[Yak] Traveling by air with the BF

[Andrejs Ozolins]

Mike,
I haven't heard of cranks being bent, just the chainrings. I haven't 
ever had this happen to me, however, despite a lot of trips. I've even 
watched as the baggage handlers toss my suitcase as though to get 
maximum impact on the baggage truck floor, and everything in the 
suitcase is shifted around when I open it. But, never anything bent or 
damaged.

Aside from pure luck, I think what has helped me avoid this problem is 
having smaller chainrings (my big one is a 46-tooth), so I don't have 
the big ring sticking out into an unprotected space near the wall of the 
suitcase. It could still happen, but I feel it's a bit less likely than 
with a 54-tooth. Before this bike, I had one with the dual-drive hub and 
only one chainring with the chain protector. For that setup, the 
chainring is also smallish and has the extra protector to boot.

Since the suitcase walls are pretty flexible, it's easy to imagine 
another suitcase's corner hitting the bottom of my suitcase in a way 
that would impinge on the chainring. I don't think a crush protector 
would help unless it was placed right at point of impact. I know that 
some people remove the right crank for packing to avoid this problem 
entirely. It's easy enough to do that it's a reasonable option, imho, 
particularly if you have one of the larger chainrings.

Andrejs



Mike Kerber wrote:
> My wife and I took our new Fridays from Chicago to Wash. D. C. on Amtrak in
> the BF suit cases and it all worked great.  D.C. has lots a great paved
> trails and you can ride all over the mall and museum areas.   From past yaks
> I have seen that some people have had some bent cranksets when traveling by
> air.   I have ordered another set of crush protectors since we plan to do
> some travel by air later this year.    Will this be enough?   Am I just
> paranoid?   What have been the experiences of those that have traveled by
> air?
>
>