It was early 2006 when I first traveled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a meeting of the UN Environment Program (UNEP) and an international conference on Chemical Management. I was flying at the time on a round-the-world ticket that included Emirates Airlines and I took advantage of their lax rules on traveling with bicycles as accompanying luggage, I brought my bicycle, thinking that I might get in some good rides somewhere in Dubai. It was that year that I met Wolfgang Hohmann, who several years before had opened “Wolfi’s Bike Shop” on Sheikh Zayed Road. During that meeting and for several years following, I frequently flew through Dubai to ride with the Dubai Roadsters both on their Friday morning club rides and up in the Hajar Mountains, staying at the Hatta Fort Hotel. Emirates had a policy that if you were on a Business Class ticket, they would provide free round-trip transport to any location in the UAE for passengers interesting in breaking up their trip with a stopover. Over the last thirteen years, I have explored a lot of the UAE by bicycle, riding up the famous Jebel Hafeet, frequently up through the tunnels from Hatta over to Fujairah City, the capital of the emirate of Fujairah. It has been very cool to see how cycling has exploded in the UAE with so many more riders and lots of cycling infrastructure.
At the invitation of the UAE Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) as a Member of the SDG Council for SDG11 (Sustainable Cities and communities), I flew in to Dubai last week to participate in both the “SDGs in Action” meeting and the World Government Summit. The travel agency gave me the option of two airlines, Air France and British Airways, and it was a simple decision: BA allows bicycles to be brought for no additional charge as part of the passenger’s luggage allowance (AF does not allow bikes as part of the luggage allowance and charges about USD 150.) So, I bagged up my Seven Cycles Expat SL and flew off to Dubai for some cycling and some meetings, packing cycling gear and business suits.
Although the Seven has S&S Couplers and fits into an airline friendly, I decided to fly with my Aerus Biospeed soft case, since BA does not enforce the usual 115 cm (45 linear inches) for a bag. It might not have been as well protected, but the process of disassembly and reassembly is much easier without having to get the bike into the small S&S Couple hard-sided case. No problems at all with British Airlines, particularly since I had called ahead and mentioned that I was bringing the bicycle, so the message was in my reservation record.
On arrival at the hotel the bike was in good shape. Now time to put everything back together.
Here were the necessary tools and accessories.. pedal wrench, double-sided pedals, tail light, front spindle and Flouro Grease for the S&S couplers (so that the coupler joints don’t weld themselves together due to the static electricity arcing across the connection between the front and rear halves of the bicycle.)
The disk brake rotors travel separately from the wheels so that they don’t get even slightly bent. They need to be reattached.
The handlebars get reattached to the stem.
The derailleur needs to be unwrapped and removed from between the rear seat stays.
The spacer between the two front forks, which protects the forks from being bent while in the case, needs to be taken off.
And the derailleur reattached.
The S&S Couplers joined.
And wrenched tight, making sure that the special grease is in the connection.
The cable splitters for the rear derailleurs and the rear disk brake need to be re-attached.
And the seat post inserted and tightened down. I keep a pipe clamp on the seat post to mark the height for where the post should be set and to make sure that the seat post does not accidently slip down into the seat tube.
And, the bike is assembled!! Just about thirty-five minutes from unzipping the bag to attaching the frame bags.
