Hi,

It looks like a family of mice have been living in my CRC bike bag, and it’s rancid! I’m looking at getting a hard bike box. Logic is that it’ll be imperveous to mice.

I know of bikeboxalan. Are there any other decent manufacturers?

FWIW, i’ve got an XL Liteville 301, L Marin Quake and a small DJ bike which may travel with me.

Cheers,
HR

They’re expensive, cumbersome and (IME) Easyjet don’t give you enough money to cover the cost of a new one when they bang a hole in the side :/

I favour a soft bag with a bike box cut to fit.

Treat the cause not the symptom – get a cat; cats are ace

so the boxes are fragile? Who made yours?

Would love to get a cat, but the bag was stored in a common storage area in my apartment block 🙁

BikeBoxAlan ones can be hired from various locations here – may be a better idea unless you’re really regularly travelling?

the bag was stored in a common storage area in my apartment block

Get them to make it rodent-free. Unacceptable imo.

so the boxes are fragile? Who made yours?

The Roof Box Company. Not fragile really, but if you gave it a decent kick you could put your foot throught the side, I reckon. They also weight a bit and are a shit to manoeuvre mine had a fixed direction wheel on each corner and was big enough to get in and hide.

Velovault are like BikeboxAlan with improved features!

A lot of them are so **** huge and hard to manoeuvre that baggage handlers will just chuck them about – a smaller bag or box is easier to carry properly. I know of several people who have had broken Roof Box Company boxes, not sure they’re as tough as some (like the Bike Box Alan, which seems better designed IMO).

Evoc not hard but great bag, tough and easy to move

I used a Polaris Bike Box once, to fly to the Alps. It felt really sturdy and nothing could damage it.

For how big they are I only just managed to get my small framed hardtail in. When I returned there were creases in the plastic where it had been chucked about and a rip near a hinge. It wouldn’t have survived again, they also weight 8-9kg for a box!

Used an EVOC bike bag the following year as there was no way I would get a FS in the Polaris Box, mainly due to the width of the bike. EVOC bag offered more protection and I could fit more stuff in it.

A few companies now rent out the EVOC bag, might be an option for you.

renting would be nice. I don’t live in the UK, so i’d need to find somewhere local.

Thanks for the help. I’ll have a look at Velovault next

Evoc + my AM bike and a bit of stuff takes me to the 23kg limit for single items down in Oz NZ. The hard boxes tend to weigh too much for me – seem fine for 9-10kg road bikes but not a mountain bike.

I have had a Serfas box for about 10 years now and it’s tough as old boots. The wheels are positioned on the side, rather than the bottom so it’s stable when being pulled. Disavantages are weight (abot 11kg on its own) and size, you have to remove the forks to fit the bike, but I have used it for my 29er.

I’m a relatively frequent ‘fly with bike’ masochist, and I’ve hired hardshell cases from Bikebox Alan about 4 or 5 times now, and have also used an Evoc about the same. I tend to use the hard-shell boxes if I’m travelling with carbon framed bikes, and have never had any issues with Alan’s boxes; they’re a bit more compact than the Evoc when loaded, and not that unwieldy to tow around airports, load into cars etc. However, I’ve found that with longer travel large sized FS bikes, a fair bit of dismantling is required to pack the bike. (Forks off, derailleur & mech hanger off, also had to remove dropper post/saddle once).

The Evoc’s are much easier to pack and def. more MTB friendly. I relly like the Evoc’s, but IME, the bike is a little more prone to crush damage, and I’ve seen an Evoc with fabric torn/cut by baggage handlers. I guess the Evoc is also going to be more prone to rodent damage aswell.

I’ve decided to sell my BBA and change to a velovault. It’s up on the evil eBay, where they seem to sell well, and I can get a 10% discount on the VV.

Whilst I’ve been very happy with the BBA, the flexible wheel sytstem in the VV means I can take my 29er (without removing the tubeless tyres) as well as my Roadbike.

I’ll post up a review/comparison when I get it.

I’ve had a Bikeboxalan for a few years, it’s been abroad with me 2 or 3 times a year and has been loaned to a couple of friends. So it’s probably been on around 24 flights, and still looks as good as the day it was delivered.

There is no way anybody, not even a horse, not even Ronnie ****ing Pickering’s horse could kick a hole in the side of it. It’s completely bulletproof.

Yes, it’s quite heavy, but I have no problem carrying my road bike, shoes, spare shoes, all my kit, tools, towels, nutrition etc and being under the weight limit. Sure, my road bike is sub-7kg, but if I was carrying an MTB, I’d check another bag in for my kit.

It’s really manouverable in airports, the only tricky bit is if you’re on a crusher-run car park, but that stuff will cause problems for any bike box!

I’ve traveled with guys will all sorts of box, and most of them have had some problems at some point. The Thule ones look good but you have to lift the front and drag it along on 2 wheels which is bloody hard work. The BBA can be pushed along and steered really easily on its casters…

If I was taking a heavy DH bike, I might consider a soft bag, but for anything else, particularly a carbon road bike, I wouldn’t use anything other than a BBA!