Let’s opt for the worst case scenario here. You’ve acquired a soft bike bag which doesn’t have an internal frame but the floor of the bag is well protected. With a little effort, bike and bag preparation should be completed before your mug of tea goes cold.

Drop the wheels off the bike, remove the skewers and place them securely in the bike bag without losing the springs. Put both frame savers into their respective dropouts. Remove the pedals from the cranks. Some pedals will require a pedal spanner, some only require an Allen Key, but whatever you use, remember you have left and right threaded pedals. This is easy: remove both pedals by unscrewing each pedal toward the rear of the bike and replace them by screwing them towards the front.

Unscrew the rear derailleur  from the gear hanger and wrap it in some bubble wrap or cloth – preferably both. This is less messy if you’ve cleaned your chain first, and secure the wrapping with electrical tape. Place the rear mech out of harms way inside the frame where the chainstays meet the seatstays, and secure with tape. Depending how your cables run, this might sit easier if you place the mech in position from inside the frame. There should be no need to undo any cables here.

If you have to remove the handlebar and stem for the bike to fit, make sure you put a zip-tie around the steerer tube as you remove the stem so that the fork doesn’t fall out. Replace the headset spacers and screw the headset cap back onto the steerer tube. Place a small piece of cardboard or bubble wrap over the steerer tube and secure with tape.

Cut your insulation tubing or bike packaging to length and place over all the exposed frame sections and secure with tape. Place some bubble wrap or cardboard over the top of the exposed steerer tube and secure in place.

Remove the seatpost from the frame and put in the seattube bung that the nice man from the bike shop gave you, secure in place with tape. Cardboard and bubble wrap should do if you haven’t got a seattube bung. Then put some bubble wrap around the seatpost and place it in the middle of the floor of the bike bag. It’s worth remembering to wrap a length of electrical tape around the seatpost to mark your saddle height.

Now let’s get the bike in the bag…