22 years ago we signed up for our first big triathlon that would require air travel: the unfortunately-now-defunct Mike and Rob’s Most Excellent Triathlon in Ventura Beach California. I had spent all the money in the world to purchase a new carbon bike (Trek 5200 with Scott clip-ons and Spinergy wheels) and in order to protect my investment from the hazards of air travel we purchased a set of Tri All Three “Velo Safe” hard cases. Since then we have used those things like crazy, at least 3 or 4 times per year for the past 2+ decades. They have been rock-solid and I can’t recommend them enough. But the last time we travelled time had caught up with them, and they both developed quite large cracks in the bottom half of the case. Evidently the plastic had degraded over time and become very brittle. Much to their credit though, they hung in there and protected the bikes one final time. But it was time to put them out to pasture and replace them with something a little more “contemporary.”
This spring I was lucky enough to beat the odds and lay my hands on a new Felt IA FRD. While there is a lot to like about this bike, due to the fact it is heavily “integrated” I was not looking forward to all the break-down and re-assembly that would be required to travel with it in a traditional hard case like the Tri All Three. Enter the Scicon AeroComfort series of soft-sided travel cases: the “hands-down choice of pros,” according to their website. Marketed as a travel case that requires zero bike disassembly, I was definitely intrigued. After watching several videos of how easily and quickly the bag packs, I was sold.
Retailing at $800.00, this bike case is by no means cheap. I hunted around for a while and eventually found it at ProBikeKit on sale for a little under 700 bucks, but as usual with their service you have to wait for what you get. About 5 weeks after I placed my order our cases arrived. After carefully measuring all of our bikes, I decided to order two different versions: the AeroComfort 2.0 (which will fit all but the IA, including my wife’s TT bike) and the larger AeroComfort “Triathlon” for for the the IA.
So, the first thing to note is these bags (particularly the Triathlon) are on the large side. They seem to be incredibly tough, well padded, and extremely well made. Wheels, seams, and zippers are all heavy-duty. There is a convenient removable shoulder strap for when you have to carry it up and down stairs, along with a front handle/strap for pulling it along. All four casters are omnidirectional so it is a snap to steer through tight quarters and crowded airports, which was always a little bit of a shortcoming with the Tr All Three cases: They were great at going forward, but if you ever had to back them up they could be a little tough as only the front wheels were steerable. Even with the pull strap on front though and just like the Tri All Three cases, then Scicon bags travel best by simply putting a hand on top and sort of just walking it along side yours you walk.
So here is the Triathlon version of the case. You can see it is rather chunky:
The the bike is locked down to an adjustable metal frame via the front and real drop-outs and quick-release skewers. Employing sort of a “belt and suspenders” approach, the bike is also cinched down with adjustable straps as well: two that go over the aerobars and one that goes over the seat. You can see that there is also a nice seat cover provided that holds the strap in place and protects the seat as well.
In addition to the padded bits that come as part of the AeroComfort case, I also used a set of AlboPads to provide an extra layer of protection. After using pipe insulation, bubble wrap, and tape for years, I gotta say the AlboPads are a far cry better. They are incredibly well constructed, featuring heavy denier ballistic nylon on one side and a soft synthetic leather on the side that actually comes in contact with your bike. The pads vary in size and have very rugged velcro straps that make wrapping up the bike frame and components a cinch.
The AeroComfort Triathlon comes with a padded bag that protects the aerobar extensions. In addition I also purchased a set base bar protectors. These are really made to fit road bike drops, but worked out just fine on the pursuit bar once I used some of the extra velcro extension straps that come with the AlboPads to hold them on better.
While the set of AlboPads do provide a small, square padded sleeve to protect the rear derailleur, I instead opted to spring for the optional crank and derailleur padding wrap that Scicon manufactures. I then used the AlboPad sleeves (I stole the second one from my wife’s set!) to provide an added layer of protection to my Garmin Vector pedals.
The best part of this case is obviously that almost no disassembly of the bike is required. Aside from removing the wheels, the only other thing you have to do is remove the wheel skewers. The skewers tuck inside a little zipper pocket inside the case, and then the wheels slide inside fitted, triple padded and armored sleeves than then then sandwich each side of the bike when the case is closed. This way the wheels provide an extra layer of protection for the bike itself.
All of the Scicon soft cases come with a metal cage that is designed to provide even more protection for the rear derailleur. The cage simply slips over the rear skewer and wraps around the derailleur. Due to the unique shape of the rear dropout on the Felt however, the cage wouldn’t fit properly. So all I did was swap the 130mm standard skewer that comes with the Scicon and replaced it with a 140mm long skewer - the one I was able to find easily was and adjustable skewer for a “BOB” trailer. This let me stack up 5 or 6 flat washers between the dropout and the cage so that it cleared the frame. Viola!
Scicon AeroComfort 2.0 Travel Case
After doing some careful measuring of our bikes I decided that rather than buying a second “Triathlon” bag I would instead go for Aerocomfort 2.0 bag. You can see it is similar but somewhat smaller than the Triathlon:
This one will fit both of our road bikes perfectly, and it looks like even JT’s TT bike (Scott Plasma, size: small) will fit, although I might have to loosen up the extensions and slide them back a wee bit. Like the Triathlon, it is narrow in the back and wide in the front, and designed to fit the bike somewhat like a glove.
Everything works the same as the triathlon version, and you can see how the bike frame is sandwiched between the wheels.
The seat cinches down via a seat cover and adjustable velcro strap.
And the handlebars are also cinched down similarly. There is ample additional padding provided by optional handlebar and brifter covers as well.
We also used the optional crank and derailleur cover.
JT has a Quarq power meter on her road bike, so I opted to just leave the Speedplay pedals uncovered. I figured they are fairly bomb proof with not much to break.
And the bike unwrapped - you can see how it is firmly held in place by the adjustable metal frame.
And here we had no issues with the metal derailleur cage fitting on the bike as it should.
These bags are pretty slick all-around. Thus far there are only two things that I can think of that would make them even better: First, it would be nice if they had integrated side handles to help with lifting them up and down into the back of a vehicle. as it is you do kinda have to bear hug and wrestle the bag a bit to lift to up and down. Being a soft case this is relatively easy though as you can just grab and grip the fabric to do so. The second thing is there is no attachment point for a luggage tag (again, side handles could be used for this purpose) so we just left the front handle attached for the duration of our travels. I don’t really see this as a shortcoming, but it is pretty obvious you are never going to sneak these bags through check-in without paying a bicycle handling fee. While I do see the fees the airlines charge as being ridiculous, it is not something that I spend too much time fretting over - that just seems like misspent energy to me.
All-in-all I am really pleased with these travel bags. Granted we have only made one round trip with them, but it did involve four plane flights. by the time we were done with vacation and Age Group Nationals. Since JT was not racing in Milwaukee, we shipped her Foil back home in the bag via BikeFlights and FedEx, and it also made it home without a scratch.
