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Only used mine once before but I was a bit paranoid and removed the rear mech, rotors and calipers.
Anyone else do the same? Am I being paranoid or reasonably weary of baggage handlers?
Just back yesterday, evoc came through fine but I did remove all the above except calipers
Cheers. Anyone else?
Just slip mine in. Find it very satisfactory. Mind you never had a problem when I had a cardboard box either. I do regular trips flights to Holland with a carbon 29er or carbon road bike and have had no issues. Suppose it will all be bent to bug....ery in a fortnights time.
I remove mech and rotors, and fit old axles to avoid squashed frame/forls. Never worried about calipers though.
The Evoc bags are good, but don't seem 100% baggage handler proof; a couple of minutes to deal with easily avoidable problems seems well spent.
On my first use, they did manage to crush one of the pvc wheel reinforcement. I've now replaced them with alu ones.
Caliper removal is a two second job for most as they're post mount calipers on IS frames. However, the wife's forks are an H mount, pm to pm so the alignment makes it a bit more involved.
I've travelled with mine around ten times now and have never removed the rear mech/etc.
I've not had a problem so far. Infact, I don't even take the pedals off anymore.
As you say though - it is a two second job so if you have the time (and you're not lazy like me) I guess it's worth doing to be on the safe side.
The bags offer amazing protection and are easy to use but I can't help thinking that even if you locked your bike in a safe and checked it in some baggage handler somewhere would find a way of damaging it!
Road bike I take the mech and pedals off (and seat mast/saddle but that's just for it to fit), MTB I think first time I took the mech/pedals off but didn't bother with the mech the last couple of times - never removed the discs.
Which direction do you face the rotors? I'd assume you'd point them towards the centre of the bike but there wasa video on youtube by Evoc, showing rotors towards the outside.
On the outward bound trip I packed it like this:
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Removed rear mech and rotors, stuck some plastic between the brake pads too.
On the homeward bound journey I didn't remove the rotors or the rear mech, everything was fine when I got it home.
Mine has been used about twice a month for the past year, and never had any issues with MTB, road or TT bikes.
I don't take my pedals off, and for the rear mech I undo it slightly to let it sit close to the chainstay then tighten again.
I have added a cut-up foam camping mad to add to the wheel pocket padding, probably through not removing my pedals I've managed to scuff up a rim slightly.
Overall a massive improvement on all my previous bags, especially the fact that it doesn't sit the bike on the chainring.
Cheers, Rich
It's not waterproof. You may want to remember that in case you have to transport it in a trailer!
My bike made it all the way to Australia, only took off the pedals. Left the rotors on just had them facing to the inside of the bag.
Cheers folks. Seems I am going a bit over the top with mine.
Humm, not tried fitting 2.4 rubber queens in there before. It's a real struggle with the original bag. Not sure they're going to fit.
Cheers folks. Seems I am going a bit over the top with mine.
There's no harm in going OTT. Folk always laugh at me and think I'm too precious about my bike due to the way I pack it...I'd much rather be like that, than arrive on my holiday with a damaged bike, especially in more remote places where there's no decent bike shops.
I got 2.4 RQ's in mine OK (as well as 2.35 Hans Dampfs), had to take them down to about 10psi to do it but thankfully the tubeless seal didn't break so was all good when unpacked.
There's no harm in going OTT.
This. It's not like baggage handlers apply an equal amount of violence every time. Most of the time going OTT won't be necessary, but every now and again it'll fall off the trailer, or get run over by a car/truck/plane and you'll be glad that you did.