Hey you lot out there in the ether, Happy new year. I'm off to live in Rome for a few months and am thinking of taking the bike. Would this be sufficient to get it there?
Also does anyone have any bike related experience of Rome, what's it like to ride there, cost of bikes and frames, velodrome? Any of that sort of stuff.

Are you flying? Those bike bags are good, but I heard that most airlines make you sign a 'not our fault' waiver on bikes in transit - I've watched some of the monkeys loading planes before and it's not a pretty site. Maybe you could reinforces it with lots of padding/bubble wrap?

Can't help with the other stuff, I'm afraid

Yup, flying I think. That's why I wanted some reasurrance. Having said that I always take my skis on planes and they've not been totally fucked yet. I'll ceratinly bubble wrap the crap out of it.

If you're going for a few months then why not take the train? It takes longer, but your bike will be safe. Just a thought.

Rome is the most cobbled city i have ever been to. I was out there this summer and saw only a few bikes. Looked everywhere for shops too. Depends where you are living/working though.

i regularly take my bike on planes - get down to B&Q and buy 15 and 22m pipe insulation and some cable ties - the hi density foam absorbs the knocks way better than bubble wrap.

ask your LBS for the plastic fork braces that come with the new bikes and an old QR skewer for the back

jobs a goodun

i used the same bag when i was in milan couple weeks back. And i was flying with ryan air:-)...so i was a bit scarred especially when we paid for one bike and fitted THREE bikes in the bloody thing.Yeah the bike bag is really big. It will procent well against cosmetic damage and stuff but if someone is gonna jump on it or throw another luggage on it the frame will be fukked anyway. Its good if you ask for fragile sticker or something like this. On the way there we havent done it and the muppets put the bikes at the very bottom of the luggage cart.How clever is that???? and yeah if i go somewheer in europe with bike im always trying to take a bus. Its longer but you can take more shit than on the plane and you put the bike in and no one is handling it afterwards so its there they same way you put it in.

and as for rome.....i wasnt in rome but milan i guess is kinda similar.......cobbles, tourists, insane driving system, which for some strange reason feels safer than london so you can go straight through an intersection on the red light and come out in one piece with a smile on your face.......so yeah.....

I rode over to Amsterdam when I moved there, and by rode I mean to Liverpool street, then I caught a train to the ferry and another on the other side.

I probably only rode about 10-20 miles in total.

aha if anyone wants to borrow my DHB bike bag when they go travelling just for a while let me know....

how did the 3 bikes, one bag thing work out? i might need to move 3 bikes when i come back to the uk...

Thanks for the help. Esp big daddy, like the insulation tip.

what about this:

http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/ebwPNLqrymode.a4p?f%5FProductID=7211&f%5FSupersetQ RY=Kcase%7E2&f%5FSortOrderID=2&f%5Fbct=m003662

i use one of their bike bags and it's really well made. if you do use a soft bag, as above - plenty of pipe insulation, fork brace and a ton of bubblewrap just for good measure. i always pick up a claim form at check in too - just in case but so far, i've had no problems!

Hard-case? Are they worth it?

Edit: Duh, I see jhotdog already posted one. My question remains though.. anyone used them? I'm scared to cart bikes on planes.

easy ...the bag is massive........the bikes were all track bikes so.......

Couple of probs with the hard case - They cost too much for me for one trip and when I get to Rome I probably won't have place to store the bike let alone the case!

I have a Bike Safe. It's friggin' enormous, but there's no way that El Smeato is going to damage anything inside it.

did you fit all the weels bars and stems and such-like in the one bag?

We were talking shit about this at the last West End Beers thing, and someone came up with a good idea on where to put your bike bag when you get to your destination - the airport's lost property! Just hand it in, then claim it back when it's time to leave...

Admittedly, there was some beer involved in this suggestion, so I'm not actually sure that it would work, but it might be worth trying...

"Lost Property" being the codename for the airport's Secret Santa stockpile..

why can i not get this in the us?

yeah we did and a track pump and couple other things:-)
are you by any chance chris who used to work at creative???
cuz here's martin ex-creative:-)

yup that would be me

hows things?

yeah not bad......not working......done a bit of travelling....all good...soon to work in a bike shop.....its funny cuz i just met your girlfriend Georgie yesterday....and she was talking about her soon to be framebuilding boyfriend in states....and then she mentioned you both used to live in notting hill in a squat...so i was like......chris as in CHRIS:-)...what bout you...when you back????

don't know yet, i'm going to hickville north carolina to learn frame building, then it depends on how long the home office takes to process things and then i get to go back