Tony

Re protecting your paintwork: plumbers pipe-lagging seems to be the best way. You know the stuff you can get in B&Q, a sort of rubbery foam, you slit it up one side & slip it over the frame tube/fork/stay.

...forgot to mention: Ryanair do not require you to remove pedals or turn handlebars sideways (all they ask is that you deflate your tyres). My only other experience of flying with a bike was when I flew to SE Spain in 1996. Can't remember the carrier but I know that (a) they did not charge for bikes and ( you had to remove pedals/turn handlebars - no great hassle but it adds to the impression that your bike is going to be treated the same as a suitcase i.e. chucked about. I didn't really mind paying £15 on Ryanair because I thought it was quite good to pay for the cycle reservation in advance because then I knew there was no chance of my bike being refused on the day. I think technically your bike exceeds normal baggage allowance so they can refuse it if the hold is going to be really full. (When I flew to Spain it was with a party of about 12 CTC people, and the airline were reluctant to accept our bikes because there was a golfing party on the same plane and their golf bags took up so much room!)

I flew Ryanair to Girona last September with my wife, for a cycling tour in Languedoc. They charged £15 each way for each of our two bikes (total £60) which added quite a lot to the 'cheap' airfares... When we arrived at Prestwick we were asked to wheel the bikes through a side-door where a guy tagged them with a 'fragile' label and wheeled them off. (Maybe I'm just being naive but I got a reasuring feeling that the bikes were not going to be chucked around like suitcases, as I know they are when you fly BA etc who don't charge extra.)