Traveling with a Brompton

My first trip with my Brompton!

I read up on some tips beforehand. A really helpful blog was Bromptoning. Oddly enough, the lovely young couple that runs that blog had very recently visited my home city of Ottawa!

Anyways, I knew from them that the Brompton B bag should be good to go with Wesjet. Air Canada on the other hand discriminates against all bikes - even though the Brompton folds down to the size of a medium piece of luggage! That’s ok though, there’s pretty much no force on earth that would have compelling me to suffer through a flight with Air Canada anyways.

Bike stuff to bring

I packed my helmet, CamelBak, and Brompton Rack Sack in my main luggage. I stuffed the rack sack full of the helmet, my biking shoes, and some Muc-Off dry chain lube (in case I find myself stuck in the rain) in a ziplock bag. I considered popping off my Brooks saddle, but ended up leaving it on the Brompton. My phone holder is pretty flimsy plastic and looked like it would be the thing most likely to break, so I unscrewed it and tossed it in my suitcase as well.

Unfortunately my flight to Winnipeg (my original home town) transferred through Toronto with a relatively short layover. In my experience, each connection increases the chance or lost or misplaced luggage. To guard against losing my precious Brompton, I wrote down my contact information on a sticky note, and slid it into the clear business card slot on the outside of the B bag. This way, if the worst happens and my Brompton is stranded, the poor soul trying to reunite it with its owner will have an easier shot at finding me.

Preparing the Brompton to fly

To prepare the Brompton for the trip, I deflated its tires. Not all the way, but enough to give the inner tubes room to expand in the lower pressure environment of the airplane’s hold. Deflating the tires all the way runs the risk of the inner tube shifting in transit and getting pinched between the tire and rim - a recipe for disaster. I picked up a roll of large bubble wrap from staples as well, and recycled some of the bubble wrap my Brompton and some of its accessories had come with.

I slipped the Brompton into the B bag with ease, and padded it with bubble wrap all around. I ended up needing a bit of extra luggage space, so I also tossed some hoodies, a jacket, and a tarp in there (I was going camping at my destination). This saved room in my suitcase, and had the added bonus of providing extra padding for the Brompton. From what I have read, these precautions were likely not necessary. However, I’m not one to temp chance and wanted to protect my investment. A cheap roll of bubble wrap goes a long way!

Flying with the Brompton

When I checked in with Westjet, I asked specifically for a fragile sticker. I think this is also got the bag into over sized luggage, as she seemed about to take the bag in the normal belt until I did this. I suspect this is the procedure for anything marked as fragile, as the B bag isn’t that big.

At the over-sized bag drop, they needed to do an inspection before I could send it down the belt. I’ve never had this happen before, but it didn’t really matter. I told the truth, that the bag contained a folding bicycle. The attendant opened it up - mostly to check that I didn’t have any bike lube or CO2 canisters - and he was amazed that there was a full bike in the bag! He exclaimed “wow - wheels and everything in there!”. He let me back the bag back up to my neurotic specifications of bubble-wrap padding. As I handed it to him, I asked if he wanted any help loading it onto the belt. He jested back “nah, I can take care of it - I’ll take it for a quick spin around the airport”. He was obviously amused with the bike. He sent it down the belt and I went on my merry way.

I checked into my flight, and made my connection without issue. I worried a bit about my bike as I flew, but figured it was probably OK. Thankfully, when I arrived at my destination in Winnipeg, it slid out of the over-sized baggage claim and I grabbed it up without incident. When I got to my destination I unpacked it and did a quick visual inspection. Everything looked good! I used my Road Morph G pump to get the tires back to their intended PSI, and my Brompton was ready-to-roll once more!

A very positive experince

Overall, the process went really well. I think I may have been a bit paranoid, but WestJet seem to take bags marked as fragile pretty seriously. I’ve absolutely loved having my bike on my trip (I’ll write about this in another post), and I’m definitely doing to continue to bring my Brompton with me whenever I travel! Having an easy way to get around without needing to take the gamble of riding shoddy public transit is a huge win.