3 ways to travel with your brompton on flight

Since last time where we bring our brompton bike oversea from Singapore to China / Vietnam for a 3 months travel. We were using IKEA dimpa bag for bike carry on. Our experience through these couples of flight were that the bike might get damaged in the process. (which Jackie's bike rear rack got bend around the easy rollers wheel).

The benefit of using our method just the Dimpa Bag is that the whole setup will be so light and we are basically able to pack the whole set up (including Dimpa bag) into the front carrier bag. All my 7kg luggage goes into the front bag so its kinda light weight. I will be suitable for anyone who is a minimalism traveller on a one bag travel setup.

The draw back of our setup is that to protect the bike in the soft plastic bag, we had be reinforce with cardboard that we pick up along the road. We ended up ditching the idea of using cardboard and end up checking in with naked bike or just using our clothes to fill up the important areas within the dimpa bag itself.

We are used to doing backpacking for our travel. Its gave us more freedom and flexibility to move around town and resting in hostel is easier even with clamp spaces. But carrying a brompton bike make it's a little bit messy and inconvenient if we stay in hostel due to security and space restrictions. Booking a hotel room solves the problem but take away the flexibility to meet people on the road.

Radical Design Chubby trailer

I had been exploring the idea to add in a trailer bag into my set up. Since if I am considering adding a bigger check in luggage, might as well I can use it as a trailer to tow around from airport to my first hotel. This setup allows me to only carry 2 bag in total. 1 which my 7kg one bag travel and a bigger bag to store brompton and the 2 wheels. I can still stuff my clothes inside the trailer bag to provide additional protection for my bike.

The benefit of this setup is with the added space. I can do bike touring and camping with tents which will be a more outdoor frugal type of travelling. While still able to stay in hostel provided my have the space to store the bag somewhere. I am able to take a taxi easily if need be.

• Traveling with the Brompton and the Chubby https://youtu.be/Fp6StexKoEQ
• Brompton and Bicycle Trailer Cyclone IV Chubby https://youtu.be/MLAEjkJ5-3Q
• Cyclone Chubby Setup for Brompton I Radical Design https://youtu.be/d8QvV-8OOcU

The limitation of this I reckon is that you will be towing a trailer with no option to store away between your journey. Having a tow trailer might work if you cycling around town. But if long distance coverage of slopes and climbs of hill, it might be a bit tedious to cycle long distance.

I will use this towing method if I need to carry more camping like tent and cookware etc. Will be suitable for outdoor camping.

Vincita Sightseer

As mentioned above. Dimpa bag didn't provide enough protection. Therefore I was exploring some other foldable bag to check in the bike using a alterative bag. Vincita had is roller bag with 4 version. Currently as per writting they had already launch version 4.0

Vincita was founded in Bangkok and had been the strong company that provide brompton related bags.

Although this Vincita bag can be mount on the front bracket, it will be too wide for comfort. Most likely this will be mounted at the rear rack on the vertical position.

Travel naked without protection

For people who are nonchalence about the bike being damaged. Checking in the bike just as it is might be a workable solution. Although chances are there might be some sport equipment charges by some carrier.

The rational that this work is if people at the airport see the istem as a bike. They might be naturally handling it with care and fragile nature. Some people commented they did not see any damage travelling like this (as shown below)

I would like to explore one of the 3 options on my next travel trip :)