Indeed. Good thing I'm not doing most of the carrying of it. :)

Kidding aside, other than lifting into and out of the trunk, it's rolling 99% of the time although sticking it on a luggage trolley is a great way to move any bike box around, (saw that in a bike box allan ad).

The buxom box requires very little breakdown of the bike and is super quick to pack which is a nice benefit but yes, its neither cheap nor light if that's what one is after.

I've got a Spartan bike bag, which is the same design as the SciCon tri bike bag. Being soft sided I do wrap the bike with extra foam tubing but love not having to half disassemble the bike every time I want to fly with it. Only the wheels get taken off.

Having said that, all my flying is across Australia and New Zealand and, based on my single experience flying to Kona, I think the Oceania baggage handlers are way more civilised with bikes than American baggage handlers and TSA agents. I had a semi-rigid case for that US trip and had several heart attacks seeing how the bike cases were treated. So not sure how I'd feel about making another trip to the US with my current bag.

Not sure as I haven't seen a SciCon, but they look very similar. The Bike Box Alan does seem to be extremely solid and used by lots of people, so don't think you can go too far wrong with it. A lot of the bike box hire companies around here use them as well, so longevity seems decent.

I don't believed you mentioned specific bikes, which can make or break certain cases.

I have a Thule Round Trip Pro for my Road, CX and Mountain bikes.
It works incredibly well.

One thing to keep in mind with Hardcases is what to do with them when you get to where you're going.
Luggage + Rental Car + Hardcase = Good chance it will not fit.

1. Plastic sides come out of case, accordion flat and the whole thing collapses on itself.
2. Included bike stand secures bike inside case
3. TSA only needs to unzip to inspect. They do not need to unpack / remove covers like on most hard cases (The only time I've had a bike damaged while flying was because TSA did not repack a Trico Ironcase appropriately)
4. Bike Stand legs + padded wheel bags+ plastic case walls surround the bike frame.

My process
1. Mount Bike in Stand
2. Remove Wheels / Bars
3. Pad with Pipe Insulation
4. Use Gear Ties to secure everything
5. Unclip stand from legs, with bike attached to to the stand
6. Lock bike / Stand combination into case
7. Slide legs into side panels for additional protection.

Because you work on the bike on the stand and then move the whole situation into the bag, it is much easier than trying to work inside the bike case. Packing and Unpacking are much faster than with the Pika and Ironcase (in my experience).

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That's a softside, correct? What kind of bike are you transporting in there? When I remove my base bar/cockpit on my tribike it is still attached by the shift/brake cables and I cannot lay it all the way back. My Pika flexes enough to accomodate this and I'm wondering how much this one can...especially if you don't use the entire wheel base.