Woo Hoo! It looks like the Japan thing I've been trying to do since before Covid is finally going to happen. Part of my cunning plan to save luggage space is to wear some of the bike gear on the plane (armored clothing, boots, etc.). I have a helmet bag and have carried my Arai (with gloves and extra visor) overseas as a carry-on without difficulty, get through security, etc. It is always "tricky" because of the shape, but generally works out. That is not as much what I'm concerned about. I was wondering if any of the globe trotters here had any experience with getting through a TSA checkpoint with armored bike clothing on. We will have Klim stuff with soft knee/back/etc. inserts. I am trying to avoid stripping at the TSA checkpoint or being tagged as the next shoe bomber because of a jelly-like knee pad.
I did this last year. Helmet, gloves, and back armour insert in my helmet bag as carry on. Wore leather jacket. Boots and textile pants in suitcase. No issues, and wouldn't expect any if I did wear the pants. Maybe wear soccer shorts or something light under the pants just in case.
I've done it and had no issues. I'm pretty sure I'm on multiple lists and have been searched at least 6 times. Really it isn't all that involved and it goes pretty quick even if you are searched.
Ive worn my armored vanson jacket, armored jeans, and carried a backpack & a helmet bag thru TSA. Meets the 1 carry on & 1 personal item stipulation. My buddy did an Aerostich & helmet. The flight was only 4 hours so basically took all the gear off at the gate and boarded with an extra carry on.
just went to Costa Rica in December. we took large Ogio bags and packed boots, body armor, clothes, toiletries in the big bag, packed helmet, gloves, goggles small stuff in a troy lee designs helmet bag. one checked bag, one or two carry ons... in like Flynn. Ski
Dang, and you were the main one I was expecting useful information from! Sounds like I "may" get away with it (you never know with TSA).
I’ve done it and had no problems. I actually think it helped with customs coming back into the US. The agents have been curious about where I had been riding.
Vacation. We were a week away from leaving a few years ago when Covid lock-downs killed that trip. Which was somewhat devastating to the wife and I in the midst of all the other Covid depression at the time. We've been checking in every year since, and finally it is "on" again. There is a little element of "unfinished business" to this, but we both still really want to go. We're Taking a formal "bike tour" package around a fair part of the southern "mainland" and then traveling on our own (train/rental car) the following week to see Tokyo (and the Honda collection at Motegi). Don't feel comfortable going over and doing the bike thing ourselves. Maybe next time. This is the same way we did our various UK trips to go the IOM (tour first, on our own later). Don't know if there will be a "next time" on Japan though. Mostly due to cost (and the desire to see other places for that kind of money). But, we'll see.
That's a stupid long trip to have that gear on ya. I mean, it's like $50 bucks to check a bag....why not just get a big gear bag and pack it all in and fly comfortably?
I'm just considering it and wanted to ask people's experience. Just one of the options I'm looking at. Some scenarios I'm thinking about: If our luggage is lost/delayed for a while, meaning we don't have riding gear when we arrive, it could mean a big hose-up with the bike tour part of the trip (worst case the tour leaves without us). If we wear light gear on the plane, we have an option to start the ride and let our luggage catch up with us. And we have extra checked bag packing space for additional gear or other flexibility. We are doing a lot of moving around for nearly a month. The tour will carry some luggage (size limited) in a van during the bike tour, but after that, we are on our own. Japan has been a good country for providing luggage transport/storage, but some of that is a little in disarray right now because of Covid hang-over. Also some transport modes (IE trains) severely limit what luggage (number/size/weight) you can bring along. Being able to carry all our stuff from one place to another without assistance may help out in various situations. So, trying to keep the luggage piece down to something we can reasonably carry/wheel/drag ourselves if we need to. This is all a work in progress, so what we are going to do changes slightly from day to day. Really not about the baggage fee, but just trying to keep the bag count down and/or being prepared for eventualities. From my prior overseas trip experiences, I find huge luggage pieces to be a major PITA. We did this on our first IOM trip and switched over to smaller, more manageable stuff, with maybe an extra piece (or folded duffel inside of another bag). Small cars, small hotel rooms, etc. We've gotten pretty good at packing for these fly/ride bike jaunts (but sadly out of practice lately!), so I'm sure we'll figure it out. Just trying to cover all the bases (and then some). After failing because of Covid last time, I'm determined!
I always found Japan to be an interesting visit. Never drove while there, though. Might be easier to ride a bike than drive a RH drive car.
Got a fair amount of bike experience riding a motorcycle on the "wrong" side of the road from prior IOM trips. But, it's been a while, and you have to concentrate on it a bit while doing it. Driving on the wrong side of a car, well, that'll be new, but it is just for one leg of a trip. I'll have a couple of weeks bike riding experience in Japan by the time I get to the (tiny) car. Now I'm reading this morning about aggressive homeless encampments inside of O'hare airport (my connection going out). If I have to leave the TSA managed areas to get from one plane to another, I'm going to have to figure out how to use my helmet in a helmet bag to defend myself!
