Bike Box/Bag

Try renting a bike in Europe. It will cost less than buying a travel box and paying shipping costs.

I would definitely go for a box over a bag, especially for a carbon bike. Don't what your options are in terms of airlines but some do not charge much extra for bike boxes. In fact I have flown with mine for no extra cost, although that was some years ago.

I'm actually heading over to Korea as the next Army adventure so I'll be there for a while, my household goods just will take a bit to catch up to me, otherwise yes, renting would probably make more sense if it was just a trip over there.

Box was what I was leaning towards also. Just have no experience in what would be decent and not too heavy if anyone has had luck with something here

Sounds crazy but if you pack it well, just an ordinary cardboard bike box can work well and, on some airlines, will allow you to fly the bike for free if you are within the weight/piece limit for luggage. I would have a bike shop provide the box and pack the bike for you--it sounds scary, but you should realize that most bikes originate from places other than where you bought them, and were probably originally shipped from China or Taiwan or wherever....in a cardboard box, partially disassembled, just like you would be doing.

I do have a bike case now (Evoc) that I use to bring my tri bike to and from the States in the summer, but for races within Asia, I still use the cardboard box most of the time--requires less disassembly/reassembly and saves on fees. Rover (my bike) recently went to Australia with me (9+ hours of flying) for Worlds in a cardboard box, packed by the local bike shop (and by me after the race). He flew free from Saigon to Brisbane via Singapore and back on Singapore Airlines, plus an additional 90 minute ride in a luggage van to the race site. In the Evoc case, he would have required assembly/disassembly that is really beyond my mechanical comfort zone, and I would have needed to pay an additional fee. I may well have been the only person un-classy enough to bring a bike in a cardboard box to a world championship, but whatever. I have never made any claims to being classy.

Rover and his predecessor, White Terror, have traveled to races in a box probably at least 12 times over several years, with no damage. The only incident happened when a box disintegrated in transit due to a tropical deluge--not during air travel, but on a ferry and taxi trip from an Indonesian island to the Singapore airport. Somehow I managed to replace the bike box--an arriving passenger had left one at the ferry terminal or the airport--and repacked the bike before the flight.

Edited by Hot Runner 2016-09-12 7:28 AM

Thanks, I'll definitely keep that in mind. I actually have an old bike box I was planning on packing one of my mountain bikes in for the movers to take (don't ever trust Army movers). Shouldn't be too hard to find another at the LBS for this adventure as well.