timr wrote:
Any suggestions from those who travel with these bikes? What to look for? What to avoid? My wife and I will be traveling more often with our bikes.
I second the hard case recommendations. Especially for multiple flight legs and international travel. Just had a friend have his second tri bike smashed in the Scicon soft case because he doesn’t want to screw with removing the handlebars. Baggage handlers did in his brand new Canyon on the way back from Finland.
I’ve had most of the different brands of hardcases over the years. Settled on the Premier for a while. But just recently picked up the BBA Tri Easy fit for my wife as she traveled to Finland without me. She has a new Trek SC SLR (disc brake) size small and we assumed it was going to easily fit in the BBA with minimal breakdown. Turns out it absolutely will not fit with the derailleur mounted which really surprised me. I think this is due to the new style hydro brake levers which extend the overall length of the bike at least a couple inches vs. cable brake levers. She’s come up to speed on derailleur removal/mounting. But it was a surprise for the size Small.
A friend with the same SC in size Large has to remove both the bars and the RD. This is a shame because the case is so wide compared to others because it is supposed to allow keeping the bars on.
The Premiers probably fit slightly larger frames. Even with derailleurs mounted. But the aero extensions absolutely have to be removed. I haven’t tried testing her SC with hydro levers in the Premier, but suspect they would also limit the frame size that would fit w/o bar removal.