Hi (newbie to this forum)

I'm going to sierra nevada in march for a week (6th) and I'm taking my own bike. (never been abroad with my bike before)

I was wondering if anyone in Bristol would be willing to lend me a bike bag for the week. I was thinking of buying one on chainreaction/ebay, but to be honest it's not something i'm going to need frequently and they are pretty expensive.

I've been mountain biking for about a year now and lived in Bristol for 2.

I'm obviously prepared to put a (cash) deposit down as security and some dollar for hiring it.

Also has anyone taken their bike on easyjet before? any experiences or tips to watch out for - i'm told i really need to get hold of a fork spacer so my forks don't get damaged.

Please mail me if anyone is prepared to lend me a bike bag (obviously pay for hire and deposit)

Cheers
Gav
gav@phiger.co.uk

Can't help with the bike bag but check out Easyjets policy on bikes with hydraulic brakes, I have heard that they are refusing to carry bikes using hydraulic fluid (although this has been contradicted by jerry at muddock recently)

Cheers.. Thankfully they actually changed this decision at the end of Jan with pressure from ctc

more info here:

http://www.singletrackworld.com/article.php?sid=1844

I took my bike on Cheesyjet at the end of last year. You have to be careful that they don't try and sting you for excess baggage as your extra bike fee should mean they won't charge you for any excess. The check-in staff in the UK understood this but the Spanish ones were awkward about it.

Re packaging, take off your wheels, handlebars, rear mech and possibly the mech hanger. Apparently brake discs can sometimes get tweaked but I left mine on and they were fine. I got a bike box from outside Halford's, cut it to size and then put this inside the bike bag, then taped pipe lagging over the chainstays, fork legs and dropouts and it seemed to work fine. Good luck!

Good news about Easyjet changing their policy. If you have disc brakes don't forget to pack the space between your disc pads with hardboard or something similar, and tape it in place so it doesn't fall out! I always remove the rear mech and zip tie it to the frame. If you have an old knackered rear hub, put that in place to keep the rear end from collapsing under the weight of any baggage that gets put on top of your bike bag. My friends Cannondale Jekyll was a write off after travelling Easyjet to Nice as the swing arm had been completely compressed. If you have wide handlebars you may need to remove them from the stem and tape them to the frame.