My wife and I were a similar position earlier this year, planning for a trip from the US to the Netherlands with both of our bikes.
I think in a perfect world, the EVOC cases look great, but since we were going to purchase two cases, the price was prohibitive. Also, we don’t have a lot of storage space in our basement, so the size of the case was also a consideration.
We decided to purchase two of the Post Carry Co Transfer Cases. I was very happy with them. My bike, with Record 12 mechanical and rim brakes, was a little tricky to fit in, and practicing before the trip was beneficial. My wife’s bike with Ultegra Di2 8170 went in very easily. There was room around the bikes for accessories like bottles, tools, shoes, and helmets. The padding provided with the case is beneficial. I wrapped anything lose around the bikes with packing paper. I also purchased rear dropout spacers to give me some piece of mind.
The bicycles came out of the cases both on the trip and back at home perfectly. The cases came through travel looking good and they were easy to move through the airport. TSA even opened both of them up.
The first thing everyone thinks about is protection for their bike (makes sense).
The second thing folks think about is break down and build up.
The third thing to consider is actually traveling with this thing. You are going to have to lug this thing around airports, taxis, and potentially public transit.
With regard to point 1, I think most or all of the options suggested offer good protection, but nothing is 100% and you do put your bike at some risk. Even the most robust hard case is only as trustworthy as TSAs hasty reassembly. If the worst happens, you are only going recoup a fraction of the cost from the airline or insurance. They both limit their liability here and there isn’t a lot you can do. My experience is hard cases just aren’t very practical generally and they are expensive/difficult to travel with.
With regard to point 2, this is extremely dependent on what sort of bike you travel with and your comfort with working on bikes. I travel with a 2018 Supersix with AXS and rim brakes. It’s a breeze to break down and build up with relatively few frictional things like an integrated front end. I’m also comfortable working on bikes. If you don’t like working on bikes, have an integrated front end, or for other reasons don’t want to do much wrenching, I recommend a case that doesn’t require dropping the fork.
With regard to point 3, where are you planning on traveling? Around the US it’s pretty easy to travel with a bigger bag. Uber XLs and taxi vans abound. With that said there is lots of amazing riding in Europe which frequently involves smallish taxis and maybe some trains/light rail.
My personal choice here is the post carry transfer case because it offers good protection, light weight, thoughtful design, a small footprint, and wheels. If I had an integrated front end and/or only traveled the US I might choose something that didn’t require me to drop my fork. I have trouble imagining wanting to drag around a bad that didn’t require me to remove the bars. Those things are huge.
Thirding Post Transfer Case. If you don’t mind doing a bit of disassembly/reassembly, it’s great. Packs down quite small and easy to move on the two wheels. I use some pipe protector from Home Depot to put around my fork and frame for added protection.
Nick nailed this answer. Everyone thinks about the case with regard to the flight, but in reality that’s when you don’t have to worry about it because someone else is moving it. Cars, buses, escalators, vaporettas, etc. are where you’ll learn quickly about your choice of case. How well you pack it will protect it from TSA, and from damage in transit (no loose straps, etc). And remember, when you’re not traveling it’s somewhere in your house, so there’s another consideration.
I just traveled US domestic on United with a Serfas hard case. It packed my carbon gravel bike (with disc brakes of course). The case is clamshell with 4 big latches. I felt like it was super safe with regards to damage from handling. A lot of the bike has to come apart: handlebars off, seatpost out, derailleur detached, wheels off, pedals off. There was “damage” from the squeezing of everything in the case. Just a bent rotor that was pretty much handled in the hotel room with a bit of straightening with the pliers on my Leatherman. Doing it again, I’d take the rotors off too. Bike arrived safely otherwise. Whole setup was 48lbs.
A potential downside that I suspect but can’t confirm is an added delay through TSA for this cumbersome setup. In the outbound flight, the bike was put on the plane just a few minutes before departure despite checkin 2 hours in advance and a slow travel day at the airport. On the flight back, the bike didn’t make it on the plane despite 2.5 hours advance checkin; however, plane pushed back 10 minutes early. Could it have been unpaid TSA as a factor? Was it the difficulty of opening this thing up and doing the check? Would appreciate other experiences. If I end up traveling with the bike more often, I’ll consider investing in one of the recommended soft sided/easier/less disassembly/easier to inspect cases.
Another satisfied Orucae owner - actually have multiple for traveling with family. Started with the Bike Ninja which was great for avoiding additional bag fees back when airlines were charging them, but many now don’t charge extra over and above a regular bag, so for the additional ones, went for the B2.
Don’t underestimate how the larger bags won’t fit in anything but a large SUV or van, so getting to/from the airport is an issue with more than one full size case. A couple buddies of mine went with the full sized Scion cases and two of them wouldn’t fit together in the back of a full sized SUV without the rear seats down., so they could not carpool to the airport together on their European trip last summer.
60 flights with SciCon 3.0 and good luck. I remove brake rotors, rear der and use the additional SciCon protection for the seat stays PLUS pipe insulation on everything. It is not as good as a hard case but it is much easier to manage with ground transportation, especially in Europe with smaller cars. I have had the shifters pushed inward and this CAN disconnect the Di2 from them and is annoying.
Currently thinking of getting a dedicated travel bike and Post Transfer Case or Orucase.
I’d like the bike to be more robust and easier to pack. potentially even rim brake, though very split on that one - want to make sure if I already get a dedicated bike that it’s as universal as possible. Thinking of a custom titanium build for that, since most companies are going integrated now, so being able to think through the ability to travel is crucial.
I think the benefits of this approach is that the smaller bag is easier to get into a cab, office, hotel room etc., and being closer to a regular bag, will probably stack better and less likely to get damaged. Also if I can drop a bit of weight it makes travel cheaper, most airlines I fly with nowadays charge by weight rather than for a bike.
For Transfer Case users: what size did you choose?
I have a Post Transfer 135 and it’s handled my bikes fine on multiple trips. Most bikes are mediums and 54 in size. The one bike that may be an issue is the newer progressive gravel bikes such as my Stigmata. I have yet to pack it but from a rough measurement the hanger would need to be removed and even with that could prove tight due to its overall length. Also don’t lose site of max tire size. It can be a tight fit in the 38-40 size.
If you plan to have a new frame made for travel, I’d strongly recommend looking into frame couplers. Then you can use a case that meets standard airline check-in rules, by size and weight. If you want disc brakes, you can use mechanical with cable splitters, or hydraulic with hydraulic line couplers such as Zeno. (I do recommend taking brake rotors off for travel, for which center lock rotors are handy.)
Not sure why Orucase isn’t mentioned more than the Post Transfer but it looks like a good option as well. I have been curious of doing a real use comparison myself. Can’t say if one is better than the other. My only complaint the Post is the handle placement when towing. It’s a bit awkward when chasing down a shuttle
I used the same (or at least a similar) Serfas hard shell case for years….never had any issues with the bike, but as noted, there is a fair amount of disassembly required.
Ultimately, though, the strap design for wheeling it around did me in. If I held it by the loop, the case would bang on the back of my legs when I walked. If I gripped the whole strap closer to the case itself, it was quite uncomfortable. Considered riveting a different handle on it, but ultimately just decided to get a new case.
Started with a Speedhound, which was fine, but ended up losing its shape along the top rather quickly (it sagged in the middle) and I worried about the bike inside.
Went with a SCICON after that and have been very happy with it. I make sure I get a larger rental car when I travel with it, though. I also usually rotate my HB down and shifters inward just a touch to help protect the shifters.
Another added step I’ve incorporated is to zip tie or strap the ”pieces” so in the event of TSA needing to check things out, it’s easier to repack in a clean way. It’s when they need to play Tetris is where I think these can go wrong when using a soft case.
I always remove rotors. Chris Heershap makes rotor clamshells, I bolted mine to the inside lid of my hardshell case. WRT to TSA, these cases don’t fit through the x-ray machines so get searched manually. Depending on the agent and the ease of closing it up, it may go fairly quickly, but I have seen them struggle to close overstuffed cases (one had a whiteboard and large stainless steel dog bowl inside, they almost pulled the customer off the flight to repack it). Given the shutdown, it’s hard to say if there were lots of sick calls that caused a delay, but I think about 5 minutes is reasonable for their search. Make it easy on them buy packing as solidly as you can and keeping it easy to close.
I made blocks of foam that fit between the levers and bars, with slots for the levers to slide into, then I cover the bars with long socks and Velcro ties at the stem.
