Holiday cycling

[mikecsboats]

Hi, First time I have ventured into print, although I have been reading the threads for some time. My situation is that I am currently abroad, returning to the UK in April. At 75 I have decided to give up driving, or rather to hire if I need to, as I spend the winter abroad, in Luxor. So I have ordered an Agattu for delivery on return to the UK, and I have been debating whether to bring it back to Egypt with me, when I fly back in September, and dispense with the motorcycle I am currently using. Incidentally, the cost of my 150cc Chinese made motorcycle here was the equivalent of £350, brand new, so that raises the issue of why, if they can make motorbikes at that price, electric cycles are so expensive.
So, after that rather aimless preamble, my question is, has anyone had any experience of taking a non-folding electric bicycle with them on holiday by air? My return will be via a charter if I can find one, or otherwise Egyptair, who ignore my emails for information.
Mikecsboats

 

[flecc]

Hello mikecsboats, welcome to the forum. Since the start of the forum the only post I remember related to this was someone musing with the idea of taking a Nano-Brompton folding electric back and forth to Spain, but heard no more about it. Hopefully someone will know something relevant to actual experience.

We do even have some Chinese made m/cycles and mopeds down in the low hundreds here as well, and of course they sell in vast numbers around the world. E-bike sales outside China are vanishingly small by comparison, and even in China they are falling as car ownership spreads. Hence the price difference, the e-bike markups here are large to make businesses handling their small numbers just about viable.
.

 

[planky]

Hello mikecsboats,

A few years ago I took my bike on holiday with me to Canada. I borrowed a bike-bag off of a friend.

You had to turn the handlebars sideways and let the tyres down a bit (low pressure in the aircraft hold might explode the tyres!). I handed the bike into the special luggage desk and collected it the other side.

Worth it for the fun of hurtling down Blackcombe Mountain though.

 

[rooel]

It would be interesting to learn the reaction of airport security to the battery box on an electric bike. Would they want it taken apart to prove it did not contain an explosive device?

 

[Ian]

Would they want it taken apart to prove it did not contain an explosive device?

I thought that's precisely what some of the cheaper lithiums were.

On a serious note I did read a while back that some US airlines were considering blacklisting lithium batteries because of the potential fire/explosion hazard, I don't know what the outcome was though.

 

[flecc]

I thought that's precisely what some of the cheaper lithiums were.

On a serious note I did read a while back that some US airlines were considering blacklisting lithium batteries because of the potential fire/explosion hazard, I don't know what the outcome was though.

I heard there was consideration being given to a requirement for the batteries to be carried separately in a fireproof container, but again, nothing further heard since.
.

 

[Ian]

I've done a quick search and found that the US DoT banned the carrying of lithium batteries in airline luggage from the start of this year. It is OK to carry them in hand baggage providing they are installed in a device, or in a plastic bag . The rules are aimed mainly at laptop and phone batteries but obviously apply to all lithium batteries.

Mobile Computer - US spare lithium battery ban now in effect

 

[flecc]

A plastic bag.

Reminds me of the Home Office advice in the event of a nuclear attack, to put a stout brown paper bag over one's head. Yes really.

It was meant as a defence against the blindness from the nuclear flash, avoiding the distress that would cause pending the flesh being stripped off one's bones by the blast a fifth of a second later.
.

 

[Ian]

---- ----

It would be hard to find a stout brown paper bag these days and I don't think a plastic carrier bag would give the same protection.

Brown paper bags could be poised to make a comeback though.

 

[mikecsboats]

Well, it doesn't look promising, and I wouldn't want to bring the plane down. Looks as though I shall have to put up with the motorcycle. Thanks to everyone, but the short answer seems to be that no one has actually travelled by air with a bike. Perhaps I can find a dealer in Cairo - there is no one here in Luxor I would trust. I had a cheap Chinese mountain bike which cost me £35. Not good value, as it didn't last 3 months, and most excursions ended by walking home. It also introduced me to that useful gadget, the Egyptian spanner, known in the UK as a pair of pliers.
Mikecsboats.

 

[Jeremy]

I know just what you mean about the poor quality of some of those very cheap mountain bikes there. A friend and I hired a couple of mountain bikes from a hotel in Luxor, whilst staying there about 17 years ago. We spent almost as much time trying to fix bits that kept falling off as we did riding. One thing we discovered was that the "Egyptian spanner" seems to be the only available tool in most of the small villages we rode through, although the people always seemed very helpful and keen to wield it enthusiastically to get us going again.

It always staggered me to compare the ancient Egyptian civilisation, with it's high level of technology, to modern Egypt, where the skills to fix something as humble as a bicycle seemed to be in short supply.

Jeremy

 

[Tiberius]

the skills to fix something as humble as a bicycle seemed to be in short supply.

When I was at university, it was always the engineering students who couldn't seem to get their bikes working properly.

Nick

 

[Erik]

Todays Egyptians only share the geography with the ancient.

 

[Ian]

Apparently archaeologists working in Egypt found the remains of what they believe is a battery dating from the time of the Pharaohs. Its purpose is unknown and while some believe it may have been used for electroplating the possibility that they had electric bikes has to be considered. -- --

 

[mikecsboats]

Egyptian bicycles et al

Oh dear, Ian.
As a mainstream archeologist, I know I shoudn't get involved with this, but I have to point out that the alleged battery was found in Mesopotamia, and was in the Baghdad museum. I wonder where it is now. And the wheel was unknown in Egypt until the Hyksos invaded in 1700 BC, on bicycles - sorry chariots. Joking apart, someone pointed out to me the other day what curious things wheels are, ie on a car at 100 mph, the top of the wheel is moving at 200 mph, and the bottom is stationary.

 

[Ian]

Appologies about the location of the alleged battery mikecsboats, obviously your knowledge of such things far surpasses mine. I have now looked up the whereabouts of Mesopotamia and so now know a little more about ancient middle eastern geography.

 

[MaryinScotland]

Joking apart, someone pointed out to me the other day what curious things wheels are, ie on a car at 100 mph, the top of the wheel is moving at 200 mph, and the bottom is stationary.

That, of course, is relative to the ground where the wheel is touching. If you measured relative to the axle, all parts of the wheel would have the same speed (although that's angular velocity, which I'm not very good at). Relative to the driver, the bottom of the wheel is moving towards him and the top away from him... It's all relative - Einstein rules!

Mary

 

[Nick]

Years ago there was an article in one of the UK motorbike magazines about making your bike 'radar stealthy'. One suggestion was to go the opposite way and attach passive radar deflectors (as used on boat masts) to the wheel rims as these would present a large radar image, and hence a good 'lock on' and, due to the relative wheel speeds, would give confusing readings.

I never did get round to trying it out...