Brompton Accessories #15 - Packing The Brompton For Air Travel 02

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BROMPTON ACCESSORIES #15 - PACKING THE BROMPTON FOR AIR TRAVEL 02

Travelling with the Brompton to other places by air is great! But one has to be careful on how to pack it and protect the more sensitive or "protruding" ends. Many use hard cases or semi-hard cases; but if you are ending your cycling tour at a point other than your start point, these hard cases are going to be a problem carrying around on the bike.

I frequently travel with my Brompton packed into an IKEA Dimpa Bag. It's a soft bag so some additional protection has to be done. This bag folds into a small, convenient piece making it easy to carry around. Now the thing is to ensure that the protection boards and pieces used are also fold-able and easily carried on the bike.

I had previously wrote on Bagging the Brompton for Air Travel using the Dimpa Bag with cardboard sheets for protection. But these cardboard pieces are not that strong and often are easily damaged by the rough handling of baggage handlers. Also the cardboard may not be so clean as some dirt can get in between their plies. This could be a problem when facing the customs of some countries (like Australia and New Zealand) that are sensitive to dirt being brought into their countries. Of late instead of using cardboard, many of us are using the plastic Impraboard. These are hardier and cleaner than cardboard. After comparing notes, we have also protected our bagged bikes in better ways. Included here are tips on protection and how to cut the Impraboard. Cutting dimensions are shown at the bottom.
NOTE: In Europe & the USA, similar boards are the ones from Coroplast.

CUTTING THE BOARDS

The tools required - a metric ruler (a steel one is preferable), a mechanical pencil with thicker leads (or a thick pencil), a cutting blade.

Although only three pieces of Impraboard are required, get four pieces in case one makes a mistake. They come in dimensions of 770mm x 690mm, sizes may vary slightly depending on the supplier, so adjust accordingly. A thickness of 2.5mm should be suitable and select a colour to your liking.

Above are dimensions of the Side Board. Two of these are needed. First cut the top away so that you will have a 605mm high board that will fit just nicely into the Dimpa Bag. Then slit three vertical cuts down the length. These should be half cuts, and should not be all the way through the board.

Mark out the required widths per the above sketch and draw light pencil lines along them. The board is ready for cutting. TIP: use a blunt pencil to press down and draw down along the lines; this won't cut the boards at all but will form a groove to guide the cutter along during actual cutting making cutting easier.

A close up view of the half-cut line.

NOTE: The half-cuts should be on alternate faces of the board AND not on one face of the board; other wise it will not fold properly.

The cutting dimensions for the top & bottom boards. From a single piece of board, three pieces of 200mm width and a piece of 170mm width can be obtained.
NOTE: Cut the board against and NOT along the corrugation line of the Impraboard. This will let the corrugation ribs lend strength to the top & bottom boards; as later during assembly the ribs will lend strength to hold up the side boards when the top and bottom are inserted between the side boards.

Do not cut along the "Bend here" line; if done correctly the ribbing will run parallel to this line. Bending along this line will maintain a certain amount of spring to push the Dimpa Bag outwards and maintain a good shape.

NOTE: See update #1 at below for method on having this bottom board with sides turned up.


PREPARING THE BIKE

The very first thing in preparing the bike is to remove the hinge-clamps. This is to avoid any accidental bending of the screws arising from poor baggage handling; if the screws are bent then they can't lock the hinges of the bike... no locking means no riding!
Wrap them up and store them somewhere safe. I normally store them in the saddle bag which will be packed together with the bike.

Protecting the bike will requires some round hard foamed plastic pieces like the one shown above. Also needed will be rectangular pieces. Both should be about 12mm thick. These can be obtained from you neighbourhood bicycle shop as they are used for packing of new un-assembled bicycles.

While the bike is still un-folded; insert these round plastic pieces in between the mudguard and the tire at the four extreme edges of the mudguards. These will prevent the mudguard from flexing if push against during rough handling.

Fold the bike and secure them with a bungee cord strapped around the front fork and the main top tube. This is to prevent the bike from swinging open while being handled.

Wrapped a longer round plastic foam piece over the top main tube to prevent scratching as sometimes the right pedal over-folds.
UPDATE June 2016: I have simplified a few protection steps to reduce having to carry around so many polystyrene pieces. For the above, like some friends, I used an old sock to wrap around the foldable pedal. See more simplification below.

Wrap the hinges (one for the main top tube and one for the handle tube) with plastic foam pieces and tape them down with masking tape, this is important as this hinge areas are at extreme end of the bike. During your travels, it will be good to bring along a small roll of masking tape along for re-packing later on.
UPDATE June 2016: Don't have to carry a roll of masking tape along as am now using double bungee cords to strap these in.

Wrap another piece around the rear deraileur...
UPDATE June 2016: Not used anymore as found this not really necessary. For those who want to have the confidence of added protection, do go ahead.

... another larger piece protects the main gear cog ring.
UPDATE June 2016: Not used anymore as found this not really necessary. For those who want to have the confidence of added protection, do go ahead.

The saddle bag with contents (including the hinge clamps) are tied to the main top tube and the handle bar. A baklava is used as a temporary top cover (for more details see : Mini O - Packing Light & Tight blog).
Okay, the bike is now ready to be put into the Dimpa Bag.


PUTTING THE BIKE INTO THE DIMPA BAG

Th Dimpa Bag can be obtained from the nearest IKEA store, in Malaysia it sells for MYR12-90 (at time of this blog). The good thing about the Dimpa Bag is that it zips halfway down, making inserting/extracting the bike easier. Get two of these at least, one as a spare.

STEP 1: FIRST BOTTOM PIECE

Insert the first Impraboard bottom piece with one end turned up...

STEP 2: SECOND BOTTOM PIECE

Insert the second bottom piece with the turned-up end on the other side.

STEP 3: INNER SIDE PIECE

Insert the inner side piece with one end turn inwards at the side of the bag. Apologies on the condition of my Impraboard, they look old and crinkly as they have been used many times.

A close up view shows that the side piece is tucked outside the bottom up-turned piece; this allow the top & bottom pieces to act as a brace to hold the two side pieces nicely apart and prevent them from folding inwards.

STEP 4: INSERT THE BROMPTON BIKE

 With the top of the Dimpa Bag folded outwards and away, insert the bike.
Actually, it is easier to insert the bike if both top sides are folded half way down so that they don't block the top.

Ensure that the Eazy wheels sit within the bottom pieces.
(See Update #1 below to see how to avoid this)

STEP 5: TOP & OUTER SIDE PIECES

Insert the top pieces and then fold the top of the Dimpa Bag over them. Then insert the outer side piece, ensuring that it sits on the outside of the Eazy wheels.

STEP 6: ZIPPING UP

If your air luggage weight allowance has spare, you could insert clothes, the Mini O bag, etc inside; and it's time to zip up!
For the Bromptons with P-handles, zipping is a bit tight at the rear edge of the seat and a bit of squeezing of the boards together may be required. If necessary, turn down the sharp corners of the boards to prevent them poking into and damaging the bag.

And here it is - the Brompton all nicely and neatly packed up; a spare bag has been put in between the outer side piece and the Dimpa Bag. A TSA approved lock is used to lock the two zip handles together.

And here's my Brompton after landing at Christchurch Airport with the folded Impraboard and Dimpa Bag strapped onto a luggage sitting on the Rear Rack - ALL READY TO RIDE!
Neat and very transportable aren't they?


UPDATE #1 - TURNED UP BOTTOM PIECE (May 2015)
This update is to arrest the problem of the Ezy Wheels slipping off from the bottom board. If this happens, the wheels could be exposed to being damaged. To address this, I have revised the bottom piece to have turned up sides (a similar piece can be used for the top).

The cutting dimensions for the turned-up board. Cut the squares at the four corners away and do half-cuts along the dotted line. Turn up the four sides at the dotted lines.

This is how the bottom piece should look like.

The turned-up piece at the bottom of the Dimpa bag, sitting squarely between the sewed edges. Fit the Ezy wheels in between. Put the side boards on the outer sides of the turned-up edges; these edges will push the side board outwards and form a firm boxing.

The Ezy Wheels sitting in between the turned-up edges will not slip away and will remain protected.

Update: Found the two short edges not really neccessary, can do away with them as make packing easier.

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