Today was/is travel day for me. I have been dreading this for a while because I have been faced with the dilemma of getting my bike to Kona.
A little back ground first.
I first thought I would get Inside Out Sports to ship it for me as they have done for years for many other ironman races. They are a major sponsor of these events (and owned a bike shop in Kona at one time), but I found out that was only out of the Raleigh store and not the new store in Charlotte. So much for that idea.
My next contact was with UPS and FEDEX. Wow!!! They wanted anything from $401.0 to $700.00 to slow ship to Kona. No thanks!!!!! That’s the cost of a cheap disc wheel or 1/3 of the cost of a power tap for my bike which I have been eyeing for a while.
So, I’ve been wanting to get a bike case for a while anyway to travel to more exotic triathlon and adventure races so I went ahead and bought a nice TEAM case for traveling with my bikes.
Great! No problem I bought a nice case for carry my bike. It was one of those very light weight type of cases that would be a bit easier to handle in the airport as I drag it along. The kind that the race teams all use. Perfect!
Everything has a price though! Yes, the case was very lightweight and very unique looking, it was even shaped more like a triangle with the top cut off instead of a huge rectangular box. It made my bike even look faster having a racing case like this (I’ll take anything I can get). But I realized something very quickly when I tried to fit my bike into the case after taking the wheels off…..it didn’t fit! The bike shop said it would fit with no problem at all. What I realized was that I was missing something that race teams have and I don’t..team mechanics!
I had to disassemble the head set, forks, tri bars and all the little bearings and grommets and spacers. I am mechanically inclined so I’m not afraid to dig into this new project of exploring the internal workings of my bike. It actually was fairly simple but I will admit I was taking pictures of every step just so I would remember where all of the pieces go.
I have already called the bike shop in Kona about assembling and tuning the bike when I get it out there. Honestly though, I want to put the bike back together myself because there are a couple small finicky things on my bike I have had issues with before that I personally want to check. Things such as set screws on the rear wheel that they may overlook as far as adjustments go, so I will give it a try first, take it for a test ride and see how it’s running and most likely will not need to access the bike store. I will let you know!
So back to today. I stuffed the bike case into the expedition and off to the airport at 4:30 this morning. The case was actually very easy to carry from the parking deck to the shuttle bus and then onto the airport check in counter. Whalla!!! Much easier than I thought. Now only if it isn’t damaged in transit.
As I write this I have already travel to Dallas and I have been on the flight to Honolulu for about 90 minutes. Only 6 ½ more hours to go before we land and then I have to catch a puddle jumper from Honolulu to Kona (40 minutes) and I AM THERE!!! I can’t wait.
A little back ground first.
I first thought I would get Inside Out Sports to ship it for me as they have done for years for many other ironman races. They are a major sponsor of these events (and owned a bike shop in Kona at one time), but I found out that was only out of the Raleigh store and not the new store in Charlotte. So much for that idea.
My next contact was with UPS and FEDEX. Wow!!! They wanted anything from $401.0 to $700.00 to slow ship to Kona. No thanks!!!!! That’s the cost of a cheap disc wheel or 1/3 of the cost of a power tap for my bike which I have been eyeing for a while.
So, I’ve been wanting to get a bike case for a while anyway to travel to more exotic triathlon and adventure races so I went ahead and bought a nice TEAM case for traveling with my bikes.
Great! No problem I bought a nice case for carry my bike. It was one of those very light weight type of cases that would be a bit easier to handle in the airport as I drag it along. The kind that the race teams all use. Perfect!
Everything has a price though! Yes, the case was very lightweight and very unique looking, it was even shaped more like a triangle with the top cut off instead of a huge rectangular box. It made my bike even look faster having a racing case like this (I’ll take anything I can get). But I realized something very quickly when I tried to fit my bike into the case after taking the wheels off…..it didn’t fit! The bike shop said it would fit with no problem at all. What I realized was that I was missing something that race teams have and I don’t..team mechanics!
I had to disassemble the head set, forks, tri bars and all the little bearings and grommets and spacers. I am mechanically inclined so I’m not afraid to dig into this new project of exploring the internal workings of my bike. It actually was fairly simple but I will admit I was taking pictures of every step just so I would remember where all of the pieces go.
I have already called the bike shop in Kona about assembling and tuning the bike when I get it out there. Honestly though, I want to put the bike back together myself because there are a couple small finicky things on my bike I have had issues with before that I personally want to check. Things such as set screws on the rear wheel that they may overlook as far as adjustments go, so I will give it a try first, take it for a test ride and see how it’s running and most likely will not need to access the bike store. I will let you know!
So back to today. I stuffed the bike case into the expedition and off to the airport at 4:30 this morning. The case was actually very easy to carry from the parking deck to the shuttle bus and then onto the airport check in counter. Whalla!!! Much easier than I thought. Now only if it isn’t damaged in transit.
As I write this I have already travel to Dallas and I have been on the flight to Honolulu for about 90 minutes. Only 6 ½ more hours to go before we land and then I have to catch a puddle jumper from Honolulu to Kona (40 minutes) and I AM THERE!!! I can’t wait.
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