Best bike crates anybody?

[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.