| Back to the previous photograph | |
|
| |
 I thought the bike boxes which I used for the flights to and from New Zealand were useful. They stop the bike scratching other things or getting scratched by other things and they can lie down flat nicely or stand up on their own. Singapore Airlines don't sell them though so I've got a few options for what I should do tomorrow, after relocating to a hotel closer to the airport, in preparation for my flight home early the next morning: 1: Just wrap the bike in clingfilm like I have for several flights in the past, 2: Buy a light bag for it like I did for the flight from London to Lisbon, 3: Buy a proper high-quality bike bag, which will cost at least £250, 4: Try to find a bike shop which has recently unpacked a new bike and still has the cardnoard box, 5: Go to the airport and see whether Virgin Australia will sell me a bike box even though I don't have a ticket for one of their flights, 6: See if I can persuade a Virgin passenger to buy a box in their name, 7: Buy a ticket for a Virgin flight which I have no intention of getting on, and use that to buy a box. Remarkably, option 7 would actually be cheaper than option 3 but it would be a bit silly. The only advantage of option 2 over option 1 would be that it would remove the risk of the clingfilm getting torn. Option 6 isn't really my kind of thing but option 5 is probably a good idea. My hotel for tomorrow night is within walking distance of the airport and a lot of the bike shops seem to stay open late on Thursdays so I should have time to try the airport first. I e-mailed the bike shop which is also within walking distance of the hotel asking whether they sold bags and whether they might have a cardboard box going spare. Their reply only mentioned the high-quality boxes. They would be good for somebody who wanted to fly off to somewhere, base themselves in a hotel and just use the bike for day trips, or perhaps for a race, but they aren't ideal for me. If I had one, I would probably only be able to use it for two flights and then I would have to leave it at an airport somewhere while I ride off on the start of a tour. Also, the high quality bags weigh about 8 kg and I'm not sure how close I am to my weight allowance for the flight. I know of several other bike shops, one of which advertises soft bags, but they are all over an hour's walk from the hotel. I might possibly be able to go on the bike and ride back with a soft bag but I couldn't ride anywhere with a big cardboard box. I'm inclined to buy a high-quality bag though. I've never used one before so I would like to see how easy one is to use. I like the fact that they have wheels. That should make getting to and from and around the airports much less of a struggle than it normally is. With that in mind, I've bought this suitcase on wheels to carry all my other luggage. This is definitely a good investment: it's incredibly light, much easier to use than carrying paniers, about a tenth of the price of a good bike box, and big enough to carry all my belongings so I won't have to have some of them in my hand luggage, although what I fear is that a bike bag might push my checked-in luggage over the weight limit so I have to take things out and put them in the hand baggage anyway. If I want to try several of my options and then dismantle the bike, tomorrow evening could be quite hard work. Before that though, I'll have four hours between having to leave this hotel and being let into the next one so I'll have plenty of time to try to make the 8 km journey while wheeling both this bag and the bike. That could be fun. It didn't take me long to find this bag after deciding that I definitely wanted one. In fact, it was so easy that I have a feeling that if I had waited, I might have been able to find one closer to tomorrow's hotel. UTC Time: 08:23, Wednesday 05 February 2014 Local Time: 16:23, Wednesday 05 February 2014 Estimate of longitude: 115° 51' 39.20" E = 115.860890° Estimate of latitude: 31° 57' 13.57" S = -31.953770° Possible error on position estimate: 50 metres | |