How to pack your mountain bike up for travel

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Packing a mountain bike up ready for riding on foreign trails is an almost identical process to bagging up a road machine. There are, however, a few additional considerations to take into account the extra complexities of most off-road rides.

• Best bike boxes and bike bags
• How to pack up your road bike

1. Get things properly prepped

First, clean your bike before packing as no one wants to go on holiday with a grimy bike!

Once it's sparkling clean, mark off your handlebars and seatpost, as these will be removed when packing the bike. Wrap a small strip of tape around the bars and mark their position off with pen – the same goes for the seatpost.

2. Remove pedals, handlebars and seatpost

Remove your pedals and then your handlebars from the stem – we would recommend reattaching the stem faceplate though so you don't lose it, making sure the bolts are finger-tight so they don’t rattle around. With some bags you may need to turn the stem around so it's facing backwards, or remove it altogether.

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Some bags require you to remove the seatpost but if you've got a dropper fitted, as with the bike on the video, you can simply push it down into the frame.

3. Whip off the wheels and let down the tyres

The wheels need to come off next but before you do that, make sure your chain is shifted on to the largest front chainring and the smallest rear sprocket.

4. Protect the delicate parts

5. Bag it all up

6. Before you travel

7. When you arrive

A critical step that's often forgotten is to check the bike as soon as you're reunited with it in the airport – if it's suffered any damage then you'll need to report it straight away to your travel insurer, or else they probably won't pay up.

Happy riding!

You can read more at BikeRadar.com

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