into my hip pack here, which is all I'm gonna be traveling with this time. And we're gonna secure that one again down in that rear triangle's, usually really good spot. Cool. From here, got my knee pads, nice clean rags, usually another good idea.

That way you can wipe the bike off on the other end. 

one more thing that's a really good idea to bring with you is a scrubbing brush, unless you're gonna get one on the other end. This ensures you can clean the tires spick and spam when you come back into Canada or wherever a home is for you. really like keeping everything secure in here is key to making [00:27:00] sure nothing gets hurt.

Now the helmets, obviously, we don't want them to get squished. So thinking about packing them in a place that's gonna allow protection. And also a place where this bike bag isn't gonna squish in on them too much either. Like if that's right on the outside there and something hits it, can it move a little bit without can bent?

I think that's okay for this one. Where's this one gonna go? That's probably not a bad spot for it. Right down there. Sweet. I've got an extra drink bottle here. Cool. So this is like my basic packing. I'm tipping when I put this one on the scales, it's gonna come in a little bit underweight.

I've got this really basic, just cheap little Air Canada hook scale, which is really helpful. I'm gonna show you, I usually find something nice and high and sturdy. Use a couple of tie-downs to hang this one off and then hang this bike bag off this to get a weight again. That weight's gonna be somewhere under 32 kilos, which I'm not very good with [00:28:00] pounds for your Canadians, but.

It's gonna be somewhere around 67 pounds, something like that. Anyway, your airline will tell you what it should be, but under 32 kilos. So if this comes in under, that's great. I'm gonna bring some extra clothes, some extra little things I need.

One last thing I just realized, I forgot something really important. My riding shoes, I've just given them a clean, again, like the tires. You wanna make sure they're, they don't have any mud, any dust on them. That's one of the first things the custom officers are gonna check when they open up your bag.

I'm gonna put these ones outside to dry and then remember to put them in before I leave. But this is the basics. Like I said, we're gonna go and weigh this now by hanging it off those scales, and then that'll let us know how many kilograms of extra luggage we can put in there. So I'm gonna put things like extra shoes, extra clothing, I don't know, maybe another backpack.

Whatever else you need to take on your trip. I'm gonna put that in this bag as well so that I don't have to purchase any extra luggage. Sweet guys. Next stop. YVR, international Airport. Let's do this.

Part 2: How to Unpack & Rebuild Your Bike

Hey, what is up everyone? Welcome to part [00:29:00] two of this video. We're gonna go through how to put your bike back together when you get to your international or overseas destination. I'm down here in Sunny Australia, which I must say it's pretty damn nice compared to Squamish this time of year not to rub it in.

Right. Let's get into it.

Okay, team, first thing we're gonna do here is get the wheels out. Makes it way easier to get everything else out. Now, whether you're unpacking your bike from a bike bag like this, EVOC one here, or whether you're unpacking it out of a bike box. Number one most important thing to do is to check over everything right away.

So like the day of your flight or the day after to make sure there's been no damage during the flight. What I've heard, it's never happened to me personally, but I've heard a couple of nightmare stories from other people who weren't able to check their bike or just didn't notice the damage right away.

And of course, the airline denied all responsibility for this because they said, Hey, that damage could have happened when you were out riding it or something else. So. Really important. No matter how jet lagged you are, no matter how [00:30:00] tied you are. Have a look at your baby. Make sure nothing's been hurt. I'm gonna get mine out now.

Fingers crossed.

So far so good.

Looks pretty good to me.

Okay, next here I'm just gonna grab all of my writing gear out. Just so that that's all out of the way, and then we can look at how to actually rebuild the bike, how to put it all back together so that we can go for a ride. Enjoy the sunshine.

[00:31:00] 

Next step there is to carefully unstrap everything and start to bring the bike out of the bag.

 Okay, cool. So if you follow the instructions in the first part of this video, you made extra short to bring your multi-tool with you or some Allen Keys, some tools so that when you got to this end, you can put the bike back together nice and easily no matter where you are. Got my trusty multi-tool here with everything I need.

First thing I like to put back on my bike is actually the handlebars. This is gonna allow me to flip the bike upside down and be able to put everything else back together nice and easily. Often the places we're traveling won't have the luxury of a bike stand. I don't have one here where I currently am at my parents' house in Australia.

So handlebars on first,

 it is important to, to jiggle round [00:32:00] the fork, make sure the headset bearing is in the cup where it's supposed to be. And from there you might find brake cables are a little bit twisted around, so twist them back until they look right like mine do here.

 Taking off that top cap.

 Now I know from memory. I like to run my bars with all of these spaces underneath, and then just one spacer on the top. So that's just the, the height of my handlebars. This is a personal preference thing. I didn't mention it in the first part of this video, but I should have. It's important to take note of where your bars were set before you pull the bike apart and put it in the bag.

That way you can remember how to put it back together, and it's all gonna feel the same as what you used to when you get to your destination.

I also brought a rag with me. That's important for when we're putting the bike back together. I can see here there's quite a lot of dust on my steer tube there, so I'm just gonna give that a wipe off [00:33:00] so that it's not too creaky when I get out onto the trails tomorrow. Very excited for that. Gonna be checking out a brand new zone that was actually built via government funding from the Victoria government.

They're trying to boost tourism here in country Victoria, so they've put a couple of million dollars into some state-of-the-art trail building up in a, uh, alpine town called Omeo. It's very excited to head out there and get amongst it tomorrow.

 Sweet if you've never done this before, really important to give it a bit of a wiggle. Make sure everything has gone down into the head head tube enough. Sometimes, uh, the fork can sit a little bit funny. So what I mean by that is just giving, giving that headset a bit of a wiggle, making sure everything's gone down.

And then we just wanna, uh, do up this bolt on top here just to be kind of finger tight to start with, uh, [00:34:00] snug, From there. I'm gonna set the handlebars just roughly straight. We'll do a final straighten once we get the wheels on all of that stuff, but I'm just gonna kind of snug up those bar bolts 

Same thing with the brake levers here. We loosened those. Right off for travel. Now we're gonna pull 'em back along and put 'em roughly where they go when we're riding. 

If anyone's wondering what multi-tool I use, this is an old Crank Brothers multi-tool. Anything like this that's got all of your Allen keys, couple of screwdrivers, and then the 25 or T 25 Torx star tool should do the job.

 Now I'm gonna flip, flip the bike upside down so that I can bolt back on the derailer and I can put the wheels back on.

Gonna bolt the derailer back on here. That's gonna be a five mil Allen key.

 That one's the bolt right here.

[00:35:00] Okay. Now it's time to deal with the wheels and tires. You might remember from the start of this video, I took my brake rotors off, stored them in this cardboard here, so I'm gonna get those out and put them back on. Remembering to use a little bit of lock tight on all of the bolts so that they don't rattle off.

Starting with. The front wheel here.

As you might remember, I labeled my brake rotors front and rear. This one's got an F on it. I dunno if you can see that, but I certainly can. So that goes on the front wheel.

 Don't forget your brake rotor. will have these little spaces as well. Really important, we put those back on, so make this a bit quicker. I'm gonna go ahead and dab lock type all over each of these bolts [00:36:00] just before I put 'em on. I'll make it way quicker, 

Again, there's some old residue on there. And they probably will be on yours too, so it doesn't need too much, but a little bit just to be safe.

All right. These rota bolts are what we need. The T 25 talks bit for the star. Look at Alan Key. So we're gonna put all these on to start with. Just wanna get 'em all in the kind of finger tight, and then we'll go around and tighten afterwards.

 So exactly the same thing with the rear rotor. 

 great. So we've now got our brakes back on both wheels. It's time to put the wheels on the bike, get the tires pumped up. We'll do a quick little bolt check, make sure everything's straight, and then make good to go. Ready to hit the trails.

Okay, just putting the rear wheel back on here. Putting the axle through. 

Sweet. And you might remember at the start of this video, in the [00:37:00] first half, I had the clutch off on the derailer. If it's Aram one, we might have had that, uh, lockout button push. I'm just gonna put the clutch back into the on position where it says on, you might not be able to see that in the video, but you get the gist of it and spin the pedals, hit it into the right gear.

I've just noticed the, the chain's kind of off at the front here, so I'm gonna put that one back on.

 Okay, back wheel all sorted. Put the front wheel on. This one is usually a six mill Allen key. Whether you've got a, a Fox fork or a Rockshox like me,

 if you've made the little spaces like I have, make sure you keep those. You'll need them on the other end of your trip.

[00:38:00] Okay. That one all done up. I'm gonna put my pedals on here.

Now, remember I said. When we're doing the pedals up, we turn an Allen key towards the front of the bike. If the bike's upside down, like I've got it now, it's gonna be opposite. It's gotta turn it towards the back tire, do it up. Now, which pedal goes on Which side? Some of some pedals. I know Shimano pedals often have a L and an R for left and right.

I'm running the chromags. They don't have that, but that's okay. As long as we remember which way we need to turn it, we can really quickly. Try one side, try the other, and figure out which pedals which.

 Sweet pedals on time for some air in those tires.

[00:39:00] I'm lucky I've got a big floor pump at my destination. It's gonna make this job nice and easy. If you don't have that luxury, you can obviously use your little hand pump or your on bike pump that you hopefully brought with you. However, if you're close to a local bike shop, it's gonna make your job way easier.

Go in and see them, bring them beer and get them to pump up your tires.

Of course, for those coming on our Tassie Mountain bike trip, we're gonna have a pump tools, everything you need in the Mercedes Sprinter vans, so it's gonna make it super easy. We're also gonna be on hand to help you with all of this stuff and help you actually. Build your bikes on the other end. Cool.

I'm gonna stop talking pump really fast here so that I can get these tires to seal. Bear with me.

Hear that pop. That's what we're looking for. A couple more of those. We'll be all good to go.

Now I'm gonna pump this one up to about 40 PSI just, 'cause I noticed that bead, same as in my [00:40:00] front tire was completely off and perhaps a little bit of the sealant in there might have dried out. So I may have to top them up. But for now, just gonna put lots of air pressure in there, give it a good spin, and then leave it for a couple of hours, or in my case overnight until I hit the trails tomorrow.

Cool. Cool.

Good to give it a spin. Make sure that the tire is on straight. There's a little line there. Hopefully you can see that. That line. We just wanna make sure it's showing it's above the rim on all, all areas right around the tire. Same with the other side. I am also just gonna give the wheel a quick check, make sure it's nice and straight.

This can be done just by sticking your finger on the side of the wheel. And of course, it's important to note, was it straight before we put it in the box or in the bag. You can see there that my wheel is nice and straight. [00:41:00] I'm also just gonna Check all the spokes starting at the valve so that I know where I started, just to make sure they're all nice and tight as well, because who knows how this bike has been thrown around, what's been stacked on top of it when it's been inside a jumbo jet.

Luckily for me, we was feeling nice and strong and thanks to the guys at Tantalus bike shop. Back in Squamish. They built that up one up for me last summer. I've had zero issues with it. It's been super strong. Super, super sturdy. Cool. Same thing on the front wheel.

No big pop there, but Oh, there we go. That scared me.

Okay. Luckily that wheel's nice and straight. Nice and true. Same thing. Gonna check the spokes.

This wheel hasn't had a tune up for a while. So it might need it, but those spokes are all [00:42:00] tight enough and I'm happy with that. Ready to ride okay, great. So that's pretty much the bike back together. Now we're gonna flip it over, get this bag out of the way, show you how to do the final couple of checks before it's ready to ride. Let's do it.

Final Pre-Ride Checks

Okay, sweet. Gonna do the last couple of checks here.

What we're gonna do here is straighten our bars, tighten up our handle bars. When we're doing that, I always like to find something to put my front tire against. It's gonna hold it still so that I can adjust everything else. So loosen off the handlebar bolts to start with.

These ones here. And from there, as you can see, everything's loosey loosey. So that's why we wanna be leaning in the bike up against something. I'm kind of pinching the frame with my legs here, so I can push it against that wall. And now I'm gonna get the handlebars straight. I like to close one eye and line the fork up with the handlebars on both sides.

And that's kind of how I see it. And then we're gonna do up the headset. Now this one doesn't need that much torque at all. In fact, it probably wouldn't even show on a torque wrench [00:43:00] if we had it. So you can see there, it's kind of like a finger tight, not very tight at all.

Mine's a bit squeaky 'cause there's dust in there. Hopefully it doesn't rattle when I get out into the trails, but just enough that we don't feel any looseness when we grab onto the top cap there. And push the bike forward and back. There shouldn't be any clicking sound, there shouldn't be any loose feelings.

Okay, so now that we've got the top cap tightened up, we're gonna straighten the bars Again, I like to do this with one eye closed bit of a wink, but however it works for you. Some people like to look at the front tire, kinda get the bars lined up to be a right angle. I find it nice or more accurate to look at the fork.

Whatever works for you. Now when it comes to doing that, the handlebars. We wanna do up each bolt and over quarter turn at a time once we get them to finger tight. And again, these don't need to be super tight, probably somewhere around five to eight [00:44:00] Newton meters. But again, you're probably not traveling with a torque wrench, so you just do them up a little bit at a time until you get each one just feeling tight, but obviously not so tight.

You snap a bolt.

 Okay. Now the test here, press it against the wall or the tree, whatever you're using, post. And just make sure that that front wheel can't turn independently of the handelbars. Make sure everything's tight there. Sweet. And you might remember the other thing we changed around were the brake levers. So now that the bike's upright, we can get those adjusted to your personal preference.

Now, I like mine so that when my hand is just off the end of the grip, that that brake lever is like this kind of my fingers right on that hockey stick curve, and it's right on the middle part of my finger there. Like that. That's how I run my, my breaks. Now, there's a lot of personal preference there.

Anyone that's done a lesson with me or that's gonna do [00:45:00] a lesson with me will get the full rundown of how to actually find your personal preference and perhaps the, the pros and the cons of having your breaks say super vertical or maybe closer to horizontal sw. As always, in mountain biking, there's no rights or wrongs, but there's certainly pros and cons to different setups.

And it's really important that you take the time to work out what your personal preference is and what the pros and cons of different setups are. Sweet. So just checking here to make sure that both my brake lever angles match and that they're both tight with brake levers. We wanna get them tight enough that they don't move around easily, but not so tight that they won't move in a crash.

We want them to move in the crash so that they don't snap, they move instead.

Okay, sweet. Looks like a bike. Gonna do one final bolt check, make sure everything's good to go, and then give it a bit of a ride test.

 Anyone that's done a lesson with me knows I like to [00:46:00] do my bike check. Front to back. That way I don't miss anything. We've already checked the wheel, checked the spokes. Today, we've tightened this axle. One other thing that we need to do because the wheel's been off, is to reset the brake caliper. So I'm gonna show you how to do that and it's actually gonna be easier in this case.

If I just flip the bike back over quickly, then you're gonna be able to see it.

So resetting the brake cap caliper. Just means I'm doing these two bolts and then centering this caliper with the rotor, which is the, the silver disc that spins around just centering this part with the rotor. The reason why that's important is each time we take the wheel off and put it back on, is that it just sits a tiny little bit differently.

And what that means is if we just plunk it back in, it's gonna work, but it's gonna have reduced performance and it's also gonna wear out our brake pads a lot quicker. So this is something I always do whenever I've had the wheel on and off. So the way that we [00:47:00] do it loosen off these two bolts so that calliper's loose like mine is.

You can feel it moving around. And then we're gonna pull the front brake.

This is gonna be the le left hand side of the bike. If you're from North America, most likely mine's on the right hand side 'cause I run my brakes the right way around. Or should I say, uh, the other way around? No right or wrong again. So now that I've got my finger on the brake, that just helps hold the caliper center to the rotor and we're just doing these up incrementally.

A little bit this side, little bit that side until we get it tight. And again, we don't want to thread these bolts, so get it tight, but don't reef on it. Okay, sweet. Now I can give it a test, spinning the wheel. I can't hear it rubbing on the rotor, so it's fantastic. That means my rotor hasn't been bent in transit because I took it off, I protected it, put it in a safe place.

And also [00:48:00] I've reset that brake caliper correctly. I'm gonna flip the bike back over, do the same thing on the rear.

 Oh, let's clap.

Okay. Rear on the right for the North Americans. Rear on the left for the Aussies, the Brits. Anyone that drives on the left hand side of the road.

 Nice and tight. Same thing. Give that one a spin. It's not rubbing. It's braking. Fantastic.

 sweet. So last little thing here, now that we've got the bike all back together is just to do a final bike check, final bolt check. Then we're good to give it a give it a ride. So we've already checked the wheel, checked the tires, the brakes, everything down there.

So I'm gonna come straight up to the handlebar. Um, we've already checked our brake levers, the headset there. We're gonna do one last test. Just make sure that headset is tight. I can feel mine actually move in a little bit, so I'm [00:49:00] gonna loosen off those handlebars, tighten that one up a bit more. So we undo the handlebar bolts first, exactly the same or the reverse as what we did just before.

And then I'm just gonna tighten down this headset just a little bit more. Again, mine's squeaky 'cause there's dust in there. Hopefully it doesn't rattle too much tomorrow. If it does, it'll pull apart and clean it for now. It should be good. Make sure the bars are straight. Good trick for that again, is to put the bike against the wall and you're able to move the bars independently of the front wheel.

 And now it really affects my confidence when my bars aren't straight. So important to take the time now.

 Okay, do that test again. That feels better. Headsets, nice and tight. Checking both my brakes. Front brake back. Brake. Good to go. [00:50:00] This is all good. I can check my dropper post. It's coming up. Staying up. It's going back down from there. We're gonna check the suspension. It feels pretty good to me in terms of being even, but we can definitely whack a shock pump on there and also press these little bleeders.

You can hear some air coming out of there after it's been on the plane, but we can definitely whack a shock pump on there and make sure we've got the correct pressures. Moving back on the bike though, it's gonna do a quick bolt check here. Make sure everything is good to go before we ride. So just run in that multi-tool over all the bolts.

I had this one serviced and had everything to up recently, so it should be all good, but you can't be too safe. This one's a reverse thread.

Cranks down here. This is one. People often forget if you've got Shimano, cranks like me, they [00:51:00] come loose. That bolt was a little bit loose. A good thing I tightened it. Sweet. Exactly the same thing on the other side here.

 Awesome. Moving back on the bike, if that derailer or wiggle, make sure you've put it on tight enough. Again, we've already checked the wheel, so we are all good to go. We're gonna do an on bike test now. 

Sweet. Final test here. Do a bit of a drop test, a bit of a rattle test, make sure it's not making any ugly sounds. We can also grab this heat tube. Grab the rear tire. Give that one a wiggle. If there's any looseness there, we know that perhaps got some bearing issues or some loose bolts. Sweet. Now that I've done that, 

Take it for a ride. Make sure your gears are all adjusted. Drop a posts working.

Sweet.

We are good to ride. Let's do it.