travel with a bike friday

[tulip]

Glad that worked out for you. I would not trust a soft case to protect my bike from airline luggage handlers. I have heard of the argument that you can make if your bike is broken down...say it's bike parts and then sometimes they don't consider it a bike that is subject to extra fees. They don't charge extra for golf clubs, so they should not charge extra for bikes!

[NadiaMac]

I shared the concern over the soft pack, but was comforted by my research and also experience of folks I know with the same case. Also, there is really a lot of padding-- 2-3 inches of thick foam at a minimum with extra foam below the crank and bottom bracket & I added some padding at the fork and rear drop out points since my frame is small and there was some extra room for additional padding. So it is more robust than you might imagine seeing the case from the outside.

But ultimately time will tell on the durability of the pack! I'll be taking the bike toe new zealand in december (probably; still planning this) so that will be another test. I think the best bet is to ensure that there's a bike shop at your destination to take care of any glitches (or be capable of repairing spokes, cables, DRs yourself)!

Note: I have some pictures up from my trip on my blog if anyone is interested. The riding was really really fun on Maui