So, I need to hoof my bike about a bit on trains and potentially the tube and maybe a plane (it’s all wonderfully well planned).

What to stick it in though? It’s a Marin Attack Trail which has a fairly chunky frame. The CRC bag looks ok, but this looks like an OEM version of the Polaris bag for £30 less (£160):

LINK

I don’t want something flimsy resulting busted bike, but equally my budget is modest. Advice and experience much appreciated!

Some of them just look like large suitcases lined with wibbly foam…

I’d get the CRC one that’s a rip-off of the EVOC bag if I was on a budget. Hardcases can be a PITA as they’re heavy and usually not as much room inside (the Alan one is very good though). If you’re lugging it around a lot of places then make sure it has decent wheels, a lot of the cheap ones either have no wheels or useless ones.

I have CRC and and Evoc bag. Get the Evoc. So easy to pull around and very well made. CRC one works but you will need to carry it.

I have a Gill one which I’ve had for years, and works OK, but you do need to be a bit careful when packing the bike. I use mine most weekends with either a road, mountain or TT bike flying to different races in India, never had a problem yet.

I have however just ordered the EVOC bag, looks superb feature-wise and lots of nice things like supporting the chainstays so that the chainrings aren’t sitting on the bottom of the bag.

Ultimately it won’t give as much protection as a hard case, but a lot of those are very heavy, so will eat into baggage allowance.

I also wanted something which could work with road, MTB Q/R, 15mm, 20mm, 12mm etc wheels, so the road specific hard case which looked superb wasn’t going to be great for holding a lot of my knobbly wheels.

Cheers, Rich

I have the one you linked to.

It’s basically a slightly softer version of a hard sided suitcase.

Used it for a trip to Japan last year, no damage to the bike or the bag, bike fitted in okay (XL Anthem frame) apart from needing to remove the rear mech.

Only issue is moving it. It has wheels which is great but carry/drag handle isn’t ‘punched through’ so difficult to get a good grip, I just wore a glove and dragged it using one of the tightening straps so no issues (including dragging it through railway stations on and off trains in Tokyo).

Seemed okay for the money and I certainly have no issues recommending it if people are okay with the dandles situation as that for me is the only problem I had with it.

I bought the CRC bag ( on sale for £50 at the time) then cut a bike box to fit as a liner. This makes the bag very rigid. Add some pipe lagging to the frame tubes and jobs a good un.

Been all over with MTB and road bikes this way and had no bother.

Also doesn’t need much storage space as it all folds up.