"The airport is essentially a giant bike crushing machine"

The Doc runs his steed through the airport baggage gauntlet

- Michael Hutchinson

I flew to Spain recently with a bike.

A few days before the trip, I was out for a ride with my friend Bernard and mentioned my plans.

“I suppose you're going to pack it into one of those posho boxes or bags,” he said.

I told him I certainly was, what with not wanting my bike reduced to more parts that it had been assembled out of in the first place, and all that.

“They're a con,” he said. “It's just a swindle invented by the industry to make money out of idiots like you.”

He told me that he insists on handing the bike over at the check in desk as it is: “If you do that, it's obvious that it's fragile. Only a psychopathically violent baggage handler would do it any damage. If you pack it, it's more likely to get chucked about.”