Bike-Ride To Australia 5th-December 2011 Istanbul. A productive start to the day; my flight to India was booked before going down to breakfast! I leave Wednesday evening and arrive in Mumbai in the early hours of Thursday.
Breakfast finished, and it was off to the shops. I needed a big bag for my panniers, a box for my bike, bubble wrap and gaffer tape. I managed to source everything in less than two hours! That’s one of the joys of Istanbul and the Grand Bazaar with its warren of shops. After sourcing everything I needed, I returned to the hotel and proceeded to pack my bike away.
As it was midday, the bar was empty and shut; I hasten to add! So I set myself up in there, thinking all I had to do was take the peddles off and turn the handlebars, and the bike would just slip straight into the box! Haha, not a chance! So I took the front wheel off; still, it wouldn’t fit! I went on to take the front bracket and mudguard off. Still, it wouldn’t go in the box! The back wheel, rear rack, and mudguard were next to come off! Finally, I managed to get it in the box, in a thousand and one bits! Who knows if it’ll ever get it back together again!
I’ve only ever flown with a bike once before, which was earlier this year to Spain. That time I had a giant plastic bag! And all I had to do was turn the handlebars and remove the pedals. It was so much easier! I was stressing over the flight so much, worried whether my bike would arrive in one piece! Or that it would even arrive at all! It’s one of the reasons for not wanting to fly from Ankara. I couldn’t take the stress of changing planes!
Funnily enough, it’s not stressing me out at all this time! It might be a different story when I get to India, and I can’t get it back together again!
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