I use a Bike Box Alan Triathlon-Aero Easyfit. I am a big fan. It is a hard case with an anti-crush pole down the middle (unless you put a disc wheel in there). The hard case makes me feel a whole lot better and at this point I really don't stress while flying with it. Talking with soft case users while waiting at the oversized luggage area, it sounds like those often come with some level of stress that luggage handlers won't be so kind. There is an open soft vs hard debate, some claim baggage handlers are gentler with soft cases because they feel fragile... I just know if I had a soft case and had an issue, I would blame myself for not having a hard case.

For an XL Speed Concept I:

- Remove aero bars and velcro them into the case (leave base bar attached)
- Remove wheels and velcro them into the wheel spots
- Remove rear mech and chain and velcro it inside
- Slam seatpost
- Remove pedals and velcro them in

For a size 60 Madone or 61 Boone I:

- Remove wheels and velcro them into the wheel spots
- Remove rear mech and chain and velcro it inside
- Slam seatpost
- Remove pedals and velcro them in

Pros:
- Hard case
- Easily fits large bikes
- Works with a disc wheel
- Wheels on the case work great

Cons:
- Case is heavy 13.5kg empty (not a concern for me, as I fly enough to get free 70lb bags with my airline of choice, but worth considering)
- It is big all the time, big in your garage when not in use, big in the uber, big in the rental car...
- No internal compartments you may find on a soft bag, its just one large open space with velcro, I find there are velcro spots for most things I remove (rear mech, chain) but you may want a padded accessory bag to prevent them from jumbling around in there.

I have the process pretty dialed at this point, my road and gravel bikes only take 10 minutes to load and unload/rebuild, so I bring this thing with me even if I only get a ride or two on the trip. It has probably flown 20ish times at this point as only has a few scuffs, no major damage.
The Tri bike is a bit more involved with reattaching the aero bars, it ends up taking me a bit longer, and I don't bring it with me as often just out on convenience.

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~Zac

Generic advice: hard case, and airport security friendly. Where you go from there is up to you.

Avoid: soft cases, and complicated closure mechanisms.

Edit: one more thing. Make sure the combined weight of the case + bike + spare parts and tools if any is under 23 Kg / 50 lbs. Some airlines will charge oversize and overweight separately. I have the trico ironcase it's right on the limit because the empty case is so heavy, A pedal wrench packed in the case will push it over the limit.

A second for BBA . . . we have two of them. For our 54 P5 and 51 QR just remove wheels and pedals, and that is it!! 10 minute (at most) pack job. Very TSA friendly. For it's size I am amazing how easy it is to maneuver and load in a rental vehicle. GET A HARD CASE!!

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

This....

Just make sure you rent a truck / mini van / hatchback at the destination. The BBA aero will not fit in a "normal sedan" (i.e. ford fusion)

Anyone have experience with both the Bike Box Alan and the EVOC Pro Road Bike case? I have the latter, which I like, but the Alan is completely hard sided and seems more compact. The EVOC case is difficult to fit anything other than a pickup truck.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

The BBA aero is bigger than the EVOC. I had the EVOC and my bike got a cracked frame the last time I used it.

Not sure if this is hyperbole, but by contrast, I have fit 2 BBAs in a 4Runner at once, and even fit one in a 2022 Mazda 3 Hatch (which is a tight squeeze).

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~Zac

I absolutely love my Bike Box Alan Triathlon-Aero Easyfit. It was certainly expensive, but worth it to protect an expensive tribike. It looks like they finally have a US distributor, although they don't currently show any boxes in stock:
https://fullsendcycle.com

The only thing to be aware of, is if you are flying with Southwest, the BBA is larger than their policy allows. You might get away with it, or they might turn you away at check-in. I'd encourage everyone to send Southwest an e-mail and politely ask they increase their linear dimension allowance to 115 inches, to follow suit with all the other airlines.

-Steve

The new evoc?
I had pretty good results with it.

We looked at bba, but at the end of the day (In an apartment), the evoc folded up fit under our spare bed

Not hyperbole … it fit in my 4Runner without 3rd row, but that vehicle has about the best cargo height of anything not a van. Otherwise it needs to be tilted or put on its side to put in a regular SUV (such as a highlander) . IGood bag, just huge.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

Good to know, thanks. Sorry your frame was cracked … where/how did the crack happen? I know the evoc isn’t hard sided except the handlebar region, but it still seems as if it’d take a hell of a hit to damage a frame in there.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

I see. I suppose this uncovered another pro of the BBA, it's designed to go on its side, so laying it down doesn't feel like a bad thing to do. My BBA is always on its side for transport, even in a 4Runner, and when I had two in there, they were both on their sides, stacked.

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~Zac

BBa is awesome but as others have said, hard to find. I wanted to get one while I was in the Netherlands and bring it back, but as it's out of the UK shipping was insane. I know Dan here of Premier has some cases coming that look amazing. Hopefully he'll chime in. I want one of his.

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Kiwami Racing Team

Just put my new BBA Aero Easy in the Expedition Max tonight for a trip tomorrow. I was shocked at how much of the vehicle it consumed. I'll play later with it to see the best options with tilting etc. But it's no picnic.

I always book SUVs or minivans (preferred) when I travel to races but it's got me wondering if some of those smaller subs will even handle it! It really feels like ideal for a passengar van, cargo van, minvan, or a truck.

You can get it in an SUV but it will consume the entire back of most that aren't suburban/Expedia size. I wish SUVs were a little taller inside.

Taking off my bars takes an extra 5min, so I don't understand using bar-on bike cases unless you have some wack proprietary integrated BS on your bike.

I have fit 2 of the regular EVOC bags, plus two pieces of luggage into a Prius C before. If your bag needs a van or a truck, it sucks.

My observation at Kona airport in 2022 was that the Scion Tri bag (aero comfort 3.0 tsa) and Evoc were by far the most popular bags. I own the Scicon.
It holds a triathlon bike fine and can be used for a road bike also.

I've been thinking of switching to a BBA for a long time but haven't because of the cost, it's even more expensive outside the UK for the additional taxes and duties. If I were to buy a new bike I'd finally get the BBA.

Also, it's useful to know that it's bigger and heavier than any other bag. Some airlines (including Hawaiian) do limit checked luggage at 50 pounds/23kg so you've got to be careful how you load it. When the BBA box is already over 13kg and the typical triathlon bike is 9.5kg you will always be at the limit.

I've been quite happy with my Scicon bag so far. If loaded correctly, it protects the bike quite well and I always add additional foam.

When not in use the Scicon folds down quite a bit which is convenient both for long term storage and for not using an enormous amount of space at hotel/Airbnb.

The occasional reports of issues with bike transport in soft bags do make me wonder what are the odds of something like that happening. Is it because it wasn't loaded correctly, because a TSA officer opened it and didn't put it back as it was, just bad luck, something else? There's probably 20 soft bags for every BBA out there.

There's also the possibility of using bike specific travel insurance with a soft bag (make sure the insurance covers that) although it's probably more expensive than the hard case without insurance.

Obviously the hard case brings piece of mind for the bike but may bring additional costs and logistics.

Pre-covid. Dominican Republic to NYC. Chain stay. Didn't realize it until a few days later so I was SOL.

I have bike box Alan. I bought one of their bigger ones & only have to take my wheels off to travel. It's super easy. With how much money we already spend on the sport, I think it's worth it to not have to worry about your bike when traveling & to make it easier to build your bike when you land. Some of the soft shell cases are pretty close in price anyways.

I'm curious about this as well. I just used the Bike Box Alan for the first time and had a horrible experience with it, broken Di2 shifters, scratched bike frame, broken rear bottle cage and dented Zipp disc. When TSA inspected the bike they failed to close it properly and my bike was essentially moving around inside the box. The same thing used to happen with my old Trico Iron Case many years ago. If TSA closed it adequately after inspecting the bike I'm sure there'd be no issues but there's no way to guarantee that that happens!

I used an Evoc Road Bike Bag Pro as well before the BBA and the plastic cracked in multiple places the first time I used it, Evoc were awful to deal with and basically did nothing for me.

Not much luck here with bike cases which is unfortunate because I have 6 planned flights in 2024 and need something reliable.

I have flown with my Scicon tri bag many times and my bike has come out unscathed. Ten minutes and my bike is ready to roll out of the bag.

Ugh. This is the only thing I worry about with the BBA. I have seen on prior threads that you can request it be searched with you present so you get to package it back up. Is that a thing or just some fairy tale people tell?! I'm flying with mine next week.

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Blog: https://davidkoppeltriathlon.blogspot.com/
Coaching: https://dkendurance.com/

I have a BBA. How was your bike “essentially moving around inside the box”? Were the straps not used?

i have used a Thule for 20 years now traveling between 4 and 6 times per year with a bike - tri, gravel and road. Yes i have to take the wheels and bars off and for protection i take of the rear der however i have never had an issue with damage - takes me about 20 to 30 mins to both pack and un pack. I place plumbing pipe insulation over the tubes for additional protection

That's an interesting point about wireless versus cabled cockpits.

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Live long and surf!

I bought a buxumbox. My xl speed concept fits easily and I found it really straightforward to pack and unpack; drop handlebars and depending on bike size maybe the seat. I found it very well protected. Downside: this is a big and heavy box. Definitely had overweight issues and depending on type/ size of plane I can see box size issue as well.

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Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me

I have the PremierBike case (previous version with the zipper). A big selling point for me was that the zipper (or buckles with the new version) makes it hard to mess up closing the case after the security inspection. I also considered Bike Box Alan, but wanted something a little smaller for rental cars, even if it means removing the seatpost.

I've used the case with road and track bikes (size 52, though there was plenty of room for a bigger frame). The handlebar cutouts on the Premier case seem to be optimized more for tri than road bikes, so for a road bike I loosen the brake levers to tilt them inwards (this is with 36-38cm bars). What I've found works best is also turning the bars 90 degrees to create a bit more room. I also only put 2 wheels in the case, leaving the wheel position near the handlebars empty to minimize contact there.

https://www.slowtwitch.com/...nspections_7430.html

Never done it myself, but apparently you can call ahead and request it. The comments of this have a few accounts of people being told no though... I wouldn't count on it.

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~Zac

X2 for the Buxumbox. Expensive but bombproof and easy to steer through an airport.

you can always stick a firearm in the bike box and declare it. that way you have to be present when TSA inspect how you've packed it

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the world's still turning? >>>>>>> the world's still turning

Nice one. Even better, don't put a firearm in there, declare it anyway, and when they inspect it suddenly remember that you're not going on a hunting trip but a triathlon. Then dryly comment to the agent that those things are the same thing to you.

I've got a scicon version 2.0, great bag. used it many times.
I did notice at Kona (while waiting for ever for my bag) that the two most popular cases were the scicon and the ABB. The scicon's clearly outnumbered the ABB

Bought the Thule transition hardcase last year. Love it. Travelled/flew 3 times last year and never had any problems/issues. I wrap the carbon tubing in foam and remove the RD AND the hanger. It is a heavy case and will be difficult to get it under 50 lbs. I fly delta and its an extra $130 per flight (that part kinda sucks).

I will need a case for Oceanside in April. I am flying Alaska and their policy states they will "waive the oversize fee or overweight fee for the items listed in this section," which includes bikes. If I got their policy wrong and they don't waive fees, they charge for bags that are oversize ($150, linear dimensions of 63-115") and overweight ($100, 51-100 lb). I'd be grateful to hear about anyone's experience when flying Alaska with a bike.

Below are my notes on different cases. I'm surprised that the soft cases don't seem much smaller than the hard cases.


Bike Box Alan Triathlon Aero Easyfit - $949
Hard case
52.4 x 37.0 x 19.7 in
30 lb
Notes - do not need to remove cockpit. Now taking orders.


Thule RoundTrip Transition - $1000
Hard case
54 x 37 x 15.5 in
39 lb
Notes - includes bike stand


Premier Tactical Bike Travel Case - $735
Hard case
No dimensions listed on website
22 lb
Notes - website says available in 60 days


Evoc Road Bike Pro - $995
Hybrid hard / soft case
55.9 x 36.2 x 20.9 in
25.8 lb
Notes - do not need to remove cockpit


Scion AEROCOMFORT 3.0 TRIATHLON BIKE TRAVEL BAG - $600
Soft case
52.0 x 40.6 X 19.7 in
25.4 lb
Notes - rolls up to save space when not in use


Evoc Travel Bag Pro - $795
Soft case
57.9 x 33.5 x 14.2 in
21.2 lb


Evoc Bike Travel Bag - $595
Soft case
54.3 x 33.5 x 15.4 in
19 lb

surely that BBA cost is without shipping? their US website has them shipped for $1200

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the world's still turning? >>>>>>> the world's still turning

The evoc bike bag pro folds down to about the same size as the scicon

How many more North Americans would buy BBA if their "distributor" in Florida had some actual stock?

Basic black with no stickers is fine with me.

Shipping cost is outrageous but they must great because I rarely see them for sale second hand.

I last flew on Alaska in 2022 and was free and having a BofA Alaska card also waives one more bag fee.

As far as bags goes, if I was buying today I’d get the Evoc Pro case. I have the SciCon and not had any damage in maybe a dozen flights ver the years. But then I use wraps and bumpers for the bike.

Cardboard all the way.....33 years of flights to races and still counting.

Notable absence in your list is the Canyon bag. I got one last year after moving to a smaller place where I didn't have the room to store two hard cases anymore. Plus I wanted something where no bar removal is necessary.

It has tube framing and some protection plates making it basically a semi-hardcase. Feels well protected from all angles.

Used it last November for a race and I'll never be able to go back to cases that require cockpit disassembly. Wheels, seat post, pedals, and off I went for a ride, within 15 minutes of arriving at the hotel.

100% I would get one.

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the world's still turning? >>>>>>> the world's still turning

Whenever I see a cardboard bike box sitting in the rain outside of a plane I'm glad I have a travel bag.

.
.
As I said, 33 years and counting without an issue. I just wrap them with packing tape and they are good to go.

Me too. I tried to get one on a current trip to The Netherlands. However, as UK is not in the EU it would have been the same cost to but it and have it shipped to the US. I'd love to have one, but I'm waiting for Dan of Premier to have his in stock. In the meantime, my old 2000 vintage Triall3 case is golden and has many foreign trips and is going strong....

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Kiwami Racing Team

I too considered the BBA, but the cost to ship/import into North America, plus just the sheer bulkiness of it, I decided to go with the Evoc Road Pro case on the advice of a friend who loves theirs. They used it for Kona this past year and it worked very well, no removal of base bars, and the bag collapses down nicely when not in use. It is sold by lots of retailers so not too difficult to find on sale, or somewhere that has a discount code. It ended up being at least 500 Cad cheaper than the BBA for me.

I’m really struggling to figure out all the glowingly positive reviews on the Evoc Road Bike Bag Pro. Yes, you can fit most road/gravel bikes without taking off the handlebars (although for larger frames you’ll likely have to take off the saddle). Yes, it’s lightweight, and it collapses down so that it can be stored in a smaller space (although it’s awkward to carry around in that collapsed state). But that’s about where the positives end.

Firstly the rod system. Setting up the bag by inserting the provided rods is cumbersome, but arguably an acceptable cost to pay for the collapsibility. There is however a critical design flaw whereby for some reason they haven’t numerically labeled the rods and the respective pockets they go into. So instead of simply looking at a numerical label and matching each rod to its numbered location, one must instead drag out the instruction manual, lay out all the rods on the floor, visually compare the sizes, and then proceed to decide which rods to put in each slot. Perhaps users have memorized the insertion order of the rods and therefore this issue is not a big deal. But for me, this adds material time and effort every time you have to build the collapsed bag back up for use.

Secondly, the wheel setup, whereby a single removable front wheel can be added to supplement two permanent rear wheels, makes the bag unstable and difficult to pull around in real life situations. If you’re on a perfectly smooth airport floor, it will be OK. Perhaps this is the environment in which some have used the bag. But try taking it outside onto a sidewalk, down a ramp, down a small curb, around a sharp turn, or on any sort of uneven terrain, and it simply won’t stay upright. It will tend to fall to one side or another extraordinarily easily. To make matters worse, the only front handle provided is awkwardly low, not centered, and is vertical, which does not allow the user to easily stabilize the bag to prevent lateral falling without having two hands on the bag at all times. This renders the “front wheel on” setup untenable for most real world conditions. The only viable alternative is to not use the front wheel at all and instead use the front bottom handle and pull it on just its two rear wheels (which is not perfectly ideal but is simolar to many other bike bags and works OK).

Now of course, perhaps these design flaws would be acceptable if the bag was otherwise functional, protective, and durable. The bag is marketed as highly protective and as featuring "impact and pressure resistant polycarbonate shells," and at a $995 price tag, I would at least expect the bag to do its basic job and have some level of durability. However, after only one round trip flight, the protective plastic at the top front corner of my bag developed a large crack running up and down, around 10” in length, rendering the bag largely useless (the hard shell at the top is key to its protective ability, as the rest of the bag is soft). Admittedly, I don’t know exactly when this damage happened, as I didn’t notice it until I pulled it out to use it a 2nd time. But, I don’t know, the hard shell on a $995 bike case probably shouldn’t easily crack like that. My other bike bag, a full hard case from a different brand, has completed 25+ flights, and has survived many falls, drops, and collisions. It’s been though a lot. While there’s some normal wear and tear, the protective casing itself on that bag, the most important part, has never cracked at all. Unfortunately, Evoc provides only a limited warranty that very clearly (and confirmed with customer service) does NOT offer any sort of replacement if “damaged in transit." Furthermore, Evoc customer service declined to even offer so much as a discount on a new bag.

All I personally got out of the Evoc Road Bike Bag Pro was a relatively unimpressive user experience and just a single use before it broke. Call me naive, but my view is that at a $995 price tag, this bag severely underdelivers. Rest assured I’ll be looking elsewhere for my next bike bag purchase.

I don't think the perfect bike bag/box exists. You have to make a sacrifice with each.

BBA - big, heavy and expensive.
Thule hard case - big, heavy, have to remove handlebar
Scicon aero - all soft case, so questionable protection (though I know one couple who have used them for their bikes to travel all around the world over the past several years with no damage.....)
Evoc - I can only speak to the experience of my friend who so far loves it, has used it for several trips now, no damage to bike or bag and no complaints about placement of the rods.

I have yet to use mine, but I bought it from MEC here in Canada, which is kind of like Costco......something breaks, take it back...

We are close. The container ( with cases) was off loaded from the vessel 4/13. Waiting on an update from the rail yard as to when it will arrive at my door.

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Dan Kennison

facebook: @triPremierBike
http://www.PremierBike.com
http://www.PositionOneSports.com

Excellent! Let me know if you will as I have some people looking....... Thanks Dan!

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Kiwami Racing Team

Figured I'd also share my recent, first time experiences with the Evoc Road Bike Bag Pro that largely mirror the above.

• Setting up the bag: Inserting the stiffening/structural rods into the bag for the first time was quite a chore. I am planning on keeping the rods in during storage, just to avoid doing so again.
• Bike breakdown/setup: Strapping the bike into the harness, then the harness into the bag was maybe a 45 min job the first time. Both reassembly on the other side plus future breakdowns should be easier (15 min each?), now that I know what i'm doing
• Lugging the bag: The bag is not stable when being pulled. I'm not sure if its a design thing or poor quality control, but mine leans to one side such that it stays upright when stationary but otherwise quite prone to tipping.
• Protection: relatively good luck so far. I did take off my rear derailleur and chain just for extra precaution but might roll the dice in the future.

I'm not sure I'd recommend this to others. I was hoping it'd be slightly smaller than the bike box alan (mostly for transport considerations) but I'm not sure if this is actually true, or worth the incremental risk in damage.

I borrowed a BBA for a round trip from north america to europe last year. As others have pointed out, it is big and a bit heavy. BUT - for crying out loud - EVERY bike bag/box is big. Most are as heavy as the BBA (at least the hard sided ones). I got my bike in the BBA, both wheels and a bunch of other items (helmet, pedals, some soft gear) and still under the 50 pound weight cutoff. But it is pricey (aren't they all?) and shipping from the UK (to the US) is also pricey. But BBA mentioned to me in an email last year that they were setting up a local distributor in the US (CA, I think). IIRC, shipping was less, but the BBA was more (probably including the shipping costs from UK to CA - even in bulk that's not $0). So the overall price was similar. Bleh. But I do give a thumbs up on the BBA for functionality and protection. When I was returning to the US (with many athletes traveling from the same event) there were five other bikes in line with me at the airport check in. Four others (plus mine) were BBA. FWIW.

After much thought I bought a Scicon Aerocomfort 3.0 Triathlon bag ($499) for my son when traveling to races. He just got back from Collegiate Nationals and the case provided excellent protection. I added a piece of heavy cardboard to the outside of each wheel pocket and may replace it with thin plastic sheet to provide some level of crush protection. I only saw the BBA as the better yet costlier alternative but I'm overall happy with Scicon.

Besides protecting the bike it was quick and easy for him to pack and assemble. We chose this bag because taking off the integrated stem/base bar was not an option for him.

His aerobars are at mantis angle so loosened and turn the tubes downward. Other than that just had to remove BTA bracket, rear derailleur and pedals.

Bag with bike, protection foam, pedals, floor pump and assembly tools was under 50 lbs qualifying it as one checked bag on Southwest. It will fit easily into most rental cars. It fits in his Mini Cooper.

The wheels are smooth and heavy duty bag is quite stable.

We put an AirTag in his frame toolbox and could see where the bike was at any time. I may get a GPS tracker for Taupo.

I would really recommend this bag for someone that wants or needs the least amount of disassembly/assembly of their bike and some good level of protection.

We've had a few customers with broken bikes from the bags. One's P5 was broken and Cervelo could not get him a replacement for months, so be careful. Go hardcase.

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Kiwami Racing Team

Full Send Cycle is a BBA US distributor and based in Socal. They had a booth at IM 70.3 Oceanside and Sam, who runs the business, did the race. Appears to be a small family run business (the whole family seemed to be at the booth) and were very nice to chat with. I got my BBA off of them; ordered earlier this year, shipped in March, used it in April.

https://fullsendcycle.com/

Has anyone shipped their bike in a BBA Triathlon Aero EasyFit via UPS, FedEx, etc. instead of flying it with you? For example, some of us may vacation in other cities post-race and traveling around for multiple flights, cars, etc. with a BBA seems like a massive pain. Also, the BBA is so big that BikeFlights apparently cannot accommodate it; I received the error message below. When I called BikeFlights, they told me that sending the BBA through them is basically not an option, but suggested that UPS Freight may be an option. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.


Heads Up! Your box dimensions or weight exceed the maximum allowed. If you ship a box or case that exceeds the Maximum Size when scanned by our carrier, you will be charged a carrier penalty of US$1,450, your shipment may be stopped or returned, and your package may not be delivered. Please contact Support for packing suggestions to get your shipment’s size down to or below 165 in (419 cm) = (1 x Length) + (2 x Width) + (2 x Height) and 150 lbs (68 kg).