Hi
Am planning on taking my bike abroad for the first time this year. would be grateful for any help with regards to bike bags.
Have seen the EVOC one which looks great and would make things simple. I just wondered if there were any decent cheaper options. Someone mentioned hiring one but can't find any info online?

cheers

The Evoc bike travel bag got a really good review in one of the mountain bike mags (can't remember which one though), 10 out of 10 i think. I agree, they are a little pricy, but i suppose it's better than getting your bike wrecked. Have you seen the way they handle your luggage on planes? It's probably worth it.

http://www.welovemountains.com/productview.php?pickcat=10006226&=pagetitle=Evoc%20Bike%20Travel%20Bag%20Black&ref=gs

I bought one of the soft padded AVENIR ones from ebay….£40!….lined it with a bike box (free from Halfords!)…worked very well…although no wheels …so either drag through airport or get a trolley….

BF

I have an EVOC one and it works great, plenty of room in there and only need to take the wheels and bars off (I also took the mech off via the replaceable hanger for a bit more security). Only issue I found is big tyres are a squeeze to get in (I had to use a tyre lever :p ) but I was using a 2.4 Conti RQ which is huge and didn't want to let all the air out of them as I run tubeless and didn't want to break the tyre seal and end up with sealant all over inside the wheel bags).

It is expensive though and probably the only big benefit over bags around the £60-100 mark are the quality of the wheels (and the distance apart they are), makes it very stable when trundling through airports.

I've got a brand-X bike bag, which is the same as the CRC branded one that you can get.
It's pretty robust, although it came through the reclaim at Stansted last week with a puncture through one end that had also got through the cardboard I line the bag with. Something had scraped the brake caliper/adaptor so I was lucky it wasn't a bit lower or it might have damaged the drop-out.

A mate has the same bag and his had a large tear in the outside fabric so I suspect it was some grumpy baggage handlers, rather than any fault of the bag. You can't protect for every eventuality.
Just make sure the bike is well wrapped & you line the bag with a cardboard bike box for rigidity and a bit more protection.