The really integrated bikes can be a pain to travel with if you consider yourself less than competent mechanic.

If they will ship to a Trek dealer it might be a good way to limit your hassles because the mechanics should be familiar with your bike A bike case is a hassle and usually requires a large car/SUV.

I have traveled a ton with my bike and prefer taking it on the plane with me. I'm in WI too, and flew out of MKE to Miami last year on Southwest....only $50 bike fee and you know it's along with you. I have had damage done when I used one of the services to send mine to Kona. My custom paint job will never be the same. In the country or europe, I prefer using my case to get there and have it onboard all the time with me.

What case are you using? The thing that stresses me a little is how much dissasembling I will have to do to get it to fit and then having access to the tools to rebuild when I get down there. Also tri bike transport is saying they would need the bike by the 26th of Sep for it to get there in time. That feels like a really long time in advance.

Yes, with TBT you will be without the bike for a very long time. I use my trusty Tri All 3 case which is big, but since the fee is the same what matters? It has 4 wheels, so very easy to transport with luggage on top of it once there. There is plenty of room so your bike is not jammed in but is very safe and cushioned. Since you have an SC I would contact the local Trek store at your destination and have them assemble if you feel that's beyond your ability. I do take tools with me inside the case so I reassemble and it requires so little teardown that I'm usually able to ride after 15-20 minutes of opening the case.

Why wouldn't you have access to tools?

A few Allen wrenches and maybe a pedal wrench don't take up much space in your luggage.

Is the SC really that much of a pain to travel/wrench? I'm in the market for a new bike in 2018 and I really want to travel with it but the more I read the more I am re-thinking super integrated bikes...

I've travelled a ton, including internationally, and prefer to fly with the bike.

Using trico ironcase. It is perhaps one of the toughest, easiest to close, and certainly one of the least expensive, bike travel cases. But there are downsides. It is huge and it weighs 31lbs empty.

"Disassembling" the bike is easy. Remove pedals, remove wheels, remove saddle, undo a few bolts on the cockpit and lay it out flat, and that's it. Depending how large your frame is you may also need to remove the RD.

Fly Alaska, Southwest or Frontier. They charge $75 for oversized luggage. Everyone else charges more.

Are you using the plug in extension? Electronic or mechanical shifting?

3 bolts to undo the basebar and extensions from the stem. It wouldn't be that bad for traveling. No worse than typical bike with clamp on base bar you have to undo.

General working on is trickier than traditional bike, but I built up my SC from a frame and it was manageable.

I'm not worried about first trip with SC.

Okay, that doesn't sound too bad. I've fully built up my bikes (Norco road and old Cervelo P2C). If it's just wheels, basebar, pedals, then that doesn't sound too tough at all, maybe need to fiddle with the brakes to center? I would be more worried if RD/FD had to come off, etc.

I'm using the stock mono extension it comes with and electronic shifting. I'm just nervous to travel with it as its the first time. I'm probably making things a bigger deal then they should be. It seems like a case and flying it is the way to go?

I would remove the rear derailleur while traveling. The TSA employees aren't very careful when closing up bike cases and can bend your rear derailleur hanger.

I have a Speed Concept and I like it but from the travel perspective it is a huge pain. My local mechanic works on the bike of numerous pro cyclists and triathletes and is a team mechanic for Team USA Triathlon. He tells me the SC is one of the worst to wrench. Many of the superbikes are the same. Apparently with the advanced aero designs and integration, a lot more mechanical complexities come into play. He says that of the really good bikes (I'm making this term up, but meaning something less than superbikes) that the P3 is the easiest to wrench for mechanical simpletons like myself. I think it is only three Allen wrenches and no torque wrenching.

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It is the mind itself which builds the body.
-Joseph Pilates

I'm on the TriBike Transport team so of course you should use them! :) But if pack and ship is your only option and that does not appeal to you, look into Bike Flights. They are awesome! Basically take your bike to you local shop, have them disassemble and pack, and use BikeFlights to pick up and ship to a local shop near Tempe and then do the same thing on the way home. Bike Flights negotiates deep discounts with FedEx and thus can get significantly better pricing than you as an individual. Go on their website and see what they can do based on your local bike shop to Tempe. I would suggest using Tribe Multisports in Scottsdale as your destination. They are one of the best tri shops in the country and they host Slowtwitch meetups for IM AZ. Good luck,
-Doug

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It is the mind itself which builds the body.
-Joseph Pilates

Think carefully about what case/bag you do end up travelling with if you go that route. Some require more disassembly than others. I'm sure there are parts of your bike, that are really easy to disassemble - pedals are easily taken off with the right tool - several popular brands use an 8mm allen tool.. Ditto for seats/seat-posts. Hopefully you know how to take the wheels off. The tricky part, particularly with the newer super-bikes are the front-end of the bike and the handle bars. Some bags/boxes allow you to leave the front end mostly assembled, others require full front end disassembly. Any time you start to get into cable disconnection, that's when it starts to get really tricky, because now, brakes and possibly deraillieurs may need to be fully readjusted on assembly.

As for buying a ticket BEFORE you buy any ticket, make sure you confirm absolutely what the costs are to travel with the bike with that airline (all that info is available on all airline's web sites). Some find a killer deal on a flight on AirlineX on one of the discount 3rd party sellers, only to find out it's going to cost them more to get the bike there, than for them sitting in a seat on the plane! In other words, it may make more sense to pay more upfront, for an airline with a lower or reasonable bike fee!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

He tells me the SC is one of the worst to wrench. Many of the superbikes are the same. Apparently with the advanced aero designs and integration, a lot more mechanical complexities come into play. He says that of the really good bikes (I'm making this term up, but meaning something less than superbikes) that the P3 is the easiest to wrench for mechanical simpletons like myself. I think it is only three Allen wrenches and no torque wrenching.


I've seen top-class mechanics loose-it when trying to work on SC's. Nothing against the bike as a whole - they are awesome machines, but this is a down-side for them for sure.

It's another winning mark for the venerable Cervelo P3 - not so long ago, it was THE gold standard in Tri/TT bikes. It's been surpassed, by others, but really not by that much. If you plan on travelling a lot with your bike, and/or you want a bike that is reasonably to very easy to work on at home, and is still one of the best aero bikes around, the P3 is still a great choice.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Personally, I never fly with my bike, at least one destination race every season for the last 7 seasons, I always ship it. I used TBT for years, and yes, you lose your bike for a couple weeks, but I still preferred it over dealing with the asshats at TSA. Luckily, here in Houston, we now have a couple of other options from boutique transport companies that are even better to use. I use Cycle Chauffeur and absolutely love them. Zero disassembly (not even pedals, cages, disc wheel, etc.), and each bike is individually mounted in a bike rack so it they never touch another bike. Literally rolls off the trailer and it's ready to race. For IMLP and IMAZ last year, they picked the bikes on the Saturday afternoon before the race, so all I didn't have my bike for was 2 easy weekday rides on race week. If you are ever move to Texas, I highly recommend using them.

I'd take off the RD but no need to undo cabeling.

And centering brakes is straight forward as well.

I don't understand everyone saying it's such a PITA to wrench on. Some aspects are time consuming (e.g. If you want to swap mono spacer, then it's recabeling RD/FD if you don't have electronic). But actually doing it isn't hard.

This X2. Until you decide that/if you'll be doing frequent traveling with your bike in the future, I'd hold off on a bike case. The good ones aren't cheap. I'd also check with Shipbikes.com as well as Bikeflights for the best shipping rates.

You might consider buying one of Premier Bike's new hard cases and just removing the mono extension. I'd also remove the rear derailleur and invest in one of Premier Bike's chains to make life easier. I travel with my Speed Concept a lot with a Scicon Aerotech Evolution hard case and for me it's:

1. Remove chain
2. Remove wheels
3. Remove rear derailleur
4. Remove monospacer/extensions and lay handlebar on it's side.

10 minutes to pack, 20 minutes to unpack.

RD certainly needs to come off. Don't want to bend the hanger. They pretty much screw on/off so generally no big deal.

I have a Thule box. I can get bike and wheels in the box but little else to keep it under the 50 pound limit.

It's going to cost more for my bike to get to Chattanooga for worlds than the combined cost of my round trip flight from Boston, rental car, and two hotel nights. Being time crunched, the slight added cost and ease of not flying with my bike is well worth it.

One thing to add is that if you're traveling with kids, having to assemble and then disassemble a bike and lug the case around can be a pain. You need a minivan with a family and a bike box. My wife loves the simplicity of tri bike transport (and not having the bike in our hotel room).

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It's going to cost more for my bike to get to Chattanooga for worlds than the combined cost of my round trip flight from Boston, rental car, and two hotel nights. Being time crunched, the slight added cost and ease of not flying with my bike is well worth it.

One thing to add is that if you're traveling with kids, having to assemble and then disassemble a bike and lug the case around can be a pain. You need a minivan with a family and a bike box. My wife loves the simplicity of tri bike transport (and not having the bike in our hotel room).


Indeed - these are further variables in terms of ground transportation and logistics that need to be thought through.

Some hard cases will not fit any way into a normal sedan type of rental car ( back seat or trunk) - you'll need a bigger vehicle (and more $$), and the bike case will take up the space for one or two other passengers. Compare to our soft bags, which are more compact. We have fitted both our bikes in the back seat of a car the size of Nissan Versa (a popular sub-compact rental option).

And then what about at your place of accommodation - will there be room to store the cases somewhere?

Also how about moving around where you park your car at your home airport and at the place you are going? We travel with the bikes (check luggage of course), and one other small carry-on roller bag. This requires stripping down to a bare minimum what you will be taking with you. However, we are able to easily move around airports like this and on the ground to/from airports.

The ship or Tri-Bike Transport option can get you around some/all of this.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog