I’m wrapping up my Japan bicycle trip in Tokyo at the moment and am scheduled to fly out of Narita, with my bicycle, next week. Getting the bicycle to the airport seems to be a bigger hurdle than I’ve expected though.
I have a cardboard box that’s 160×80×20 (total size: 260cm). But I’m a tall guy with a big bike and that’s the smallest size box I can confidently say I can fit my bike into after disassembly (front wheel + pedals + handle bar). It’s the same size box I flew here with. It’s the size my airline expects when I show up next week. Problem is, all the delivery services I’ve found seem to go no higher than 240cm, except the Ta-q-bin furniture moving service which doesn’t deliver to the airport. I can also fit all my luggage on my bike, but not the cardboard box, it’s simply too big!
The way I see it my options are:
– ride to the airport a day or two in advance, park the bike (is parking bicycles at Narita even a thing for bikes?), come back on the day of the flight with luggage and cardboard box by train, disassemble and package up the bike while there.
– cut the cardboard box to make it below 240cm, somehow hope that I can fit the bike in anyway? I guess I could take the rear wheel off, but not sure how much that’ll help because of the bike rack.
– ship home via postal service, expensive, slow, also requires a slightly smaller box.
– taxi, ludicrously expensive, also requires a smaller box.
Am I overlooking an option here? Anyone who’s had this issue before? All I can find online is for people who had smaller bikes …
1 comment
Did you ever take the train with your bike ? You are allowed to bring in on the train if it’s in a bag or box.
The JR rule is luggage under 250cm, but if it’s in a bag, that should make it smaller. Then you can put it in the final box at the airport.