Bag too small and bike too heavy

I have an Evoc pro bike bag from around 2016. The 280 litre version I believe. Maximum wheelbase of 1240mm. Trouble is, the new bike I want to take is 1257mm. It doesn’t sound like much, but there comes a point where one bike fits but another one doesn’t.

The current, larger Evoc is around £550 so not much more to be looking at a Buxum box. Problem there is loading a 36 lbs bike into a 17kg box doesn’t keep me under the 32kg limit.

Thinking of taking off some bits and putting them in the other checked bag. Coil shock and pedals being the obvious chooses.

Any other parts spring to mind that have a good ratio of weight to easy on/off-able? What am I missing?

I have an Evoc pro bike bag from around 2026. The 280 litre version I believe. Maximum wheelbase of 1240mm. Trouble is, the new bike I want to take is 1257mm. It doesn’t sound like much, but there comes a point where one bike fits but another one doesn’t.

The current, larger Evoc is around £700 so not much more to be looking at a Buxum box. Problem there is loading a 36 lbs bike into a 17kg box doesn’t keep me under the 32kg limit.

Using over half the allowed weight just for the box is mad.

The wheelbase you’re needing is long but both my FS and eeb FS are longer and a quick Google shows it’s not so easy to find one that size at a sensible weight.

Compress the air out of the forks or spin them around so the dropouts are facing inwards. Either takes a good 60mm off the wheelbase.

Maximum wheelbase of 1240mm. Trouble is, the new bike I want to take is 1257mm.

Would turning the fork around (so it’s pointing backwards) shorten it enough to fit your old bag?

Yep – we have CRC pro bag and it takes a long Enduro bike with the forks spun easily.

Just remove the shock and you can get a really long bike in a standard EVOC bike bag.

1324 wheelbase.

G1 in EVOC bag by Stuart-B[/url], on Flickr

My bike is quotes as 1261mm and just fits.  I had to put a foam garden kneel pad down the back of the dropouts and take the derailleur off completely. Also bars were too long so strapped between steerer clamp and saddle.  I had to dig out axs battery to get seatpost at correct height.

Thanks all. Looks like I should trial packing it before I buy a lovely new bike box. Not taken the bike abroad since pre COVID but spinning the forks seems rather obvious now it’s been said out loud.

Onzadog

Thinking of taking off some bits and putting them in the other checked bag. Coil shock and pedals being the obvious chooses.

Stu has it above – just undo the coil, and cable tie to the frame so it doesn’t rattle about, will massively reduce the length of the bike

@singlespeedstu – be careful of the rear brake hose when doing that, at extremes the swingarm can put some strain on it, I ended up with a leak last summer

frogstomp

Would turning the fork around (so it’s pointing backwards) shorten it enough to fit your old bag?

This also works really well

I just let all the pressure out the forks and keep them compressed with a toe strap, works a treat.

be careful of the rear brake hose when doing that, at extremes the swingarm can put some strain on it, I ended up with a leak last summer

Yeah. Plenty of slack left in the hose and a spacer bolted in in place of the shock to stop it moving and further up.