I have used one for several years. Only once has an agent tried to charge the bike fee and I showed her a copy of the baggage policy and asked her to get out her tape measure. No fee was charged.

I have a large bike frame so in order to pack it up I need to remove bars, seatpost, fork, and cranks. For an extra precaution I also remove the derailleur hangar as I did wind up getting it bent once and it is a pain to find a replacement away from home. I now actually travel with a spare hangar. After you do this enough times you get pretty good at it. I can disassemble and pack the bike in about 30 minutes, and unpack and reassemble in about 20. It comes with plenty of padding and straps so you can get it pretty secure. Outside of the bent hangar I have never had an issue with damage.

Same here. Got a bike to and from Germany twice for Challenge Roth. To Florida, Texas, Colorado... etc. Never had any issue with the bike in terms of damage. I usually fly Southwest domestically and they don't charge at all for the two checked bags. You can usually get quite a bit of gear packed around the frame and wheels also.

I have gotten good enough at packing and unpacking that I can have it done within 30 minutes either way.

Ruster's instructions do say to always remove the derailleur. There isn't a reason not to though since it's just one bolt.

I just sold mine, used it 3x, I am a good wrench, but removing forks became a PITA.

I now decided to suck it up and use scicon case and only have to remove my wheels.
I do have the Aerus biospeed, which i have often passed off as "trade show equipment" and not paid a fee for. (DC Rainmaker has a good article on this)

aside from meeting the size requirement on the hen house, they can't charge you for a bicycle, only for 2 bags. The contents of each bag do not contain a bicycle. One has bicycle parts (frame, components, etc) and the other has bicycle wheels. that was my argument to an agent on one flight.

here's the slowtwitch listing for my aerus

I’ve been using my Hen House for years now. Multiple domestic trips (when I lived in the USA) and international (primarily via BA) from London and never had any issues (knock on wood). I’m certainly not a mechanic but familiar with dealing with my gear (both a Felt and Dimond) and could have either bike prepped for shipping or back together in about 30 minutes. As many have said elsewhere on the forum a lot of how your bike does in transit is how you pack it. Making smart moves like removal of derailleur (and hanger), support between rear drop outs and the like. If your generally handy with your bike (and frankly I think everyone should be but that’s another topic) you should be fine. Most bikes you really only need a handful of Allen keys or a pocket torque wrench to assemble. I think a lot of ‘headache’ is how integrated your front end is. I’m using a tri rig sigma stem with profile design and while I have a relatively ‘neat’ setup is still standard when it comes to removing th fork.

I have loved my hen house and the amount of other gear I can shove in the bag and that I can just throw the straps on and walk away with it. Also makes car rental or arranging transit at the opposite end of travel easy when you know your bag will fit in any car.

I will note that I also use the carrot case for my dimond as well as I’ve had lexan panels custom cut that I put just inside either ‘side’ of th case which does take away some of the ability to get more gear in but does provide a bit more side/puncture protection and general internal structure to the bag. This kinda makes my bag a hybrid between their truly ‘soft’ bag and the ‘hard’ version with wheels.

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Taylor Rogers

2024: IM Hamburg

Anyone know why these are less than half price right now?

https://rustersports.com/...ct/armored-hen-house

Could be any number things. Clearing out inventory? Going out of business? New model being introduced soon?

I too have an Armored Hen House that I used on a couple European trips. I used it with my QR, which is a bike designed to be easy to break down and reassemble. I have no special wrench training, and I learned pretty easily how to make this all work. I used some extra bubble wrap and padding to supplement the foam pipe insulation they provide.

For those airlines that allow for bigger bike cases, the Hen House is obsolete—you can buy a different case that will also fit the wheels, and turn two bag fees into one. A lot of threads and articles on here about that.

Ruster is owned by TJ Tollakson, who is a great guy and renaissance man of triathlon—a competitive pro that also designs and builds Dimond bikes.

Haha Love it...I'm so going to text TJ to let him know that he has been referred to as a renaissance man of triathlon! Couldn't agree more. Love my Dimond bike. Have used the Armored Hen House for four years now. Use the Carrot Case for my frame. Works well. Bike is easy to assemble and disassemble <30 min. Only issue I did have was the zipper falling apart after a Southwest flight. I put in a claim and bought another one. Only very recently had an issue where the baggage people measured the case and determined it was outside their established number for L + W + H. Didn't help that my GF had insulted the person at the Kiosk. Only time where I actually had to pay.

IIRC, any airline will still hit you with a bag fee. American doesn't charge you a "bike fee" for any other bag now (for instance, the scicon) but they will still charge you to (1) check the bag and also (2) an oversized fee (because it's over the 62 inch limit).

Am I wrong?

I fly almost exclusively with Southwest and have only been charged once by a very irritated employee. My bike has flown "free" all over the country for the past 5 years.

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

I think they are on sale because the only ones left are the camouflaged ones. I don't care for that look.

If you're looking for one, I'm trying to re-home mine. Got a different case this year and don't really need a second case.