Hi everyone,
This is very cheeky but I thought it might be worth a shot, particularly given how friendly and supportive triathlon communities are all over the world, so here goes!
My partner and I are travelling from Queenstown, New Zealand, to the UK and Ireland in August 2022 to (finally!) visit our families. We’ve booked in a 70.3 race - just a small, grass-roots affair (Geordieman, in the North East of England). Our big race for the season is Ironman in Taupo, NZ, in December. So during our trip home we’re hoping to do our 70.3 race but also continue our focussed training towards the big race.
With all of that in mind we’re now pretty stuck between travelling with our own TT bikes (either boxed up by a bike shop, or in our own Sci-Con travel bags) or renting bikes for whilst we’re home. Travelling with bikes is A) expensive, B) risky (they could go missing OR get damaged OR both!).
It’s also not clear to me whether long-haul airlines/flights will accept Sci-Con style bags with bikes packed, as I read on the Quantas website that bikes MUST be boxed with bars off, so that eliminates our bags straight away - anybody got any experience going long haul with soft bags like Sci-Con?
The other issue is that the only rental places I’ve found only have road bikes, and our race aspirations are such that we’d prefer to be on TT bikes, it’s also important to continue training our race positions on TT frames ready for 140.6.
So with all of that in mind, I’m wondering whether there are any kind souls out there who have more TT bikes than they need, lying around in their pain caves, who’d be willing to loan them to my partner for our 4 week visit - we’d happily pay, either in bike servicing or actual cash-money!
We could organise bringing our own pedals, saddles, and race wheels no problem.
I’m 6’3 (191cm) so would be looking at an XL frame in most brands I expect (I ride a 10sp Avanti Chrone EVO II, XL). My partner Fiona is around 175cm and rides a size small 11sp Cervelo P3.
If there’s anybody out there who could help us, or if you have any other advice and ideas for helping us solve this problem, we’d love to hear them!
Thank you!
