Chapter 1: I want to ride my own bike.

We have friends who have cycled in Europe and South America and they’ve all rented bikes for those trips with happy results. So when we planned a short bike tour as part of our Italy holiday in 2013 we thought we'd give it a try. I researched online to find a place that would rent us the kind of bikes we would enjoy riding. 

We thoroughly enjoyed our tour. We began in Lucca where we rented our bikes and rode a three-day loop that took us to Pisa the first night. The second day we rode to Volterra, an ancient city that sits on top of a hill that we could see from the distance as we approached. We felt like we were approaching the great city of Oz. While we were out on the roads we were away from all the tourists, away from anyone who spoke English, in the heart of the country. In one small town we took a break in the town square and watched the old men who stopped in to visit with their friends, talk and play cards, or take a nap.

But we hated the bikes. They didn't have one my size that could hold a water bottle and I couldn't even fathom riding without ready access to water. So I took one that was just a little too big. And heavy. Riding up hills was no fun. Getting on and off the bikes was no fun, although once I got going it all went smoothly enough. Rob didn't like his much either.

When we got home from that trip we started shopping for new touring bikes. I had already done a little research and had found out that you can get a bike that will actually come apart and fit in a suitcase. (Note that this is not the same as a folding bike.) I know someone who has one. He told me that it takes him and his wife a half day to put together their bikes when they get to their destination. But the bigger challenge, he said, was getting the bikes to fit in their suitcases. It all sounded very daunting. Too much so for us. We decided to pass on that option. 

But when we settled on buying Co-Motion bikes we found out that for an additional $800 we could get them with  the S&S couplers that enable them to be taken apart and put into suitcases. We had already decided not to get the couplers, right? We gave them another thought. Given that the last time I bought a touring bike was in 1980, we did the math and realized that chances were good these bikes would be the last ones we bought. Once we bought them, adding the couplers wouldn't be an option. So what's another $800? What the heck, why not?

Those two silver things on the top tube and just below the water bottle are the S&S couplers.

We decided to wait to buy the suitcases until we actually needed them. For the next several years all our tours were close to home, either driving distance or starting out our front door. In 2014 we bicycled for a week in Vermont; in 2015, two weeks up and down the Maine coast; in 2016, two weeks around Prince Edward Island; and last summer we spent 3½ weeks bicycling around New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, and Quebec. 

Finally, this year, we decided to take the big leap and fly with our bikes to Europe.

We contacted the bicycle store in Massachusetts where we had bought our bikes, Belmont Wheelworks. Clint, the owner, set up an appointment for us with Mike who would teach us how to take apart our bikes, pack them, and then put back together again. 

Mike's time was charged at $70 an hour and would take about three hours. This was getting to be an expensive proposition. The suitcases cost $400 each plus $89 for the padding. That was adding up to at least a thousand dollars, plus what we’d  paid to have the couplers put on our bikes in the first place. How many flights will it take to get our money back?

We were flying with Aer Lingus. I checked their website. 50 euros per bike each way didn’t seem too expensive. But reading the fine print, they had a limit of how many bikes they would take on any flight, and only one bike on any regional flight. I didn’t think we were flying on a regional flight, but you never know when you might be. And how would we get our bikes to and from the airport? The whole operation seemed incredibly complicated no matter what we did.

We’d already dived into the S&S coupler pond. We decided to keep swimming.

In early May Rob took an afternoon off work and we drove the hour and a half to Belmont, just outside Boston, with our bikes. Mike was ready for us with our new suitcases and the packages of padding. We carried our bikes downstairs to the basement of the shop where there was plenty of room to spread out. I got out paper and pen to take notes, and my phone to take pictures, leaving nothing to our aging memories.

Mike told us to take off the front and rear racks. That was easy enough. Removing the pedals was a little trickier; nothing about taking off pedals makes sense but Mike explained how to do it and I wrote down what he said. We took off the handlebars making sure to put the headpiece back on securely. Then we unscrewed the two gear cables and rear brake cable. 

Those black thingies above the coupler are what you unscrew to take the cables apart.

Mike gave us the special tool to loosen the S&S couplers. We just loosened them, not taking apart the bikes yet. Some things are easier with the wheels still on; the order of events matters. Before removing our seat posts Mike showed us how to make a permanent mark so we wouldn't have to guess on where to put it back. We took off our wheels, removed the spindles, let all the air out of the tires. Finally we unscrewed the couplers, then removed the derailleur and loosened the front fork so we could turn it to lay flat in the suitcase.

Now we had four major pieces, two wheels and two halves of the frame. We cut the foam in pieces to wrap each part of the frame. Then we put the front half in the suitcase, leaving out the handlebars. Then the rear wheel, gears down. Next the rear half of the bike, sprockets up. We tucked in the handlebars before putting the front wheel on top.

The front section fits into the suitcase nicely. This is before we wrapped the bike in the foam padding and before we realized that we needed to loosen the front fork. In the end we also took off the water bottle cages. Note also that the handlebars, while hanging out, are still attached by the cables.

The rear wheel goes in next.

All that's left is the front wheel.

And now, will the suitcase close? I folded the top over and started zipping. I pushed a little here and a little there, working the zipper around. And, dang, if it didn't zip all the way around. I set it upright and pulled out the handle and it looked like any other piece of luggage you wheel through an airport. 

It's really a smart looking piece of luggage. The dimensions are 26"x26"x10", exactly the maximum you are allowed before being charged more. With just the bike, it weighs 40 pounds, with plenty of room to tuck in 10 pounds of clothing.

Rob, too, was able to zip up his suitcase. We were pretty proud of ourselves. But we were also exhausted and hungry. It was almost five o’clock and we still had to take our bikes out of the suitcases and put them back together. I looked over my notes and we got to work, doing each step in reverse order.

Four hours after we’d begun, we had our bikes put back together. And we had done it ourselves with only a little coaching from Mike. But could we do it again?

We weren't going to leave it to chance. A week later at home, tools in hand, we spent a morning taking our bikes apart, putting them in their suitcases, and putting them back together. Even with my notes I couldn't figure out how to get the pedals unscrewed in the correct direction. If you've ever tried taking off a pedal, you know what I mean. You have a fifty percent chance of getting it right the first time, but you can't tell if you've got it correct because the pedals are on so tightly, are you working to loosen the or just tightening them more? In this case, the internet was definitely my friend. I found a video that showed me how to do it. It's really quite simple. Set the wrench in the pedal, hold the brake, and with your foot on the pedal, pull up on the wrench. It works for both sides.

We gave each other an extra hand where needed, pulling the cables to get them to screw back together, one of us holding up a bike so the other person could get the couplers screwed together. It all began to seem less daunting.

Even so, I worried about the suitcase. It was a soft case. Wouldn’t the front wheel get bent? I checked the Co-Motion website. We were packing the bikes exactly the way it said to. It assured us that softer luggage got treated better than hard luggage because it was less likely to get thrown around. And how do you know that if you aren't down there with the baggage handlers?