Needing to get a bike bag for trip to Spain next month, have seen the DHB ones and the avenir. Can anybody recomend one of these or any other make. It's to take a Large Specialized FS Stumpjumper.

Cheers

Graham

They all seem to be the same. Get the cheapest/nicest looking one.

DHB one is spot on IMHO.. I've had one for a couple of years, and its been a fair few places, and so far, so good..

We got two of the DHB ones for our holiday to Canada – I ride a small f/s so a cardboard bike box fitted snuggly inside and my bike was well protected – removed bars and zip tied to frame, brakes and rear mech, wrapped with bubble wrap and secured them, made a wood insert for the rear triangle and got some of those plastic thingys to go into the fork dropouts. Wheels go in the inner pockets. All worked perfectly. Mrdominos bike is bigger so we needed to trim down the cardboard box to fit it in the bag but that still gave ample protection.

as above, they're all much the same – I have a PX one and a DHB one.

If you're anywhere near Malvern, you're welcome to borrow one (it's not like you can break it 🙂 ) if you would rather not buy one for a one-off.

I've got a dhb one which is the same as the CRC branded one. It's pretty good quality & comes with wheel bags – only thing is some pinky bits on it, if that sort of thing bothers you. I think at the time it was £10 less than the CRC one.

I also reckon it's a good idea to go to Halfords, get a bike box from them & cut it down to fit inside the bag (you might have to slit the box open to fit) as it makes the whole thing more rigid & easier to manoeuvre.

Mackem has a point (to a point) – the dhb one looks like the Neil Pryde of years gone by. I had one of those and it worked fine for me – 10mm of padding all round, plus wheels at one corner to help drag it along. I wondered about getting an unpadded bag (benefit is that it folds up small when you've taken the bike out of it), but thought that the extra padding would help. Just make sure you use plenty of bubble wrap and pipe insulation!
Another thought – have you thought about borrowing one for the trip? It's what I'm doing for next week's trip to Murcia.

couple of useful tips:

take pedals off then put them back on the wrong way round.
put a piece of wood between the drop outs at front and back to protect the OLN incase something gets dropped on the stays/fork legs
remove and tape rear mech to the inside of the chainstay.
put pipe lagging around your stancions and tape in place.

Thanks all for your help, typically don't know anybody that has a bag I can borrow, think I'll probably go with the DHB bag.

Cheers

Graham

It is worth thinking about the weight of the bike bag. As noted on here, BA have changed their policy on bikes so they now count as part of your checked bag limit plus they charge £30 if it is more than 23 kg. I have a german bike bag which is great because it has a metal plate to which the bike attachs. This protects the bike really well. However, it is as a result heavy, I only just got it under 23 kg with a reasonably light bike and a few tools that I was worried wouldn't be allowed in hand luggage. If you have a heavy bike, it is worth thinking about the weight of the bag. A foot under the bag when it is on the scales can help though!