Approximately four hours after my commencement ceremony finished on May 9th, 2022, I was on a plane bound for London. I was about to embark on a 7-week long journey with A folding bicycle that I would use to travel throughout Europe.
The wild part about this is that for weeks, I had been planning on traveling Southeast Asia, but due to concerns regarding COVID, I made a last minute decision to travel Europe instead. In fact, I even got my Japanese encephalitis vaccine prior to leaving! The good part is that I was still visiting somewhere new. The bad part was that I had nothing prepared for where I would be going… or when I would be going there. Fortunately, this wouldn’t be my first rodeo. I’ve had enough travels under my belt I knew it would be possible to just wing it.
Going in, I knew that one of the biggest challenges for this trip would be portability. The plan was to be entirely mobile by bicycle, which means everything I packed had to fit into one rear mounted bag and one front mounted messenger bag. I also had to pack for working remotely (dressing nice), as well as cold weather clothes for northern Europe, warm weather clothes for southern Europe, and finally tools in case by bicycle breaks down. As an engineer, I always love a good challenge, and this was certainly a worthy contender!
The final test fit with everything packed for Europe prior to leaving my house 
One last selfie before departure! 
Converted the bicycle into “stealth mode” to get through the airport without raising attention 
One last look at all my luggage in the PHX Sky Harbor airport. I would be checking this middle bag. 
Me and everything that would be with me for the next seven weeks! Pretty portable, ehh?
Getting through TSA Security
After checking in my backpack, it was time to head through security and to my gate. Being the first time bringing my Brompton folding bike with me on the airplane, I was a bit nervous, but scraped the forums online seeing that others had managed to do so successfully. Anxiously waiting in the TSA baggage scanner line, my Brompton went down the conveyor belt and to my astonishment, it slid through the machine successfully popping out on the other end.
The Gate Agents and the Airplane
I had managed to covertly wheel my Brompton to the gate. Things were looking up. It was time to board and I handed my boarding pass to the gate agent. That’s when she looked down at my ominous black rolling bag with no handle. (I had taken the seat post off and put it in my messenger bag). When asking if it would fit, I assured her the forums I read said that it would. Just to confirm, she had my test fit my Brompton by placing it in the luggage checker next to the gate. This would determine if it would fit in the overhead bins or not. While the bike barely fit in the width and length, it was just a tad tall. Fortunately, the gate agent let me go onto the plane with the bike. Success!
Except this gave me a false sense of hope. When I got to my seat, it was time to collapse the seat post and place the bike in the overhead bin. After lifting the bike and placing it into the overhead bin, it became immediately clear there was a problem. Remember how I said the bike was a tad tall? This brompton was sticking out of the overhead bin. Desperately rotating the bike in all directions, it quickly became clear that this bike would NOT be going in the overhead bin. How was this posisble? I rarely make mistakes. especially on things of this importance! After being embarrassed by fellow travelers, I sheepishly begin preparing my bag for the “gate check.” This means placing it in an Ikea dimpa bag so that it would be self contained with handles on it.
After I get my bike all zipped up in the bag, I sheepishly flag down the flight attendant. Waiting for that big “I told you so”. I admit defeat and and say I would like the bag to be checked. And this is when something magical happened. The flight attendant asked me what was inside. I told her it was a bicycle. Soon after, I was informed by the flight attendant that she would check if it could fit in the bulkhead closet, where they typically store folding wheelchairs. A couple minutes go by, giving me just enough time to feel a rollercoaster of emotions as I’m trying to get this bike to fly on the airplane. Finally, the flight attendant walks back to me without holding anything. The bike fit into the closet! All systems were go for a flight to London with myself, my bags, and my bike on board.
Note: After looking into things later, it appears the reason my bike didn’t fit into the overhead space is because I was flying on an older American Airlines plane. The newer Boeing planes have the updated cabin which allows for more room.
Very interesting blog so far… I felt your emotions while reading this. I hope you continue!