Best bike crates anybody?

[DebW]

Duck, why are you not taking the Bike Friday? Is the gearing too low? Or the full-size bike just better for long events?

[Duck on Wheels]

Duck, why are you not taking the Bike Friday? Is the gearing too low? Or the full-size bike just better for long events?

Both. The bigger wheels, once they get rolling, are faster and easier. I've had an mb triple put on the front, so it now has pretty much the same gearing as Tuesday Weld. Small wheels accelerate easier, but bigger wheels build up more momentum. Also I think the geometry fits me a bit better, although both are pretty good. And the Trek is about half the weight of the Friday. Does this make sense to you as a bike mechanic? And do you or others at the BS have any suggestions on bike crates?

[Trek420]

You'd do fine on the Cindy with Ms. Tuesday Weld, fact is you'd probably be fine on ALC. I saw many Bike Fridays on ALC and I do not mean in the SAG wagon: on the road, in camp proudly resting in bike parking.

So if you don't find the perfect bike crate consider it. Also you really need to open up the first Trondheim, Norway full service LBS Maybe bike/ski shop but you need an LBS in town.

Mr. Duck can do that when he's retired.

[Duck on Wheels]

You'd do fine on the Cindy with Ms. Tuesday Weld, fact is you'd probably be fine on ALC. I saw many Bike Fridays on ALC and I do not mean in the SAG wagon: on the road, in camp proudly resting in bike parking.

So if you don't find the perfect bike crate consider it. Also you really need to open up the first Trondheim, Norway full service LBS Maybe bike/ski shop but you need an LBS in town.

Mr. Duck can do that when he's retired.

There are full service LBS's. Or nearly so. Don't know about fittings, but otherwise ... The shipping problem is not an LBS thing. It's a shipping thing. Just too dang expensive, I guess, especially post-911 when they had to invest in scanners. So now they simply don't do 1 box-shipments to the US from here. Except by mail. But the postal service doesn't do bike-size boxes.

[DebW]

Both. The bigger wheels, once they get rolling, are faster and easier. I've had an mb triple put on the front, so it now has pretty much the same gearing as Tuesday Weld. Small wheels accelerate easier, but bigger wheels build up more momentum. Also I think the geometry fits me a bit better, although both are pretty good. And the Trek is about half the weight of the Friday. Does this make sense to you as a bike mechanic? And do you or others at the BS have any suggestions on bike crates?

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People do very long tours on Bike Fridays. I believe Denise Goldberg prefers her Friday for most of the riding she does. But if yours doesn't have gears as high as a normal road bike, that would be a problem. And the weight may be as well. You're probably right about the feel of the wheels.

I haven't used any crates except the one my S&S Coupled frame fits into, and that wouldn't work at all for normal bikes. When we ship bikes for people from the bike shop, we use cardboard boxes and send them UPS.

[uk elephant]

Just one thing to keep in mind....I will also be checking into bike boxes to buy here in the UK. From what I can tell, they cost around £100 upwards, with hard shell ones starting around £200. If you want to order one here, you can just pick it up when you come over in March and then you'll have a case to take your bike both to CA and back each time.

As for airline charges, I don't know what SAS policy is, but Virgin Atlantic charged me $25 for outsized bag when I took my bike back from ALC last time. And although the box was large and a little cumbersome (and we had to hire a much bigger car than intended because US car rental places don't have hatchback cars), it wasn't bad. We even managed to make our way home across London on the tube and trains with the giant bike box without too much trouble.