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Carry bag for bike.... on plane
NB: Originally posted elsewhere on the Global Riders Network and appears via syndication.
Looking to buy a case so my bike can fly....higher.
Any thoughts anyone would care to share on features, brands, with or with out wheels, etc would be deeply appreciated.
I have confused my self into a corner.
Thanks in advance
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EVOC is a good start for a soft bag. A bunch of us went to Canada in the last 3 weeks and all were very happy with the EVOC bags.
I'd go a soft bag, means it can flex around whatever slightly nonstandard shape your bike and wheel dishing has. Have seen guys have trouble fitting their bikes into hard cases and end up busting the hinges.
Wheels are a must, a bike bag does not go well on a trolley in a crowded airport. Only really fits crossways on a trolley, especially with a backpack etc, and then you can't walk through a crowd and bags on the floor and get stuck. You often need a backpack too as if you load the bike bag up to much its easy to go over individual bag weight limits.
My Torpedo7 bag I got a few years back works real well. Was the older version of this http://www.torpedo7.com.au/products/T7BCCN9BB/ti... which is on sale for $85.
Depends how often you fly and whether you need a Rolls Royce or what your budget is.
Had many trips to NZ and around Aussie.
Have put my hardtail, enduro and demo 8 in my bag.
I always imagine the bag will be dropped and try and protect things. I recommend taking off the rear derailure, just unscrew the hanger from the bike and stuff everything and rest of chain in a plastic bag and tie it up. While the bag has padding I prefer to protect my drop outs and bottom of fork more by wrapping some armour around them. I normally then set the seat height so it is the same as the bag zip and then the bike can't move around in the bag.
With enduro it fits a bit better with the 160m TALAS dropped or taking air out of fork works well too.
For the Demo 8 I had to put the axle back (advisable anyway incase it gets hit from the side as forks are weak without them) into the 888 fork, lean on the coil fork and tie it down with some twine to fit in the bag. Looping it between the stem and axle a few times sets up a nice pulley system to compress it. Other bags may fit a DH bike better but for the price I don't have an issue with compressing the fork.
I purchased a DHB soft cover bag with wheel covers from Wiggle about three years ago and have used it several times and have never had a problem with damage. The bag I bought has wheels, they work ok but it is a bit hard to balance. I always put a bit of cardboard or bubble wrap in with the bike to help reduce the likelyhood of damage.
Thanks for your comments everyone, specially the soft bag bit, I hadn't thought about it like that.
)
I bought the torpedo one, it was on sale so cheap I can always give it to a friend if I don't like it.
Simon thanks for taking the time to go in to such detail, there was good packing advice there that I will use!
The seat height tip is something I wouldn't have thought of.
Thank you thank you thank you......
I took two bikes around asia early this year in CRC bike bags.
I removed the stem, and bubble wrapped and cable tied the bars with the controls inside the frame to protect them. Also cable tied the fork crown to the frame so it couldn't escape
Wheels removed and bagged, with an extra tyre in each wheel bag for some extra padding
I cut a short length of PVC conduit and placed it in the rear dropouts with the skewer to protect the frame from crushing
Rear derailleur removed and cable tied inside rear dropouts to protect it
Deflate tyres about 60% so there's a little air to protect the rims, but not enough to piss off baggage inspectors
Inverted one of the pedals and cable tied it to the down tube so that the lower crank arm was held downwards to protect the chain ring
Cut a piece of corrugated cardboard and slipped it over the chainring to protect it
Removed seatpost on my bike (too tall to fit in bag), and adjusted the seat on the missu's bike to fit snug in the bag
The bikes survived 3 flights, but unfortunately on the way back to sydney, mine had the outer chain ring partly tacoed from a drop I guess. The bags were also very hard to handle at airports, etc, at 22kg (not heavy) but awkward. Despite the bags having wheels, they really didn't wheel, I think the base was too floppy. I think if they were designed with supports more like a hiking pack, they would be much better. Problem with a hard case is that it can't be compressed for transport in cars, etc when you're on the bike. (We did about 1000km on the bikes, with the bags in a support vehicle).
Hope this is of some help.
Cheers,
Mike.
I have a dakine bike bag to get rid of. V cheap to good home. Has a couple of disadvantages this bag. Tough to get in any normal sized car but it certainly protects the bike send me a message if interested. Probably best suited to a 29er I suspect as it's v big.
Peter