Packing a mountainbike for transportation on an airplane

This week I'm leaving on a mountainbike vacation to Andalusia, Spain, getting there is by airplane. The cheapest solution to transport your bike is in bike cardboard boxes, you can get them for free from your local bikeshop. I started out with two of them. From one I cut the sideboards to put inside the other one, so that is a little stronger on the sides

Next step is preparing the bike to fit in the box, I removed the front wheel and quick release. Fixed the quick release to a spoke of the front wheel and put away the wheel, you only need it in the last instance. I have disc brakes so special care should be taken to prevent the pistons from accidentaly falling out the brakeshoe, this is done by putting in a piece of cardboard and pulling the brake lever, with the lever pulled tie a tie-wrap around it to prevent the cardboard from falling out.

Next step is removing pedals and protecting top tube. I also put a spacer in front fork; this spacer is normally used with a new aftermarket fork to protect it during transportation, your local bikeshop probably has one lying around.

Now I removed the handlebar; I have an easy frontloading stem, after removing the handlebar I reattached the cap with the bolts so I don't loose them. Wrap your front fork with air bubble wrap and tie the handlebar with tie-wraps to the side of the fork like this
Later on in the process I noticed when the bike was in the box, there was no room anymore for my front wheel due to the handlebar, so I removed it from the front fork and putted it on the toptube as you can see in this picture. After this I tried fitting the bike in the box for the first time, big disappointement... But I forgot to let the air out of the rear tire, which helped a lot to fit the bike tightly in the box:

Next step is removing rear derailleur and fixing it to a spoke on the rear wheel, I protected the spokes with a piece of cardboard and fixed the derailleur with a tie-wrap.
I also removed the saddle with seat post, next fitting in the box was with a little more success, you can notice I still have to turn my stem to make it fit. It fits now:

Mountainbike completely packaged, some details I didn't mention yet:

• saddle with seat post fitted between seat tube and rear wheel


• Pedals attached to the inside of crank arm, on this picture the non-drive crank arm is still to much to the front to fit the front wheel, I changed this later


• Rear disk protected with sock to prevent it scrathing something
• Protection all over with isolation material used to isolate warm water pipes in the house.

Final result in the boxyou can notice the

• camelbak
• front wheel (tire slightly deflated but not completely because it's a no-tubes wheelset. Front disc to the inside (frame side)
Slightly too bulky where front wheel fits.
• Extra spare packaging for the return.

I still have a little room available to put in my helmet, shoes, tape for the return packaging. I don't take any tools along because at my destination everything is available, if needed this also can be put into the camelbak.

Things I'm going to do when returning: trying to remove rear-shock absorber (is one bolt) so the rear suspension compresses and makes more room available in the box. The long wheelbase of my bike make a tight fit.