Does anyone have one, could they offer an opinion? Looking to buy a solid bike case.
Cheers
Andrew
I have one, I used it for traveling a few times. I bought it straight from Ves Mandaric when I got my new Yaqui Carbo last year, so I got a pretty good price on it.
So far the case has held up well and my bike survived all trips as well. The padding is really good, two thick layers for the outsides and one layer between the frame and the wheels. The only downside I see is that you have make your bike ‘two-dimensional’, meaning flat. So pedals, handlebars, all that has to go. Axle spacers are a must both for the fork and the back because the foam puts a fair amount of side pressure on the bike and you don’t want your chainstays to be bent because of that. The possibility to haul additional stuff
Overall, the case is secure, the bike is protected well, it doesn’t shift around. Seems like this is the smallest/simplest case from Tri-All3, if you don’t care about additional size/price then go with one of their bigger cases where the bike stands upright! I definitely like mine however!
After much deliberation on the topic I ended up with the Velo Safe Custom Road. Yeah it is a big monster (held my bike, and all my other tri gear under the 80 lbs weight limit) but it was surprisingly easy to get around the airport with the nice wheels. The other nice thing is that there is minimal disassembly required which means you don’t have to rebuild your entire bike in a hotel room. This case is solid and my bike didn’t move. I added a couple of small pieces of foam and used some zip ties with pipe insulation as well. One important thing to keep in mind though is the kind of vehicle you will be renting/driving. Several of the larger cases won’t fit in a trunk or backseat (including this one). I usually rent a minivan so it works for me.
I’ve got one. It’s okay, but if I had to do it again I’d probably go for another option. Survey of the board usually has the Trico IronCase as the #1 pick, and there have been some pretty cool discussions about custom cases, and even one guy who modded a garment bag with good success.
I find that it protects the bike fairly well, but is kind of a pain in the ass to pack, and can be tough to keep under 50lbs (some airlines charge for overweight as well as oversize). It’s bulky, too. My overall feeling is that you can do better.