bike box hire Manchester/cheshire
popette
Posts: 2,089
I need a hard bike bag/box to take my bike to the Etape. I've managed to hire one from my lbs (bikeshak) but need another for him indoors. Does anyone know of any bike shops in the Manchester or Cheshire area, which offer bike bag hire?
Thanks
Karen
Thanks
Karen
0
Posts
You can try these guys
www.bikeboxalan.co.uk
I bought one last December and have had no problems to date. Their boxes are essentially based on the Scicon but are lighter and they also rent out some boxes for about £33 a week. They are based about 50 miles from Manchester in Rotherham. The owner Alan, is a really good bloke and very helpful.
Hope this helps and good luck with the Etape!
hey, that is really helpful - thanks for the link :-)
If you really get stuck, you can borrow my Scicon, free, gratis and for nothing!
If you factor in the cost of fuel from Cheshire to Hebden Bridge and back twice (to pick it up and drop it off) it is probably going to be cheaper to hire one BUT... If you wanted to combine those trips with some scenic hilly riding to make the trips worthwhile, I could organise a couple of forum rides to coincide.
I've got my eye on a scicon on ebay - 4 more days to go (don't all start bidding). ColinJ, thank you so much for the offer - that is so kind of you . I'll let you know
Scicon boxes are big and heavy. I think the empty box weighs about 13 kg! I used to pile cycling clothes, carbo-powder, tools etc. into the box, then one year they insisted on weighing it at the airport. It came to 34.5 kg and they had a 35 kg weight limit! Make sure that you don't exceed your airline's weight limits.
At some airports, they might struggle to x-ray a Scicon box. They fit through the oversize luggage machine at Manchester okay, but (for example) they do not fit the machine at Alicante (unless they've upgraded it since 2007). I've had to unpack my carefully-packed box a few times now and send the contents through separately. The first time was a right pain because I'd ziptied loads of stuff to the bike to stop it moving around.
Bike bags and boxes can get handled roughly. I used a bag on just one return trip and saw it being thrown out of the luggage hold of the plane. I ended up with a dented frame. My Scicon got dropped on one corner which broke a castor off. I had to araldite it back on.
I always put pipe-lagging on the bike and use plenty of bubble-wrap between the wheels and the bike to keep them apart (the bike kind of hangs inside the box and the wheels fix into the lid).
Oh, a couple of other things...
The catches/locks on my older model Scicon box are inadequate - some of them came open or had been opened by someone when I went to pick the box up once. Apart from the risk of stuff falling out, there is always the worry of theft, or worse, someone smuggling something like drugs*** or weapons in the box. To prevent that, I've bodged a proper padlock onto the box.
Sometimes the baggage handlers put the Scicon on the luggage carousel, and often they won't. I've had to go and search for the box before now and found it in a room round the side somewhere.
Make sure you pick up the right Scicon! I had mine taken by someone else at my hotel in Spain and I was left with his. I had to ask around in the hotel restaurant to track him down.
*** At Alicante once, I was having to empty the box onto the x-ray conveyor belt and picked up a large transparent bag of maltodextrin powder left over after the holiday. It could quite easily have been a kilo of cocaine. The non-English-speaking security guard pointed at it with his truncheon and raised an eyebrow. I pointed towards my bottle cages and made a drinking motion with my hand. He just smiled, nodded and waved it through. In the UK, I'd probably have ended up with a body cavity search in a side room if security had found something like that in my luggage.
I like cycling, and Milk, but I ain't Flyin! ....
There are others that were/have been on for years yet they are a complete mystery to me...
Taggart The Bill Casualty Murder, She Wrote Midsommer Murders Knight Rider and so on...
It's funny how you just get the feeling that you won't like a show, so you never give it a chance. There are exceptions - I missed the first half of the first series of Hill Street Blues but then got hooked on it (I'm currently enjoying the rerun on Channel 4. It's on really late so I record it and watch it at a more civilised time later.)
Yep! got to agree something very comforting knowing that your bike is safely stowed, where you know its stowed......
Had one bike in a bike bag come down the carousel at heathrow once.
Having said that Manchester were very good when we travelled with bikes.
enjoy the Etape.....I'm off for the Fred next weekend
What's this about 30bob legs anyway? You flew past me on a big long hill on the BRC.
Hey Popette
Yep! it's an old joke that I used when I raced, about having my 30 bob legs on, when I didn't do very well.....A bit like having your training wheels in the bike.
I don't remember flying past many people, however I did seem to pass a few people on the long moorland drag. Local knowledge I suppose, I tend to ride this hill quite often throughout the year. As far as the Fred goes, I'm having sleepless nights already...