There comes a time for every cyclist when they have to face the trauma of putting their bike into the care of a baggage handler or porter. To be parted from your bike is a big deal! I certainly worry about the adventures it has when it’s out of my sight and being flung onto conveyor belts. If a cyclist says they don’t worry about their bike then they are either not a true devotee or they’re an unfeeling bastard who should be shunned.
So a bag to carry and protect your bike while traveling should be part of every cyclist’s gear. The bags available range from simple heavy duty plastic bags to hard sided cases with built in wheels. My criteria for a bag are as follows.
- It should protect your bike enough to give you peace of mind
- It should be light and easily stored, carried or shipped
- It should fit in a taxi
- It should have room for other gear
Let’s take that first criterion, just what level of protection do you need. The most paranoid will choose a hard sided case. These do give good protection, but they tend to be heavy (20lbs) and eat into your luggage weight allowance on a plane. They are also hard to deal with once you reach your destination. A soft sided case will give enough protection and will be lighter than a hard sided case. However, there are many soft sided cases that have so much padding and internal frames that they are very inconvenient to carry and won’t fit easily into a taxi. Heavy duty plastic bags are sometimes recommended, but they lack pockets and easy ways to secure the wheels. They also don’t come up high enough on the protection scale for my psyche. So my bag of choice is a soft case with just enough padding made by Ground Effect and called the Tardis (http://www.groundeffect.co.nz/product-detail-TAR-BAG.htm). I’m not sure about the copyright implications of using this name on a commercial product, but it’s certainly appropriate as the package I received seemed too small for a bike bag, but it works fantastically. I was skeptical that it would fit my 56cm bike along with my gear as folded up the bag was the size of a phone book and weighted around 3lbs.
The weight stayed the same when I unpacked the bag, so no breaking of physical law there, but the dimensions of the bag did seem to expand as I laid it out on the ground. Below you can see a picture of the Tardis packed with my bike and gear for a one week credit card tour. The total weight was 40lbs so while not exactly featherweight it was easy enough to sling the bag over my shoulder and the bag was easy to take on public transportation and taxis.
Here I am with my baggage waiting for my cab to Logan Airport
The bag is made form heavy nylon Cordura and has a handle and shoulder strap. There are two external straps to tighten the bag around the bike. Inside there’s a zipped pocket for tools and two pockets for the wheels that have a little padding to protect the hubs. The bag also comes with spacers for the front and rear drop outs. The lack of padding may seem to be an issue, but the idea is to use your gear and other baggage to pad the sensitive areas of the bike. This is best done by putting clothes etc onto plastic bags to stop them from getting oily.
I packed this so I must be able to put it all together
The manufacturer recommends using cardboard for some extra protection, so I cut a few pieces to fit inside the bag, but I found it to be unnecessary and after my first trip I now just use my gear to pad the bag. The most critical thing to do to protect your bike is to remove the parts that stick out, wrap them up and stow them inside the bag. So after taking the pedals of I also remove the crank and the handlebars and stow them in the center of the bag.
The light weight and small packed size of the Tardis means that it will fit under the longflap of my saddlebag, but it’s also easily stowed in a luggage locker or posted to yourself “General Delivery” to be picked up at the end of a tour.
Filed under: Bags
