Nothing makes some folks antsy for travel like post-holiday drizzle.  Of course, one can't just leave one's trusty two-wheeled steed at home while one traipses to points continental, so here to share a little insight into the "Art of Boxing the Bike for Air/Train Travel" is a guest snack of edifying prose from Ms. Anna Garwood:

I just took my bike to Vienna and biked to Prague. You can go by any bike store and ask for a cardboard bike box (which they get their new bikes in). I went to Bike & Hike on Grand, and they charged me like $10-$15, but I think some places will give it to you for free. Also ask for any of the packing materials, styrofoam and there is a little plastic widget that you can stick on your front fork so it doesn't poke through the cardboard. Then, take the front wheel off, take the handlebars off, take the pedals off. In taking the handlebars off, just remember what order the pieces go back together in (which i didn't, so i had to ask a bike shop in Vienna to put it back). Then stick it all in the box and stuff other packing material or whatever around it if you want. When you get to your destination, you'll need a pedal wrench to put the pedals back on, and just regular bike tools. In Europe, we could have just gone to one of many bike shops and used their tools, but we brought our own. The airline charged me $50 going, and nothing coming back, so I don't know if I got a deal on the way back, or ripped off on the way going. Coming back, of course, we had to find a big bike box to repack the bike, so we went to some big sports equipment store in Prague and they gave us some boxes. If you are starting and ending at the same point you could store the cardboard box somewhere. My only other bike touring tips would be to bring an odometer which is very handy when you are trying to follow maps, and one of those front pouches with the map holder.

You heard it here first, folks.

There has been some buzz about certain rail and air carriers charging fees for boxed bikes.  To this I would first say "grrrrrrr", which I'd follow up with a link to Cyclotour's handy website with recent ballpark fee figures.  Of course, as with so many things, policy changes from airline to airline.  The League of American Bicyclists has a swell breakdown of policies by airline here. 

On NO airline, however, will you hear such beautiful and magic words like, "You can roll your bike up to the train and secure it in a bike rack, unboxed."  For this uber-convenient option, all you need do is book passage on Amtrak rather than a stinky, carbon-guzzling airplane (ahem).  Amtrak's bike policies mirrors in some ways that of some countries within Eurail's system.  Having not traveled in many areas of the world, I hope to defer to others' experiences, but I can say that:
* there's always room on the top of a Nicaraguan inter-city bus for a bike
* good luck on Thai and Chinese trains
* if all those flapping chickens can find their way on Chinese buses, there's no reason your Flying Pidgeon can't find itself strapped somewhere onboard. 

Greyhound's succinct (but yawn-inducing, truth be told) bicycle baggage policy tends towards the $10 fee.

feel free to comment with your experiences, as they are assuredly legion.  thanks for patience and forbearance.

see you in the bike lane,
steph