A friend of mine uses a hockey goalie bag to transport his bike on airplanes. The large ones are 44x20x20, so if you just remove the seat tube and drive side crankset, you can place the frame in the bag and throw in a whole pile of gear. Add to that a padded wheel bag as your second piece of luggage and you are good to go and never have to pay the airlines to transport your bike, since the Goalie bag fits on the regular caroussel. My current soft shell bike case is now toast after logging way too many trips around the world since 1988. Up until this weekend, I had never paid to travel with this bag since it also would fit on the airport caroussel.
I hate large plastic bike cases, as they take up way too much space in rental cars and let’s say you are going to some place where you are travelling by rental car, you need a way to either dispose of the box or get a larger car. Soft shell is the way to go. Thus the attraction of the Hockey goalie bag. They have wheels and a pull out handle to drag the bag behind you.
So do any of you have a recommendation for a double wheel padded wheel case that you can check in that is relatively inexpensive?
Kurt, do you fit the wheels in the goalie bag, or do you have a separate wheel bag. I am on 700’s so with a width of 20" for the goalie bag, there is no way the wheels are going in. What is the width of your goalie bag? I figure I need a good padded wheel bag.
Dev - this is an option that I’ve used for the past few years to for carrying both beater bikes and regular gear during air travel. BUT, the luck has run out (at least here in Canada). Since the weight limitations have recently gone from 70lbs to 50lbs, Westjet and Air Canada both now consider hockey bags as automatic “oversized” luggage, regardless of weight. Most of them are big enough that they carry far more than the allowed weight.
During the last three flights I went on this winter (all in March) I got warnings about the hockey bag no longer being allowed as regular luggage. It’s too bad, because I’ve got a nice one with a rigid base and wheels…it worked well for everything.
Damn…all the loopholes are closing. Do you put 700 wheels in your goalie bag, or are you on 650’s. If you put 700’s in, how big is your goalie bag? By the way, leaving St. Croix, my bike bag (soft shell) weighed in at a whopping 45 lbs with bike, wheels, and gear, so technically under the 50 lb weight limit. I see no reason for not staying under 50 lbs if you travel light (20 lbs of bike, 15-20 lbs of gear, 10 lbs of goalie bag)
I used to fit MTB wheels in…never tried road wheels, but it was usually to bring a beater bike with me on vacation. In regards to the bag, it’s not really the actual weight they care about now…the bag itself has been classified as oversize luggage, just because the dimensions of a hockey bag are generally larger than a regular suitcase.
It was a good thing while it lasted, but you’re right…all the loopholes are closing. I’m intrigued with the bike box labelled “art portfolio” theory mentioned a few months ago…I’d like to try it out in the future.
As a hockey parent, I would recommend one without the hockey smell. Even young hockey players seem to stink the part. The locker room gets pretty foul by mid-season.
The nice thing about my old soft shell bike bag was that it was such an odd shape that you could never pile anything on top without it falling over. As such, I NEVER once saw other bags piled on top as the bag arrived at the aircraft or left it, in 18 years of using the thing all around the world. Perhaps with a goalie bag, you could pile stuff on top, but I suspect that it too would go to the top of the heap because of its uneven shape.