Thanks both.

@ Scuba: It looks like we're going with a slight variation of option 2. After having seen the Air Canada "Fly my bike" deal it looks like we're starting our trip in Calgary towards the end of July. Then whether or not we will go to Alaska we have not decided yet.

@ Daytona: One bike because even though my girlfriend got her license end of last year she does not have a lot of riding experience and does not feel comfortable to start off on a big trip just yet on her own bike. I myself could not picture doing it another way, hence the 2up. We've done trips together before, the longest being four weeks 2up on a thumper in Costa Rica, so we have a good picture of what we're in for. We may get a second bike along the way if she changes her mind, we'll see!

We have booked our flights and will be off to Calgary end of July!

Are you flying with Air Canada, "Fly my Bike Deal" ?

Hi. Whats this deal about?

'Bike on a Hike'. Available at WWW.Amazon.com

http://www.aircanada.com/cargo/share...-15%2012:42:19

Nothing special, just bike transportation by Air Canada Airline.
Maybe wipe-out can give you detail informations...

There is also an extra thread about that topic
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...ler-deal-80707

Thanks Daytona. Worth to look into, it could save you a couple of bucks. The deal is that if you book your own ticket with Air Canada they'll credit you some on your ticket for the bike. On the route I'm going that saves 600 Euros for the bike. Of course you have to compare the air fares for Air Canada with those of others and so forth, they are not the cheapest, but in the end for us it made sense. Plus no crate needed and I can have some luggage on the bike.

so how much did you paid for your flight and bike transport? (ffm to calgary, right?)
are you on the same flight with your bike??

did you already book your bike shipping from southamerica back home?

My recommendation: book a riding traing course for your girl, both onroad and offroad. This trip is her best chance to gain experience quickly and greatly improves your trip - e g by being able to have a bit more gear on the bike(s). Personally I can' imagine doing a long trip two-up if it includes camping gear and if you need some additional clothing for hiking!

We're still alive! Just not working anymore, so considerably less interested to surf the internet...

With work out of the way we got things moving at home. Put all our stuff into a storage room to make way for the guys renting our apartment. I felt like one of the boxtrolls there for a while...



Finally though the day had come, last Sunday morning I packed the bike and rode off to my parents place close to Frankfurt, from where we would have the bike transported to Canada.



It's supposed to be a five hour ride from Berlin and the weather forecast was not too bad. Of course it started raining 30 minutes after I left and for the fun of it didn't stop for three hours. I was happy and singing along anyway, any day on the bike beats every day at the office, right?



My girlfriend arrived a day later and we spent some time with my family. And finally yesterday, we set off to the airport to drop off the bike. Everything went supersmooth and the guys at the cargo center and Air Canada were really great to deal with. I think it didn't hurt that most of them were bikers and really enthusiastic about the trip!



So now the bike is sitting at the airport until it is going to be put on a plane on Thursday. By the way, to my surprise and contradicting what I had been told before it would have been okay to have the duffel on the bike, not just the panniers (in the picture below the panniers are off for being x-rayed).



And with that - we're basically off to our adventure, out and about. About 1,5 hours from now my dad's going to take us to the airport. And if no bear is going to eat us within the first couple of days into the trip I shall continue to update this thread now and then. Currently also trying to figure out Spotwalla to have some tracking.

Any recommendations for the Banff/Jasper area and how to avoid the hordes of tourists?

And anyone know how to resize the pictures directly in the [IMG] tab with attributes? Is it possible at all?