As for the easy of packing and unpacking of the bike it is a great case. I was able to get all my gear needed for the race in the case along with the bike and wheels.I've shipped the bike by FedEx and airline with no issues or damage to the bike what so ever. I also really like the wheels on each corner as it made it very easy to drag through the airport. The downside of the case is the size. There is no way the airline is going to waive the additional fee.

something else to consider, which nobody seems to mention, is how big of a rental car you will need to rent to contain the bag. For true convenience you really have to rent an SUV to carry the bag, unless you want to take the bike out of the bag and put it in the back seat of a car and then put the Scicon in the trunk, etc.

I own a Scicon, but when I price out future trips, it makes very little sense to use it vs either TBT or the ruster bag, when you consider you are typically paying $30-$50 more per day to rent an SUV.

If I had to do it over again I would get a ruster so I could still rent a smaller car at my destination.

I saw a LOT of pros and age groupers using this bag at Kona. Probably one of the most popular bags. They just rolled these in and lined them up. Because they are bulky, I think they often went in last and came off first.

The person that stayed with me had one and it unpacked and packed up in maybe 10-15 minutes at most. My bike took a good hour to carefully assemble and disassemble.

I'll probably buy one of these next year not that I have an integrated front end.

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TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

I have the Scicon aerocomfort. You don't need a SUV. I have put it in a Toyota Yaris along with the rest of my luggage. Any hatchback is fine.

Emily Cocks
http://emilycocks.com/
The Triathlon Preview Show

Depends how tall you are and what size bike you ride in my experience. My 58cm Speed Concept requires a fair amount of adjustments to ensure the bag zips.

I am n=1 and seem to be one of the few contrarians on this bag; I think it really sucks personally.

I like my TriAll3 hard case (double bike version) as you can put everything related to the race in the box. Hard shell. Bike is very secure. Four wheels so easy to push/pull. Hard to beat if you as me.

For ease of use, the bag can't be beaten. It is a little bulky and there is no way you're avoiding bike fees with the airline, but it is still under 50lbs.

On the con side, many airlines have in their policies that they do not cover damage to a bike that is not in a hard case. I experienced this first hand as Southwest cracked my Speed Concept frame coming home from Puerto Rico and didn't give me a cent to cover costs when I filed a claim. Basically, they sent me their policy and politely told me to go F myself. So I was stuck footing the bill for a new frame. If it had been in a hard case maybe it wouldn't have happened, but if it didn't they would've had to pay. And I had it well protected in the soft case with those Albo pads on every fork, tube, stay and had line the inside with additional 2 in foam. So now I have a scicon hard case. A bit more disassembly, but once you do it a few times you get used to it. I'm no mechanic and I can do it in 30-40 minutes.

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Instagram | Team Kiwami North America

I have the EVOC bag. I had to remove the seatpost of my 58cm Felt IA and take apart the stem/aerobars, but it fit. It will lay flat in a car with the seats folded down.

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

If you've got a large tt frame it may not work.

I've got a Felt B16 58cm and I have to take off the front end because this bag isn't long enough.

If I was to buy another I wouldn't buy this one.

Also the rear mech protector doesn't: the rear of the rear mech still sticks out so I would never trust this and would always remove it.

The Aerocomfort will fit in nearly any car as the bag is shaped in a way that it seems to bend around backseat frame angles and being soft it compresses here and there to squeeze into a space that a hardshell would never fit.

Packs in under 5min (10min if you are super anal) and unpacks in even less time. Cannot be beat, for ease of packing, weight and overall quality of the protection. It will not go unnoticed however, unlike the smaller ones.

Jack

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"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." T.S. Elliot | Cycle2Tri.com
Sponsors: SciCon | | Every Man Jack

I have the case and use it with Albopads to cushion the bike. I have a medium Speed Concept and have friends with a a large Speed Concept. Both of the bikes fit in the case. I have fit it in the trunk of many mid sized sedans, but if you are worried about fitting it I also have a friend who packs a Seersucker in the bag and then just puts the bike on the top of the car when he arrives. I have traveled with the bag more than 30 times without issues so far.

The one BIG problem with the bag is that the wheels on the bag suck. I have had the threaded stem bend on the wheels. I have had the bearing come out of the part that allows the wheel to pivot.

I hate to rain on this parade, but just back from Europe . . . many pros and age groupers report moving away from this bag due bikes getting damaged. That's just what was reported to me by reliable people. I even got stopped by an athlete on the street who saw my bike and said his was damaged in a Scicon and wondered how I got mine there.

I just borrowed, from someone in the industry, a biknd bag. Yes, it took 20 extra minutes to assemble (my wife was assistant mechanic!), but the bike was VERY safe and the case was easy to fit in a car. No problem whatsoever and it even got opened and inspected by TSA. Bike was a P5 by the way.

Hope this helps.

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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.

I've used TriAll3 cases for 20+ years (and will still use it when I ship my bag by common carrier), but when the TSA monkeys open that 50/50 clamshell top and start dumping your carefully, intricately packed contents (anyone who has packed one knows what I mean) and wheels on the ground to get to the bottom of the case, it's going to be a disaster. I don't even want to think about the attempted 3 minute slam cram re-pack - a job that took me all morning.

I've been traveling with my Pika Packworks since 2008...been all over the US with it, and to Europe a half-dozen times. It is a softside and as small a bag as they come, and I'm rarely charged. It's technically oversize but most clerks let it go when they see how light it is. For example, this year I took it on a trip from Tampa to Seattle that cost me $50 roundtrip and another to Switzerland for $0. YMMV

I remove the seatpost, the wheels, the pedals, the headset to lay the bars over, and the DR. I use fork locks for protection and stuff the empty space with bubble wrap. Packed weight including a Lezyne pump and a metal cart I keep in it is about 35 lbs. There are no wheels and while it is surprisingly light it is definitely awkward...especially if I am also carrying a large backpack loaded for bear. The cart helps me move it any great distance but I'm rolling it sideways so have to be cautious in crowds. It certainly isn't as convenient as anything on wheels, but did I mention I'm rarely charged?

Sometimes I'm tempted to get something like the AeroComfort for the ease of rolling it, but man, would it be a problem to get that thing into the end space of a train or a cab overseas...or for that matter up the stairs of a European hotel with a micro elevator. I looked at upgrading to a Ruster but there are a lot of flights that now charge by the bag and it would have cost me more to use that, not to mention that dropping a fork on a superbike can create some real assembly issues like rerunning cables to brakes integrated into the fork.

When you make a selection you are going to have trade-offs on the assembly requirements, ease of transport, and the bike fees you will incur. The hardside/softside issue has been debated endlessly and many will tell you that how you pack is far more important.

I traveled to IMNZ with the Scicon and my Plasma 5.

I removed the wheels, rear derailleur, and pull the extensions out of the bars and secured them on the bike. I also took off the nose cone/ water bottle and top tube storage pocket. These are all easy to remove and easy to reinstall when you get to where you are going. I ride an XL so taking the extensions off was necessary to get the bike to fit. I did not do anything to the base bar or arm rests. For the saddle, I loosened the clamp and lowered the saddle all the way down and was able to close the bag.

I appreciated the rack system that holds the bike in place in the bag. It provides a good, stable platform to reassemble the bike on. It is also helpful to protect the fork and rear trangle from being drushed.

The final step for me was to buy long foam pipe at home depot and cut sections to length and cover the entire bike in it to protect the frame even more. I I have used zip ties and velcro strips to hold the foam piping on the bike. Both work very well.

I also put pieces of cardboard into the wheels pockets for extra spoke protection on the long haul halfway around the world.

I have traveled extensively with a Pika Packs case but my tri bike simply would not fit in that bag without some serious disassembly. Again I ride a big bike. That said, my gf's 51cm road bike fit in there like a champ and came along on the trip to NZ as well.

Both bikes arrived safely and undamaged to Auckland. The return trip looked like the NZ version of TSA didn't even open the bag.

This was my experience traveling with the Plasma 5.

jake

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Get outside!

I know of more than a few people that have had issues with their bike in this case. It has definitely soured my taste for anything but a hard-shell. I have been using the Thule Round Case. Yes it requires a bit more work for my Trek Speed Concept. But the peace of mind is worth it.

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I had the Pika for 3 years with my DA and managed to avoid bike fees every time except 1 ort2. The great thing is there is no badging to give away its a bike, no wheels, just a shoulder strap and its so light that I was only quizzed about it twice at check in. For a non-integrated bike Pika is the best imo.

When I got my Felt IA I had to go with the Scicon and it is super easy to pack (Albo pads are a great item to purchase and use with the case). I Also recommend getting the extra set of wheels as one of mine is about to need replacing. Bag can hold a lot; helmet, wetsuit, bag w/ nutrition, but the down side is you will be bike fee every time.

We had one of these that we used for 1 season ('maybe' 2, but we think just 1). I don't know how many trips probably 6. Mostly Amy used it. I used it once.

Generally, it was good. Easy to pack, etc. Fast to pack.

We had 2 'issues', both easily resolvable. The first was on Amy's bike, the extensions ended up rotated on a couple of trips. It's a relatively 'easy' fix, but it did take a bike shop/mechanic because they were the P5 extensions and you need an adjustable or other flat wrench.

The second one was on one of my trips. The front fork and then rear dropouts came off of their mounts. My rear derailleur pulley broke when the bike hit the bottom of the case. I generally remove it, but the Scicon comes with a protector.

Those were 2 issues out of probably 6 or so trips over a long season. Compared to other cases, soft sided like the Pika or Aerus and hard cases like the Ironcase, I think that we had 3 issues over 6-8 years. We've traveled extensively, especially with the other bag type cases. They weren't big issues for us, but they were inconvenient.

Again, it was easy to use, and you likely hear the horror stories.

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Brandon Marsh - Website | @BrandonMarshTX | RokaSports | 1stEndurance | ATC Bikeshop |

I can't understand why anyone would want a case that trips the absurd airline fees and/or requires a larger, more expensive rent car

I've owned a lot of cases and the armored hen house is the ticket here

Yeah, I'm too cheap to pay the bike fees even though the Scicon would be a lot easier to haul around. I have a BMC TM01 and have packed it in the case many times. It has an integrated front end, but I am able to dissemble and assemble quickly from practice although I have to take a torque wrench with me to make sure I don't over tighten anything.

The AeroComfort sucks. We used two of them for a few years flying around SE Asia and to N America. Wheels on bottom of bag smashed and broken off several times. Zippper on both bags eventually broke. The frame inside makes it hard to pack up to fit in hotel room or into a car + is heavy. Finally, and this isn't entirely the bag's fault, my friend with the same bag had both rear dropouts broken off his Cannondale after a flight (there were still fastened into the frame...just the rest of the bike wasn't). In that case, we guessed they may have just pushed the bag out of the plane onto the tarmac. But I really don't see the point of the frame inside.
We then went to SciCon hardcases which work well for simple trips. The cases fill up small hotel rooms, don't fit in cars, etc.
We now have used Evoc bags for past 4 or 5 years and couldn't be happier. Easy to pack up, easy to transport, well designed and quite protective (we always use additional bubble wrap and pipe insulation as well). Further, if security unzips bags there is nothing to fall out, everything is visible and it all zips up just the way it was.

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"Oh man, it's going to take days to kill all these people!" - Jens Voigt

I've used a Scicon hardcase (Aerotech Evolution) for the past four years and it fits fine in most car trunks, especially with rear seats folded forward or in smaller hatchbacks. Will fit in most mid-size car trunks and will even fit standing in the back seat of many cars. I can't recommend the case though because of the damage it's incurred (broken wheels and skewers punched through the case leaving unrepairable holes) shipping about 10-12x with FedX and one airline flight and Scicon's refusal to back up it's warranty. Overall, I like the design and ease of use but it has design flaws with the shell being too thin where the wheels and skewers are attached. Would only reommend for light non-airline / FedX travel needs.