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Re: Ruster Sports Armoured Hen House [kkcy] [ In reply to ]
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You cans fit a lot of cloths, etc in the bags between the frame and the wheels. More than enough to have an extended stay somewhere. Combine that with a carryon suit case and you're golden.

Edit: the armored bag is not compactable. You can fold up the wheel bag inside the main bag if you need to but I don't.
Last edited by: logella: Apr 19, 14 4:56
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Re: Ruster Sports Armoured Hen House [EDresden] [ In reply to ]
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EDresden wrote:
I have been traveling with the Hen House for a couple years now with great success! It is by far the most economical method of travel out there! Tgarson, you are correct you must check two pieces of luggage, but that still equates to a significant savings on most airlines. For example, Delta charges a $200 bike fee each way! I check my Hen House (a total of 2 bags) for $60 each way. In the end I save a total of $280 on one trip, the bag is halfway paid for. Now lets take a less extreme example, I fly United rather frequently. United charges a more reasonable $100 bike fee and I check my Hen House for $60. At the end of the trip I save a total of $80. In this case it would take a bit longer to receive a return on your investment, but the fact of the matter is there is a ROI! What other bike case on the market can say they offer a return on your investment?

I agree, maybe the whole "bikes fly free" thing is a little misleading, but my impression was that they were referring to the fact the the bike itself does fly for "free" because it avoids bike fees. It is generally assumed that you will be checking bags when traveling.

I have been more than pleased with my case over the years. I am excited to see TJ has developed and armored version of the case! The standard case has been great, but I would LOVE those wheels on the frame bag!!! I highly recommend the Hen House! My dollar savings over the past two years has reached nearly $3000!!

Ah, I used to be like you all, lugging my bike to the airport, pretending my bike wasn't a bike at the ticket counter, worrying as my bike got hauled away to be put on the plane, waiting for it at the baggage claim at my destination as it inevitably came out last and at the large items area, hauling it to the rental car area, hauling it into the hotel, and then looking for that dreadful TSA slip inside the bag as I unpacked wondering if they broke or mis-packed the bike back (as they occasionally did).

I hate to sound like an advertisement for bikeflights, but your post sounds like you're being paid-per-word by TJ. Here's my procedure: Go to the bike shop and they're more than happy to give me a cardboard box (the same kind of box that every bike ships in originally from the manufacturer) or just use your own bike box if you already have one, pack up my bike at home, use bikeflights.com to print a fedex label, drop it off at the nearest FedEx location. Usually costs about $40 go to cross-country and it's waiting for me at my hotel or friend's house or whatever when I arrive. Don't have to deal with airlines or hauling the bike four times through the airport and to the hotel. Often the hotel will have the bike box waiting in the room for me.

You pay $60 each way with the airplane and deal with a lot of airport hassle, I pay $40 each way and am able to sail through security with just my backpack as luggage.
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Re: Ruster Sports Armoured Hen House [dzxc] [ In reply to ]
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As a big fan of the Ruster Sports bag, your post got me interested. Basically what I found is that bikeflights only works on domestic flights within the lower 48. Anything else and it's extremely expensive. Even those domestic flights cost more than when I use the Ruster bag.

I priced a trip from my house in Houston for several trips that I'll be taking this year:

Houston to Kona with Ruster = $70 total ($35 each way)
Houston to Kona on bikeflights = $429 total
Advantage Ruster.

Houston to Muncie with Ruster = $70 total
Houston to Muncie with bikeflights = $91 total
Advantage Ruster.

Houston to Venice, Italy with Ruster = $70 total
Houston to Venice, Italy bikeflights = $808
Advantage Ruster.

I'll be sticking with my Ruster.
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Re: Ruster Sports Armoured Hen House [dzxc] [ In reply to ]
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dzxc wrote:

Ah, I used to be like you all, lugging my bike to the airport, pretending my bike wasn't a bike at the ticket counter, worrying as my bike got hauled away to be put on the plane, waiting for it at the baggage claim at my destination as it inevitably came out last and at the large items area, hauling it to the rental car area, hauling it into the hotel, and then looking for that dreadful TSA slip inside the bag as I unpacked wondering if they broke or mis-packed the bike back (as they occasionally did).

I hate to sound like an advertisement for bikeflights, but your post sounds like you're being paid-per-word by TJ. Here's my procedure: Go to the bike shop and they're more than happy to give me a cardboard box (the same kind of box that every bike ships in originally from the manufacturer) or just use your own bike box if you already have one, pack up my bike at home, use bikeflights.com to print a fedex label, drop it off at the nearest FedEx location. Usually costs about $40 go to cross-country and it's waiting for me at my hotel or friend's house or whatever when I arrive. Don't have to deal with airlines or hauling the bike four times through the airport and to the hotel. Often the hotel will have the bike box waiting in the room for me.

You pay $60 each way with the airplane and deal with a lot of airport hassle, I pay $40 each way and am able to sail through security with just my backpack as luggage.

Frankly, other than the worrying about TSA unpacking the bike and re-packing incorrectly, which I guess is quasi-legitimate, this sounds so much worse than the hen house in every other respect. Most notably, the fact that you have to ship your bike well in advance of when you leave, deal with re-shipping it while at your location, and then not have your bike for several days when you get back. No thanks.

Dimond Bikes Superfan
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Re: Ruster Sports Armoured Hen House [ericlambi] [ In reply to ]
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ericlambi wrote:
Frankly, other than the worrying about TSA unpacking the bike and re-packing incorrectly, which I guess is quasi-legitimate, this sounds so much worse than the hen house in every other respect. Most notably, the fact that you have to ship your bike well in advance of when you leave, deal with re-shipping it while at your location, and then not have your bike for several days when you get back. No thanks.

having just done this with bikeflights recently, and having also gone the fly-with-bike route (though not with this product) ... shipping was a lot easier.

I have more than one bike, so having it unavailable for a few days on either side is just a non-problem.

Return shipping is not complicated. You have to partially disassemble the bike either way. You have a pre-printed return label which you slap on it, and then either leave it with the hotel concierge to ship, or you just drop it at a FedEx location on your way to the airport (or the night before)

The big bonus is not having to schlep the bike case through the airport, and then deal with ticket agents
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Re: Ruster Sports Armoured Hen House [Cyronman] [ In reply to ]
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So what do you do with the chain when you're putting clothes together with the bicycle? Anyone have any solution to cover up the chain to prevent it from dirtying everything else?
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Re: Ruster Sports Armoured Hen House [kkcy] [ In reply to ]
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I put my clothes in Gallon Ziplock bags and squeeze all the air out (you can pack more clothes this way). Then I either put tissue paper, plastic grocery bags, or bubble wrap (whatever I have) around the crank/chain area. So there's a double layer of protection incase the TSA idiots decide to dump out my ziplock bags of clothes then just stuff them back into the case (this has only happened once in NY).


Elisha
"Triathlon doesn't build character. It reveals it."
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Re: Ruster Sports Armoured Hen House [kkcy] [ In reply to ]
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I use a quick release chain link. I put the chain in a ziplock and make sure to bring a pair of pliers to disconnect the chain after the race.
Last edited by: chbelair: May 7, 14 7:42
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Re: Ruster Sports Armoured Hen House [triyourbest] [ In reply to ]
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Just thought I'd send a quick PSA to all who fly with the Hen House. I just completed a trip on Frontier Airlines, and their new policy is to charge for bikes ($75) regardless of the size of the bag. The first way I got away with only the two bag charge, but the way back they recognized it as a bike immediately and forced the charge. Despite all my best efforts trying to go up the chain, the best answer I could get form them is "it's our policy". Additionally, since it was in two bags, they were threatening to charge me for not only the bike, but also a second bag, which would have been $110. Fortunately (yeah "fortunately") I got off with just the bike fee. So keep this in mind, Hen House owners, when booking with Frontier that you could potentially be charged $110 each way in a worst case scenario. I'm sticking with Southwest from now on as much as I can. Still love the Hen House, but no love for Frontier.
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Re: Ruster Sports Armoured Hen House [dzxc] [ In reply to ]
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dzxc wrote:
EDresden wrote:
I have been traveling with the Hen House for a couple years now with great success! It is by far the most economical method of travel out there! Tgarson, you are correct you must check two pieces of luggage, but that still equates to a significant savings on most airlines. For example, Delta charges a $200 bike fee each way! I check my Hen House (a total of 2 bags) for $60 each way. In the end I save a total of $280 on one trip, the bag is halfway paid for. Now lets take a less extreme example, I fly United rather frequently. United charges a more reasonable $100 bike fee and I check my Hen House for $60. At the end of the trip I save a total of $80. In this case it would take a bit longer to receive a return on your investment, but the fact of the matter is there is a ROI! What other bike case on the market can say they offer a return on your investment?

I agree, maybe the whole "bikes fly free" thing is a little misleading, but my impression was that they were referring to the fact the the bike itself does fly for "free" because it avoids bike fees. It is generally assumed that you will be checking bags when traveling.

I have been more than pleased with my case over the years. I am excited to see TJ has developed and armored version of the case! The standard case has been great, but I would LOVE those wheels on the frame bag!!! I highly recommend the Hen House! My dollar savings over the past two years has reached nearly $3000!!


Ah, I used to be like you all, lugging my bike to the airport, pretending my bike wasn't a bike at the ticket counter, worrying as my bike got hauled away to be put on the plane, waiting for it at the baggage claim at my destination as it inevitably came out last and at the large items area, hauling it to the rental car area, hauling it into the hotel, and then looking for that dreadful TSA slip inside the bag as I unpacked wondering if they broke or mis-packed the bike back (as they occasionally did).

I hate to sound like an advertisement for bikeflights, but your post sounds like you're being paid-per-word by TJ. Here's my procedure: Go to the bike shop and they're more than happy to give me a cardboard box (the same kind of box that every bike ships in originally from the manufacturer) or just use your own bike box if you already have one, pack up my bike at home, use bikeflights.com to print a fedex label, drop it off at the nearest FedEx location. Usually costs about $40 go to cross-country and it's waiting for me at my hotel or friend's house or whatever when I arrive. Don't have to deal with airlines or hauling the bike four times through the airport and to the hotel. Often the hotel will have the bike box waiting in the room for me.

You pay $60 each way with the airplane and deal with a lot of airport hassle, I pay $40 each way and am able to sail through security with just my backpack as luggage.

I tried that once, and only once. I found the price they quote you initially includes only $100 of insurance should your bike get lost. If you insure for a reasonable amount you're going to be right up there at $60, and if you're going from coast to coast expect to pay still more. After including appropriate declared value charges the price through bikeflights.com was with in a few dollars of going on fedex.com and creating an account. When I arrived at my destination my box was pretty torn up and my gear had some damage as a result. bikeflights.com support told me I had not reinforced the box sufficiently and gave me all kinds of run around. I tried filing a claim directly through fedex, but they said because I had bought my label through bikeflights.com I could only file a claim through bikeflights.com. I would have been much better off cutting out the middleman as far as I can tell.

I was pretty disappointed at how it went and decided to follow up one more time. bikeflights.com support suggested I ship the damaged wheel to be repaired at spyder composites at their cost. I did, but never got the wheel back. It's been several months. I've called and emailed both companies. bikeflights.com claims they're going to look into it, spyder composites claims they've shipped the wheel but cannot produce a tracking number. I would stay far far away from bikeflights.com. Cut out the middleman and go directly to fedex.com to print your label. In addition, if you'd prefer to ship your bike the extra weight of a bike box won't cost you any extra and be far more secure than cardboard. You're basically paying for the size when you ship a bike in most cases.
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Re: Ruster Sports Armoured Hen House [corneliused] [ In reply to ]
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I used my Ruster Henhouse on a recent trip. I was please with the quality of the Henhouse. No airline fee and it also stood up to TSA inspection. The airline asked what was in the Henhouse. I told them a carbon tubing frameset.

Doug
3Ft - It's The Law Cycling Team
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Re: Ruster Sports Armoured Hen House [hopperagent] [ In reply to ]
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I've heard some people call their bikes "scientific aerodynamics equipment"

I actually did consider buying the Armoured hen house but the airlines I travel either a) let me travel with my bike free, or b) will charge for a bike and extra luggage by $xx / kg so that negates the advantage of the armored henhouse.

PS: For transatlantic flights US to UK/vice versa Virgin Atlantic allows bikes to be taken for free. Cathay Pacific in Asia hasn't let me down yet. YMMV.
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Re: Ruster Sports Armoured Hen House [kkcy] [ In reply to ]
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kkcy wrote:
So what do you do with the chain when you're putting clothes together with the bicycle? Anyone have any solution to cover up the chain to prevent it from dirtying everything else?

How about something like http://www.chaincondom.com ?
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Re: Ruster Sports Armoured Hen House [logella] [ In reply to ]
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For the less mechanically inclined, is taking the fork off an issue? :)

D

Team Every Man Jack

http://www.teamemj.com
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Re: Ruster Sports Armoured Hen House [dmounts] [ In reply to ]
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Not at all. I don't consider myself mechanically inclined and it's not an issue. One thing to remember is the order that the bolts and spacers go back in when reassembling the fork. Before I travelled with my bike I took it down to my local bike shop and had them teach me how to remount the fork. I practiced a few times in the shop with their guidance and also a few times at home.
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