Bike bag (Thule / Epoc) or bike box?

[Stephan]

Doing the Desert Dash next week, which means I need to travel/fly with my bike for the first time. Considering two options: 

Bike bag: rent Evoc or Thule bike bag. Works out to about R650ish. 

Bike box: ask my LBS to do it. Works out to about R350ish. 

Without having any experience in this, I am leaning towards the bike bag. Good/bad?

Evoc vs Thule bike bags, any major differences between the two?  

[Dappere]

1 hour ago, Stephan said:

Doing the Desert Dash next week, which means I need to travel/fly with my bike for the first time. Considering two options: 

Bike bag: rent Evoc or Thule bike bag. Works out to about R650ish. 

Bike box: ask my LBS to do it. Works out to about R350ish. 

Without having any experience in this, I am leaning towards the bike bag. Good/bad?

Evoc vs Thule bike bags, any major differences between the two?  

+1 for Thule.

I prefer a hard case for the additional peace of mind it provides over a soft case. I'm not too familiar with the Evoc model, but I have used the Thule RoundTrip Transition before and can highly recommend it. A few features that stood out to me include:

• The integrated bike stand doubles as both a bike holder and a work stand.
• The inclusion of wheel bags.

[michaelbiker]

Have been flying all over the world with 2 Evoc cases for many years . Never had a single issue (touch wood). It’s really easy to pack and much lighter than a hard case so you can include it with many airlines in your checked bag allowance. 

Six of us did a tour through northern Thailand in September and we all had evoc bags. Not one issue.

I have flown with bike boxes before. The packing is the tricky part because the box does eventually disintegrate and the frame can get damaged unless you wrap it in foam and zip tie wheels to the frame very carefully. 

[Stephan]

Thanks all. Going to try the Evoc bike bag option. 👍

[nonky]

21 minutes ago, Stephan said:

Thanks all. Going to try the Evoc bike bag option. 👍

I used a regular cardboard bikebox (free from local bikeshop) to travel to DD and back from Jhb on SAA or Namibian (i forget which, could be both).  

No problems at all and I flew back from the finish on one of those little planes.

[droo]

21 hours ago, Dappere said:

+1 for Thule.

I prefer a hard case for the additional peace of mind it provides over a soft case. I'm not too familiar with the Evoc model, but I have used the Thule RoundTrip Transition before and can highly recommend it. A few features that stood out to me include:

• The integrated bike stand doubles as both a bike holder and a work stand.
• The inclusion of wheel bags.

Hard cases are great for road bikes but are generally too heavy for anything but the lightest of MTBs. That 23kg single bag limit comes up quickly.

Unless you're willing to go through the expense and admin of overweight baggage, the bag is the way.

[Dappere]

41 minutes ago, droo said:

Hard cases are great for road bikes but are generally too heavy for anything but the lightest of MTBs. That 23kg single bag limit comes up quickly.

Unless you're willing to go through the expense and admin of overweight baggage, the bag is the way.

Thank you for raising such an extremely valid point.