I finally dragged the travel case out of storage, here’s a picture of the foam block for the shifter.
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For the truly creative, it’s fairly easy to “install” casters onto a giant cardboard box too, and then salvage them afterward. This has made getting a double-bike cardboard box from Girona back to the states infinitely easier, and you just pay the luggage fee once… even though it takes extra time and care. In the future, we did just resort to getting a cheap-ish dolley and then toss it into the box on the other side…
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Excellent. Do the studs stick out the whole time or do you have to press them thru when you get to your destination? I used my dolly system yesterday over two trains and a plane. Was excellent. I added a strap with a screw to stop slipping.
Thanks for the photo, will copy your idea
Question for all - any thoughts and particularly first hand experience on strapping whatever travel case you have or used on the top of a car? I’m making plans for a trip this summer where we’ll have two bike cases (if it matters, likely my Orucase B2 MTB and a buddy’s Scicon) While we’re trying to rent a vehicle large enough to fit both cases, in case our Tetris job in the back of the SUV doesn’t work, thinking about strapping one of the bags to the roof as a backup. Thoughts?
The bags / cases aren’t waterproof….so if you get caught in the rain, it is likely gonna be a mess.
MPG is also gonna take a bike hit.
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Where are you going? In the US, it’s surely possible to rent a big enough vehicle; from my experience, I’d recommend a minivan.
In Europe, my first choice would be a station wagon.
I’d be pretty wary of strapping a bike case to the roof of a rental car, for the reasons already mentioned and, more fundamentally, because I’d worry about how to attach it securely, at least unless the vehicle has a good cargo basket.
Another option might be to bring and use a Seasucker rack, and collapse the case. I’ve done that successfully, and I’d trust Seasucker more than my amateur job strapping a bike case to roof rails.
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I’ve stuffed an all3sports hard case, scicon hard shell, and an orucase mtb b2 in a ford bronco with a few other bags. When preparing to travel back home, I had the two hard cases plus a built Crux in the vehicle that was more difficult to feel good about.
When we went to The Rift a few years ago, we rented a passenger van (incredibly expensive) for the 4 of us. But you could not take out any of rows of seats, so we had to Tetris in the bike cases as well as our luggage and then ourselves.
it was a very tight fit and we just barely managed to squeeze everything in! It didn’t help that one my buddies’ bike case was the size of a small coffin (I have a picture of my laying inside it with plenty of room).
@VeloBouf ,@Michael_S and @Kevin_Klaes - thanks for the replies. For sure, the intent is to rent a large enough vehicle (FWIW - rental in Geneva to go ride in the French Alps and watch the Tour) and squeeze both bike cases inside, and understand the downsides and risk of strapping to the roof - trying to see what contingencies might exist as it’s obviously not unheard of for rental companies to not have the vehicle that was originally reserved and they try to give you whatever is available.
We’ve thought about the Seasucker rack option - just hate to have to spend the extra money (including then checking another bag each way that could be lost by the airline)
(You know that at the Geneva Airport, one can rent cars on the Swiss side or on the French side? Prices are typically different. NB that if you rent on the French side, you’ll also need to buy a tag for driving on Swiss highways, if you want/need to do that.
At least, this is how it worked when I last did this, some years ago.)
My Seasucker is a Talon (1 bike), which is small enough that I’d think it could be packed with the bike. But - disclosure - I haven’t tried this myself yet.
If you’re flying in and out of Geneva you could also check with the hotel you’re staying at and see if they will store the boxes for you. My wife and I did that a couple years ago in Lausanne. Assembled the bikes then took them on trains when we went to other hotels while our boxes stayed in the hotel storage. Returned and repacked the boxes for the train trip to the airport. Our boxes are Bonza which are similar to BikeBox Alan and I am not sure they are still available.
I fly into and out of GVA every year with my bike and I store my travel case at the SBB station at the airport. It’s not the cheapest option (around CHF16 per day) but it’s secure and you can leave the case for up to 30 days.
Also: last time I was at GVA I rented a car from Enterprise (a friend of mine and I were heading to watch the Tour de France Femmes and participate in l’Etape du Tour Femmes) and received a Renault Rafale, which is basically a Nissan Rogue (and it was a nice car to drive, if a tad big). It had plenty of room for two bicycles and two bike cases (a Pika Packworks EEP and an AeroTech hard case). Here’s the Rafale from last summer:
But if you need to carry three or more bikes, it’s probably best to assemble the bikes at GVA, store the cases at the SBB station, and load them carefully into the SUV (likely wheels off).
The Seasucker is also a good option if you can pack it and bring it along.
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This was looking like a bargain until I looked at shipping…
On a related note, does anyone know where I can buy a 2-pin clip-on front wheel for my EVO bike bag? I forgot to remove it at Melbourne airport didnt it….
Two evoc cases, two medium size suitcases and three backpacks in the back of a Hyundai i20 in Greece. The Tetris job here warranted a photo and I also needed to remember how to get it all back in! Don’t think SUV means anything in Europe. It’s just a slightly larger hatchback.
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I ride a 65cm road bike. Only flown with it twice, the first time I rented a box from a bike shop, they had an enormous hardcase Elite grey box which it just about fit into with seatpost out - think I just about got away with leaving the chainset in.
2nd time I borrowed a case from a friend, they had a Scicon aerocomfort I believe - designed for internal routed bikes to be able to leave the bars on, just just remove the wheels and clamp the dropouts to some bars inside the bag. I could get my bike in this bag, but I had to remove the bars at the stem face plate and then strap them to the frame, which worked OK. Was a bit worried about how exposed the bike was to getting whacked with no bars to take the brunt (which has its own issues) but it was OK for that one trip. I ride an alloy frame. Lots of room for accessories in this bag.
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