Bike bags

amrushton

Blimey - real world knowledge coming to the fore there. Slightly off thread Cycling Tiips reports today that American Airlines has removed its $150 oversize bag fee in the US. this affects bikes/sports and musical eqpt. the article mentions the disclaimer about bikes being in hard cases - if one airline has something in the small print you can bet they all do.

navrig2

FatTed wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

Crescent wrote:

I've just bought one of these:-

https://www.probikekit.co.uk/cycling-ac ... 37202.html

It hasn't been used in anger yet but will be next month. First impressions are that it is pretty sturdy and seems to get great reviews.

I am struggling to see the "anti-crush technology" and most of the positive reviews are from people who haven't used it yet. Let us know how you get on.

Could put a partly inflated beach ball in the middle of the bike triangle, that may add a bit of anti crush

I do the beach ball thing. One in the main triangle and one between the forks as well as a QR with some polyprop pipe.

svetty

Navrig2 wrote:

FatTed wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

Crescent wrote:

I've just bought one of these:-

https://www.probikekit.co.uk/cycling-ac ... 37202.html

It hasn't been used in anger yet but will be next month. First impressions are that it is pretty sturdy and seems to get great reviews.

I am struggling to see the "anti-crush technology" and most of the positive reviews are from people who haven't used it yet. Let us know how you get on.

Could put a partly inflated beach ball in the middle of the bike triangle, that may add a bit of anti crush

I do the beach ball thing. One in the main triangle and one between the forks as well as a QR with some polyprop pipe.

With my BBA I cram as much of my cycling clothing in as I can - does the same job!

backo

Svetty wrote:

Navrig2 wrote:

FatTed wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

Crescent wrote:

I've just bought one of these:-

https://www.probikekit.co.uk/cycling-ac ... 37202.html

It hasn't been used in anger yet but will be next month. First impressions are that it is pretty sturdy and seems to get great reviews.

I am struggling to see the "anti-crush technology" and most of the positive reviews are from people who haven't used it yet. Let us know how you get on.

Could put a partly inflated beach ball in the middle of the bike triangle, that may add a bit of anti crush

I do the beach ball thing. One in the main triangle and one between the forks as well as a QR with some polyprop pipe.

With my BBA I cram as much of my cycling clothing in as I can - does the same job!

Snap!

Clothing, beach towel etc..it will all help but I do draw comfort from the anti crush bar on the BBA..when its c£5 to hire per day..a no brainer

pilot_pete

I pack cycling gear into carrier bags and place these between the frame tubes in my BBA too. Shoes and helmet are filled with stuff like socks, chewy bars, Garmin etc then wrapped/ placed in carrier bags and strategically again placed between frame tubes. Bidons are filled with energy drink sachets and placed in the bottle cages. Spares like tubes and removed items like rear derailleur, chain etc are placed in sealable plastic bags and packed between soft items of clothing. I can fit everything I need for a week cycling in the BBA and just have a carry on bag with some off the bike clothing.

PP

crescent

Just a follow up on my experience of the PBK box after a trip to Bormio. Most importantly, the bike survived completely unscathed - no issues whatsoever. The box has some fairly impressive scuffs and gouges in it - all cosmetic though. I noticed when I was pushing it through the airport on the return journey though that it had developed a noticeable "pull" to one side. No obvious damage to the wheels so perhaps I just packed it slightly differently and the weight distribution changed - not a huge issue. When the box is packed it feels substantially more solid - I attributed this to the fact that the bike adds rigidity to the outer case once it is securely strapped in. The anti-crush poles work well but can be a bit tricky to line up through the frame - again, not a big deal, just a bit fiddly the first time. Once the bike was inside and it was all locked up and secure I felt that it was a solid piece of luggage and not flimsy in any way. At around 25kgs it is a fair old lump to manhandle in and out of cars and took up most of the luggage area of our hire car (Jeep Renegade) so it was a good idea to take soft bags instead of suitcases as there is more scope for squeezing them in and still being able to see out the rear window. Carrying back seat passengers would have been impossible though so if there are more than two people consider a bigger vehicle. All in all I think it is more hassle than hiring a bike and, for this first occasion at least, more expensive when you consider the cost of the box, additional airline fees etc. I could have hired a box for about £60 and extra airline fees amounted to about £90 return, so compared to a typical week's bike hire costs of £140 it probably just about breaks even. I bought my own box for about £200 so it would take a few holidays before it pays for itself but it should do just that if I use it often enough. My current thinking is that I would only take it if we were hiring a car at our destination, it would be too much hassle using any other form of transport I think. I'll definitely do it again but also continue to rent bikes as well on some occasions. On this occasion it definitely added to my experience, being able to ride some iconic climbs on my own bike, so it did the job I hoped it would.

Matthewfalle

I got a soft bag from the recycling and just wrap the bike in bubble wrap (£9 for 100m from the stationers) and/or an old quilt.

Wheels carried on as hand luggage in wheel bags, tyres deflated.

6 trips so far, no damage whtsoever, no hassles re weight limits and you can chuck lods of clothes in there as well.

#soft

pblakeney

Crescent wrote:

...My current thinking is that I would only take it if we were hiring a car at our destination, it would be too much hassle using any other form of transport I think....

I've used transfer shuttle buses loads of times. No problem.

Matthewfalle

public coach thing (national express regional variant) from Fiumicino to home:

get bag. put bag in the luggage compartment. sit on coach thing. get to destination. take bag out.

done it loads. no problem. why would there be a problem?

#confused

crescent

It was a bit of a hassle getting it on and off the car park shuttle bus, everything else was fairly smooth. Having the hire car gave me temporary storage space for it while we got checked in to the apartment etc. Just my initial thoughts on it having only used it once.

#justmyopinionyoursmightbedifferent :?